A stunningly rich set of letters that at times reads like a new Kerouac novel. The ground covered here will not be new to those who have read Charters's biography of the writer (Jack Kerouac: A Life, not reviewed), but the sheer pleasure of hearing Kerouac's voice in this correspondence makes it well worth reading. The letters cover the years from Kerouac's college days at Columbia (1940-44) through 1956, when On the Road was published; it was the period in which he produced most of works that later made him famous. Through his correspondence with his mother, sister, Allen Ginsberg, Neal Cassady, William S. Burroughs, and others, we see the young writer's reactions to his circumstances and the growth of his self-understanding as a literary artist. The long letters back and forth between Kerouac and Ginsberg offer a valuable reminder that these revolutionary stylists were also deeply traditional in their belief that study of those who had preceded them was essential: They read, reread, discussed, dissected, and sometimes revered writers ranging from Percy Bysshe Shelley to Thomas Wolfe. Burroughs appears larger than life as he both engages and eludes his peers in the generation that would redefine American literature. The near-constant flow of family communication is perhaps even more delightful, as the young artist reports on his wild travels to his doting mother and loving sister. Selections describing events that show up later in the novels — Kerouac's first meetings with Neal and Carolyn Cassady in Denver, promiscuous indulgences in Mexico, long cross-country road trips, dissipations in New York City — will be irresistible to fans of Jack and the Beats. Throughout, Kerouac comes across as a sincere and honest soul who was fiercely devoted to friends, family, and the search for passionate experience and art. Its value for scholars shouldn't obscure this terrific volume's broader appeal.
Pub Date: March 1, 1995
ISBN: 0140234446
Page Count: 544
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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