Dazzling, pithy vignettes of early 20th century India from a wandering Italian poet. Not yet 30 years old, Gozzano already had a mighty reputation as one of the ``Twilight'' poets in his native Italy when tuberculosis sent him packing to the subcontinent in 1912 in search of health. He was commissioned by La Stampa to send back dispatches on his travels, and they are wonderful observations of daily life: bright, delicate, lucid and sympathetic, ironic and moody. The writing is sharp as a tack, whether Gozzano is taking in a Parsee funeral or describing the Bengal thrushes invading his living room, the architecture of Benares (``an endless labyrinth of filthy alleys, a worthy breeding ground for all the world's epidemics'') or the malignancy of the weather. Sometimes he pulls out all the stops, as at the Taj Mahal, celebrating its ``vistas from unspoiled dreams,'' but for the most part he is delighted to ``discover the unusual in the small, everyday things'': the powers of kohl as eye makeup, the minor vexations of travel, the distracting pleasures of jugglers and fakirs, the amused realization that the true ``rulers of India are the animals, especially the crows.'' And while the supernatural, miraculous India eludes him (the Taj Mahal is an exception), he is aware that part of the problem is that he has approached India with misconceptions inspired by books: ``I have to free myself of the memories of too many descriptions.'' He also discovers that travel has its disenchantments: One pays a price for ``wanting to see the reality of the dead stones close up.'' Given the brevity of Gozzano's sojourn—he was there for only six weeks- -it has been suggested that at least some of his descriptions were semifictional, with elements culled from contemporary travelogues. Even in that context he shines, graphically incandescent and eager. A little treasure, worth twice the price.
Pub Date: May 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-8101-6007-2
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Northwestern Univ.
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1996
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.
The legendary booze-addled metal rocker turned reality-TV star comes clean in his tell-all autobiography.
Although brought up in the bleak British factory town of Aston, John “Ozzy” Osbourne’s tragicomic rags-to-riches tale is somehow quintessentially American. It’s an epic dream/nightmare that takes him from Winson Green prison in 1966 to a presidential dinner with George W. Bush in 2004. Tracing his adult life from petty thief and slaughterhouse worker to rock star, Osbourne’s first-person slang-and-expletive-driven style comes off like he’s casually relating his story while knocking back pints at the pub. “What you read here,” he writes, “is what dribbled out of the jelly I call my brain when I asked it for my life story.” During the late 1960s his transformation from inept shoplifter to notorious Black Sabbath frontman was unlikely enough. In fact, the band got its first paying gigs by waiting outside concert venues hoping the regularly scheduled act wouldn’t show. After a few years, Osbourne and his bandmates were touring America and becoming millionaires from their riff-heavy doom music. As expected, with success came personal excess and inevitable alienation from the other members of the group. But as a solo performer, Osbourne’s predilection for guns, drink, drugs, near-death experiences, cruelty to animals and relieving himself in public soon became the stuff of legend. His most infamous exploits—biting the head off a bat and accidentally urinating on the Alamo—are addressed, but they seem tame compared to other dark moments of his checkered past: nearly killing his wife Sharon during an alcohol-induced blackout, waking up after a bender in the middle of a busy highway, burning down his backyard, etc. Osbourne is confessional to a fault, jeopardizing his demonic-rocker reputation with glib remarks about his love for Paul McCartney and Robin Williams. The most distinguishing feature of the book is the staggering chapter-by-chapter accumulation of drunken mishaps, bodily dysfunctions and drug-induced mayhem over a 40-plus-year career—a résumé of anti-social atrocities comparable to any of rock ’n’ roll’s most reckless outlaws.
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-446-56989-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2009
IN THE NEWS
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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