An insightful and entertaining collection.
Noted essayist and critic Crowther (Time, Newsweek, etc.), perhaps better known as novelist Lee Smith’s husband, has gathered together over two dozen sparkling essays on all things Southern.
These pieces (many of which were previously published in the Oxford American) range widely, covering Southern foodways, Southern folkways, and Southern bookways. One delightful essay hazards a guess at why Crowther’s native North Carolina boasts more found-lying-in-the-middle-of-the-road deaths than any other state (apparently most of the folks who check out this way were drunk and passed out sleepily on the pavement). When not focused on roadkill, Crowther spares little in singing the praises of his home, from the guitar tunes of Doc Watson to the vinegary barbecue you can’t find outside the Old North State. In “You Are My Sunshine,” Crowther pays homage to the Southern belle, who “play[s] a critical role in the survival of an endangered civilization—not only Southern but American civilization.” But Crowther can dish out criticism, too. “A Knight in White Flannel” asks just what William Faulkner would have made of Wal-Mart and Microsoft. Crowther takes on political correctness, calling it the “fascism of the Left.” The PC police, he says, are no better for history and literature than xenophobic book-burners, because they limit what writers can say—down to telling white writers not to write books narrated by black folks. In “The Twelve Apostles” (which takes on the manifesto of the Southern Agrarians, the 1930 anthology I’ll Take My Stand), Crowther bravely observes that Allen Tate et al. were right about an awful lot. Crowther’s constant name-dropping becomes tedious, however: he insists on telling us that he’s met Robert Penn Warren and Andrew Lytle, shared a few meals with Cormac McCarthy, and hung out with novelist Clyde Edgerton. But these are lapses of taste that can be easily forgiven.
An insightful and entertaining collection.Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-8071-2594-6
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Louisiana State Univ.
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2000
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
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