Readers’ opinions of professional wrestling may well be effected by Dillon’s story; on the other hand, their expectations...
Dillon looks back on his 40 years of experience in professional wrestling, both inside and outside the ring, in this tell-all autobiography.
As a high-schooler, Dillon revered wrestling legends like Bruno Sammartino, Killer Kowalski, Haystack Calhoun, Gorilla Monsoon and Two-Ton Harris. He recounts the transition from simply admiring this fraternity of strong, costumed men from afar to becoming one of them. We learn that these strange characters were not only exceptionally devoted to their fans and their craft, but that they counseled Dillon to get a college education before turning pro. He effectively captures the feeling of being in the ring, initially as a referee and then as “talent”–how the fights were scripted and how blood was spilled (typically from a condom inserted in the mouth and bitten). He includes descriptions of signature moves from the greats, including the figure-four leg lock, the squash in the corner and the bionic elbow. At the same time, Dillon ably depicts the camaraderie, when fighters would drive together hundreds of miles to perform a piece of crowd-pleasing, athletic showmanship, and then do it all over again the next day, all the while dreaming up new moves to keep the fans satisfied. Moving to the front office of the wrestling business, first with the World Wrestling Federation and then with World Championship Wrestling, Dillon proves that wearing a tie instead of tights often can be meaner than anything that goes on between the ropes. He chronicles the kind of back stabbing and dirty business that would sicken any professional wrestler, as it did Dillon.
Readers’ opinions of professional wrestling may well be effected by Dillon’s story; on the other hand, their expectations for business executives will remain dismal. (photographs throughout)Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 0-9745545-2-9
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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