Nugent (The Search for the Pink-Headed Duck, 1991—not reviewed), a specialist in cryptozoological adventures—combing the far regions of the earth for undiscovered beasties—takes on Mokele-Mbembe, a brontosaurus-like dinosaur reported to dwell in the rain forests of central Africa. Most of Nugent's wry account consists of his misadventures in getting to Lake Tele in the Congo, purported home of Mokele-Mbembe. The clues are scarce: a few sightings by explorers; a questionable footprint; Pygmy tales of a rusty-skinned, long-necked creature with a single giant tooth. The natives, avid fetishists, revere Mokele-Mbembe as an immensely powerful spirit or god. A determined Nugent spends weeks in the broiling heat of Brazzaville, pleading with petty officials for a travel permit, even undergoing a naked exorcism to help his cause. Finally, the permit materializes and the author sets out for Lake Tele. Along the way, he collects gorgeous butterflies and hideous beetles, drinks crocodile brains, gets butted by a pangolin. And some illusions are shattered: He arrives at a remote village with trinkets for the natives only to find mowed lawns, clipped hedges, and stereos blasting heavy-metal music. But eventually the primeval jungle appears, and Nugent gets lost in it, encountering Pygmies who threaten him with bows and arrows. At last, he spots from about a kilometer away an ``elongated black form that curves in on itself,'' but when he dashes in for a closer look, his guides restrain him at gunpoint, explaining that ``The god can approach man, but man NEVER can approach the god. He would have killed us all.'' Much wittier than most cryptozoological reports (which veer toward stuffiness to counterbalance the jeers)—and a spanking good travelogue to boot. (Photos—not seen)
Pub Date: June 28, 1993
ISBN: 0-395-58707-7
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1993
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.
