A meticulously researched guide to one of the world’s most famous cities.
Sweeping history of Rio de Janeiro that captures both its uniqueness and tumult.
Debut author Morton handily captures the allure Rio holds for those who visit—its natural and cultural beauty, the great food and drink, the beaches, the people, etc. “For those seeking more than a beach and a view,” he says, “Rio has many attractions: a major game in Maracanã, a candomblé ritual, a performance in the Teatro Municipal.” If you’d like to do more than people watch, “Rio is said to have more museums than Paris.” And, of course, “Rio’s reputation for an easy-going sexual culture should not be forgotten.” However, from the very beginning Rio has always been a volatile brew, uneasily juxtaposing wealth and poverty, religion and secularism, modernity and tradition. Often, Rio’s identity crisis has expressed itself as a pendulum swing between stubborn resistance to Europeanizing and an enthusiastic embrace of it. While this panoramic account will largely interest those with a personal attachment to the city, the author deftly connects the history of Rio to Brazil as well as Latin America as a whole. This painstakingly researched account of Rio’s history is amazing in scope; Morton even discusses the first human inhabitants in the area some 12,000 years ago. He charts Rio’s trajectory from a lesser-known city essentially run by Jesuits to the cosmopolitan center now known for its revelry. Along the way, he also discusses its persistent class conflict, the birth of the notorious favelas, culture and geography so colorful they inspire poetry, and the racial fallout of its earlier dependence upon slavery. The work is speckled with illustrative photos and art, which help convey the flavor of the city. Readers might sometimes get bogged down in the avalanche of detail, but the drama of the city’s evolution, and the skill with which it’s reported, more than makes up for it.
A meticulously researched guide to one of the world’s most famous cities.Pub Date: Jan. 20, 2015
ISBN: 978-1460254561
Page Count: 408
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: April 16, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2015
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
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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