An enthralling, if ultimately unconvincing, hypothesis for the origins and motivations of Columbus.
Rosa offers an alternative portrait of Christopher Columbus in this debut work of historical revisionism.
It is now widely understood that certain elements of the popular story of Columbus (that he was the first European to reach America, that he alone in his era believed that the world was round) are false. Rosa presses even further, presenting the case that nearly everything that readers think they know about Columbus’ voyage to the New World—even the identity of the explorer himself —is fiction. Available in English for the first time, Rosa’s account of the true history of Columbus posits that the Admiral of the Ocean Sea was not the lowly son of a Genoese weaver but a member of one of Portugal’s most prominent families and the secret prince of Poland. A friend and agent of the Portuguese King João II, the Madeira-born Segismundo Henriques entered the service of Spain specifically to lure the Spanish west toward what he knew to be a new continent. In so doing, he hoped to distract them from the real India and thereby ensure Portugal’s trade hegemony. Furthermore, to obscure his true identity as the son of the dethroned king of Poland, Henriques adopted the pseudonym “Cristóbal Colón.” The secret has remained hidden for centuries, though clues in manuscripts, murals, ruined chapels, and DNA tell the real story for those clever enough to suss it out. Rosa is understandably defensive about having his work dismissed as a conspiracy theory, though what he advances is quite literally that: he argues that Columbus and others plotted to hide his true identity, to disseminate misinformation, and to deceive Spain for the benefit of Portugal. The author’s depiction of Columbus assuredly violates Occam’s razor, which doesn’t signify it can’t be true but does mean it isn’t terribly persuasive. “There is only one history of the world,” writes Rosa, “although there are countless ways for people to retell it.” With this nod to subjectivity, the author invites the reader to enjoy what is, in the end, a fun mystery surrounding one of history’s most prominent figures.
An enthralling, if ultimately unconvincing, hypothesis for the origins and motivations of Columbus.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-0-578-17931-5
Page Count: -
Publisher: Outwater Media Group
Review Posted Online: Sept. 28, 2016
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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