Strictly for disco completists; others will want to take off their boogie shoes.
A behind-the-scenes story of the classic disco drama.
Saturday Night Fever, the film that became a surprise hit in 1977, occupies a somewhat unusual place in the history of American cinema. Because many viewers have only seen the bowdlerized television edit of the movie, some still don’t realize what a relentlessly dark film it is. As podcaster Donohue writes, “We hear racial and homophobic slurs, witness awful sexual encounters….This film is downright UGLY at times, and yet—it is so relatable.” (Your mileage on the relatability front might, and probably does, vary.) Donohue’s book chronicles the origin of the film, which was based on a New York magazine article by Nik Cohn; the British journalist has since admitted the piece was fiction. The movie as we know it was essentially the brainchild of producer Robert Stigwood, who wanted a project that would showcase his clients, the Bee Gees; Donohue’s book covers the hiring of director John Badham, screenwriter Norman Wexler, and the film’s star, a popular sitcom actor named John Travolta. Donohue dives into the shooting of the film, including the famous dance club sequences, filmed at the 2001 Odyssey disco in Brooklyn, New York—the crew added the now-iconic disco floor for the shoot. Based on her interviews and those of others, Donohue covers nearly every aspect of the movie, notably its still-inescapable soundtrack, outsize effect on popular culture, and memorable choreography. There are interesting facts here, but the book feels rushed, and its structure is messy, as are quotes that Donohue uses, which are riddled with unedited “you know”s and non sequiturs: “I asked [actor Joe Cali] as a white, straight man how he felt about disco back when he was filming the movie, ‘Disco was a big part of my life. I love disco. You know? Donna Summer’s a queen. The best.’”
Strictly for disco completists; others will want to take off their boogie shoes.Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2025
ISBN: 9780806543925
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Citadel/Kensington
Review Posted Online: July 3, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2025
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
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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