A well-researched if not particularly incisive life of the legendary Tennessee backwoodsman, politician, and Alamo martyr that examines his achievements and changing public image through the years. Derr (Some Kind of Paradise, 1989—not reviewed), a distant cousin of Crockett's, treats his subject sympathetically while separating the man from the tall tales. Crockett drank and gambled, Derr tells us, though not as much as charged by foes, and, through two ghostwritten memoirs, he became ``an increasingly self- confident manipulator of his public image''—a mixed blessing for his reputation, since, in emphasizing his humble origins, he so exaggerated his lack of education that many wrongly assumed that he was illiterate. As a congressman, Crockett was an eloquent advocate for the poor, and his greatest act of political courage—denouncing the removal of Indians to west of the Mississippi—caused him to split with Andrew Jackson and thus to destroy his political career. Yet it's clear from Derr's telling that, no matter how likable Crockett was, he never achieved much of substance. Throughout his life, he broke with strong men—notably, his alcoholic father and Jackson—only to switch time and again to other authority figures. He got campaign money from his second wife rather than from his own efforts, and, as a legislator, he was in over his head, often reversing positions on bills and seldom willing to compromise. He inflated his record in the War of 1812, and contemporary accounts indicate that he surrendered at the Alamo before being tortured and killed. But Crockett's image has been adaptable enough to survive through succeeding ages: first, as a ``comic Hercules'' and racist hater of Indians and slaves; then, in the 50's Disney series, as an exemplar of resistance to tyranny; and, more recently, as a New Age child of nature. Objective and cleareyed, but unwilling to press some of the harder conclusions about Crockett warranted by the historical record. (Maps, eight pages of b&w photos—not seen)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-688-09656-5
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1993
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
