For all the drama inherent in the story of WW II's end, this is one of the noted British historian's least interesting books. Gilbert (The First World War, 1994, etc.) bases his account of the day the war ended on contemporary letters, documents, newspapers, diaries, memoirs, histories, and the recollections of 190 individuals he contacted while working on the book. He contributes new vignettes but little that alters existing perceptions. Still, the scale of the event remains awe-inspiring: This was the most destructive war in history; on an average, more than 20,000 people, soldiers and civilians, were killed each day, the same number killed on the first day of the Battle of the Somme in 1916. The liberation in April 1945 of the Belsen concentration camp, with its huge mounds of unburied bodies and skeletal survivors, was a moment that, Gilbert rightly argues, transformed the Allied perception of the war. Pointing up a detail that has escaped general notice, however, he records that one American lieutenant, immediately after entering Dachau and seeing the corpses there, machine-gunned 346 SS guards after they gave themselves up. There was the usual maneuvering about where and when the German surrender would be signed and announced: It was signed in Reims early on the morning of May 7 by General Alfred Jodl, but was not announced until May 8 by Britain and the United States, and on May 9 by Stalin. The aftermath was filled with jubilation, tragedy, and the grotesque: jubilation as millions celebrated; tragedy as hundreds of thousands of Russians were forcibly returned by the Allies, France even allowing NKVD commissions to travel through the country in search of non-returnees; and elements of the grotesque, as Ireland's president made an official visit of condolence to the German embassy after Hitler's death. Rich in incident and anecdote, but Gilbert turns over soil already so thoroughly mined that it is hard to find a nugget.
Pub Date: May 8, 1995
ISBN: 0-8050-3926-0
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1995
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
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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