A loving and intelligent grace note to a much-loved member of the family.
A loving tribute to an extraordinary dog that was born in rural upstate New York and died in a small English village after surviving moves, travels, and a perilous separation.
All loved pets are heroes to their human companions, who not only appreciate their virtues and their love but also rejoice in their essential being, and Martin (A Life of James Boswell, 2000) is no exception. The narrative begins in 1965 when the author was working on his dissertation and living with wife Cindy on a lake in New York State. Newly married, and living in a “dog’s paradise,” they decided to get a beagle, mainly because beagles are intelligent, middle-sized, and don’t shed. They acquired a puppy they called Perth whose owner, before selling it to them, insisted on tattooing Martin’s initials on its ear, an act that would have important consequences. Perth was a perfect dog for them: easily trained, independent-minded, and manifestly intelligent—Martin made a particular point of teaching her not to cross the road, a lesson that came in handy when they moved to suburban Ohio and then Florida. Perth adapted well enough to these changes, but one move proved too much. Needing to spend a summer in England doing research, Martin had to find a temporary home for Perth, who was not always tractable (she bit people who annoyed her). He settled on a camp in Vermont, where Perth misbehaved, and, sent to a farm where she was badly treated, she ran away. Martin cut short his visit and searched Vermont. Finally, after offering a reward, Perth, identified by her tattoo, was found. When the family decided to live permanently in England, Perth endured a grueling six-month quarantine, but, once free, took to the English countryside as joyfully as she had in New York. She died, at age 21, “larger than life . . . not your typical adorable dog,” but still very much missed.
A loving and intelligent grace note to a much-loved member of the family.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2001
ISBN: 1-55970-597-3
Page Count: 216
Publisher: Arcade
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2001
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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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