A unique, if upsetting, sampler of the ways in which parents mourn.
Mebane surveys the tributes created by parents to memorialize their dead children in this compilation.
Families honor their children who have died in many ways: scrapbooks, websites, gardens, tattoos. One father finished restoring his son’s ’67 Dodge. They remember them with memorial benches and trees, with inscribed bricks and plaques, with custom pocket-sized stones containing pictures of the dead. In their names, their families give donations to charities, establish scholarships, host fundraisers, maintain hiking trails. The ways to pay homage to deceased children are nearly as numerous as the families who have undergone the grief process. Mebane decided to produce a layman’s study on the subject after his daughter Emma died in 2011. The information in the book was obtained via a survey that Mebane sent to an email list of bereaved parents, for which he received 147 responses. The replies contained “stories of undying love from these children’s families and friends, of things they’ve done to pay tribute to their kids’ accomplishments, memories, dreams, and inspirations.” He discovered that bereaved families are, by and large, interested in three things: keeping their children present in their lives, ensuring their kids are remembered, and trying to guarantee that some good comes from the loss. While the project could have been either highly depressing or exceedingly saccharine, Mebane manages to organize his information around the types of tributes, spotlighting various children rather than offering, one after another, their tragic stories. The reader may be surprised at the composition of his study. These were not all sick children: the most common cause of death for the group, at 51 percent, was vehicular accident. Nor were they all small: 40 percent were over the age of 20. While the departed are certainly central to the purpose of the book, Mebane’s work is actually much more about the grieving process, and the personalities of the mostly anonymous families come through more than those of the dead. If mourning is a window into the psychology of a culture, this book of American families shows a view of death that is compassionate, action-oriented, and ultimately optimistic.
A unique, if upsetting, sampler of the ways in which parents mourn.Pub Date: Jan. 8, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-9908547-0-8
Page Count: 134
Publisher: Starshine Galaxy
Review Posted Online: March 16, 2016
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
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