A rollicking oral history of the one-time “hottest band in the land.”
Through scores of interviews with band members, fans, roadies, rival musicians and label executives, Sharp (Starting Over: The Making of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s Double Fantasy, 2010, etc.) and KISS co-founders Stanley and Simmons have put together a complete history of the band’s rise to superstardom.
Much maligned by rock critics and radio stations of the day, especially for their emphasis on grotesque makeup and fire-breathing, blood-spitting theatrics over musicianship, KISS (which also included drummer Peter Criss and lead guitarist Ace Frehley) had to fight their way to the top. The first step was conquering (or at least wowing) New York, which they accomplished by developing an overpoweringly loud and outrageous stage show that they performed atop a levitating drum set while wearing giant platform shoes that made the already tall members tower intimidatingly over the competition. Their outsize personas were meant to make them stand out from drag and glam acts of the day like David Bowie, T. Rex and local rivals The New York Dolls. The band’s raw power didn’t make them friends with outfits they opened for; they often had the plug pulled before their set was over. But when the tables were turned, the members of KISS were, by many accounts, as gracious and generous to their openers as they were to their fans. The weakest aspects of the book are the sameness of some anecdotes and triteness of language (phrases like “110 percent” and “take it to the next level” are repeated in numerous stories). The strongest is the inclusion of critics and rivals whose grudging admiration for the band comes through, despite their ability to see through the gimmicks. (Iggy Pop is one especially hilarious courtside observer.)
A rollicking oral history of the one-time “hottest band in the land.”Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-213172-0
Page Count: 544
Publisher: It Books/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 21, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular...
A neurosurgeon with a passion for literature tragically finds his perfect subject after his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer.
Writing isn’t brain surgery, but it’s rare when someone adept at the latter is also so accomplished at the former. Searching for meaning and purpose in his life, Kalanithi pursued a doctorate in literature and had felt certain that he wouldn’t enter the field of medicine, in which his father and other members of his family excelled. “But I couldn’t let go of the question,” he writes, after realizing that his goals “didn’t quite fit in an English department.” “Where did biology, morality, literature and philosophy intersect?” So he decided to set aside his doctoral dissertation and belatedly prepare for medical school, which “would allow me a chance to find answers that are not in books, to find a different sort of sublime, to forge relationships with the suffering, and to keep following the question of what makes human life meaningful, even in the face of death and decay.” The author’s empathy undoubtedly made him an exceptional doctor, and the precision of his prose—as well as the moral purpose underscoring it—suggests that he could have written a good book on any subject he chose. Part of what makes this book so essential is the fact that it was written under a death sentence following the diagnosis that upended his life, just as he was preparing to end his residency and attract offers at the top of his profession. Kalanithi learned he might have 10 years to live or perhaps five. Should he return to neurosurgery (he could and did), or should he write (he also did)? Should he and his wife have a baby? They did, eight months before he died, which was less than two years after the original diagnosis. “The fact of death is unsettling,” he understates. “Yet there is no other way to live.”
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular clarity.Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8129-8840-6
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
PERSPECTIVES
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
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