A mature, realistic look at a less-than-traditional relationship.
Fox’s debut epistolary novel details a relationship between a woman and two men.
The unnamed narrator, a woman who has “wanted to be a boy ever since I could remember,” seems to be in a fairly normal relationship with George. That is, at least, until a chance look at a newspaper article reveals a “bi-curious” past. George, it turns out, had a relationship in college with a man named Sasha, who grew up behind the Iron Curtain. After some detective work and Skype sessions, the three eventually form a semivolatile group. Vacationing in Odessa, that “once glamorous and proud city,” the narrator finds herself excited by the idea of George and Sasha rekindling their physical relationship. It’s not long before this rekindling leads to a variety of sexual pairings. As the book consists of a collection of letters from the narrator to Sasha, it is this leg of the trio that is most fully investigated. “Is that what you felt, dear Sasha,” the narrator wonders, “when you had sex with me with your eyes shut and your thoughts drifting away imagining a man’s body or invoking memories of the past male lovers?” After Odessa, the three eventually cohabitate on a more regular basis, even though the closest “of friends and relatives seemed to be ignorant of the nature of our relationship.” Covering sexy bits (“I would by then be on my knees, unbuttoning your jeans and working the magic with my tongue while stroking your back with my fingers”) and not-so-sexy bits (“no matter how comfy the home is, a cup of coffee with the brioche does lift one’s spirits every time”), the story makes for a balanced account. Inevitably, the sexual mingling was accompanied by emotional mingling, and both are painted in adequately bold and believable colors. At times, though, characters can appear flat, particularly George, who, outside of his familiarity with “Adamo, Aznavour, Gainsbourg, Piaf, Balzac, Stendal [sic], Hugo, Flaubert, and everybody and everything French,” seems to not bring much to the table personalitywise. The intrigued reader will wonder just how long this arrangement can last.
A mature, realistic look at a less-than-traditional relationship.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-1-45-754106-3
Page Count: 110
Publisher: Dog Ear
Review Posted Online: Oct. 23, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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
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