A sentimental and disappointing portrait of the tribe of men and women who work with their hands. In her first nonfiction book, Smiley (Barn Blind, 1980; At Paradise Gate, 1981; Duplicate Keys, 1984) displays a fiction writer's relish for the details of craft. She is at her best when describing Howard Bartholomew chiselling an acanthus leaf on a lowboy, or Michael Buyer trimming a ceramic pot, or John Hoeko plucking a feather from a gamecock neck to make a dry fly. But except for a few vivid descriptions, her book has little to offer. It's not a study of the crafts movement in the Catskills in the 1980's nor a history of crafts in the Catskills, nor a personal narrative of the author's discovery of handiwork. What it is, Smiley writes, is "a sort of friendship quilt." This verbal "quilt" is made up of sketches of 15 artisans, with each "patch" re-creating different aspects of a craftsman's life and work: the problems of making a living as an artisan, the question of art vs. craft, the history of a particular craft, the personal life of the artists. All of these "patches" when put together are supposed to offer a "picture of the way some people are living, and earning a living, in a particular place at a particular time." Unfortunately, in this paean to the near-religious experience of handicrafts (sewing "is a kind of physically paced meditation not much different from purely spiritual meditation"), Smiley fails to give her subject an intellectual shape and indulges in some rather trite general observations. Here, Smiley's words seem ultimately little more than lengthy captions for the book's 50 photographs.
Pub Date: Dec. 23, 1987
ISBN: 0517567008
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: April 11, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1987
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
BOOK REVIEW
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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