From Atlas (Delmore Schwartz, 1977; The Great Pretender, 1986)—a slim, plain, and mainly sensible little guide to the crisis in the university. From Allan Bloom, W.D. Hirsch, Roger Kimball, and Hilton Kramer on the ``conservative'' side, to the ``canon bashers,'' multiculturalists, deconstructionists, and radical academic leftists on the other, Atlas shows that he's done his homework and that he can ``[weigh] the evidence on both sides and [arrive] at my own conclusions.'' If you want a readable and personal-toned synopsis of the arguments of Bloom and Hirsch, followed by balanced instead of absolutist rhetoric (``Okay, so there are flaws in Hirsch's argument: his definition of a `literate national culture' is vague; his list of `What Every American Needs to Know' is biased. But his basic indictment—that we're in the midst of a crisis with long-range social consequences—seems to me beyond dispute''), Atlas can provide it. Drawing on his own memories as an undergraduate at Harvard (he was a freshman in 1967), Atlas compares the standard literature courses of then with the transparently politicized ones of now, considers the merits of each, and makes it clear where he thinks the greater virtue lies- -and why. Hardly likely to win any debating points in the eyes of his radical opponents inside the university, he goes ahead and makes his claim nevertheless, not for a fossilized canon, but for what he does still dare to call ``Great Books,'' concluding that ``only a nation schooled in its own past can grasp the negotiation between personal freedom and collective self-interest that is the essence of our American democracy.'' An amiable handbook to the great debate: intelligent, personable, and informed, if not managing to become unusually cutting or deep.
Pub Date: Oct. 19, 1992
ISBN: 0-393-03413-5
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Norton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1992
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
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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