Charyn's fascination with quirky New York crime stories (El Bronx, p. 21, etc.) takes its cue from his early childhood, as this brief, charming, idiosyncratic memoir shows. He was an oddly brainy young boy, growing up in a cartoonlike world of larger-than-life adult personalities, set against the rich backdrop of the Bronx during the early 1940s. His childhood, he says, was dominated by the ``magical equation that existed between mom and me.'' His exasperated, distant, womanizing father found it increasingly difficult to reach, or control, either his energetic son or his brooding, beautiful Russian wife. Indeed, his mother came to depend on Jerome so much that, for a time, she kept him out of school. He was her escort, cook, dresser, and the chief mediator between her and the onslaught of men who found her irresistible. ``Faigele,'' as she was affectionately called, suffered repeatedly from crushing spells of depression, brought on by her concern for a beloved brother caught behind German lines in Russia. Charyn's recollections of his complex, tough, yet melancholic mother, and of the circle of small-time corrupt politicos and crooks with whom she became associated (she was recruited to become the dealer at a regular high-stakes card game), come untainted by the judgments of adulthood, so full are they of inclusive, childlike love, language, pardon, and even joy. He worked to pull her through her dark periods. And she, in turn, protected him from the sporadic attentions of his father, labored at a variety of jobs to keep him fed and clothed, and encouraged his appetite for life. Wisdom fell hard into this young life, outstripping language by a long shot. In remembering the Dark Lady from Belorusse, Charyn walks alongside his muse. He unites the colorful and loving boy that was, with the unique crime writer he became. Youth was the magical place of Charyn's inspiration and it is captured here honestly and simply. (photos, not seen)
Pub Date: Oct. 17, 1997
ISBN: 0-312-16808-X
Page Count: 112
Publisher: Dunne/St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1997
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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