A valuable resource crafted with intelligence and thoroughness.
A practical and philosophical consideration of the moral dilemmas that arise during estate planning.
One’s last will is more than just a legal document—it’s also a skein of tangled ethical conundrums that raises profound philosophical questions about the scope of individual freedom, weighed against the demands of social justice. Author Dixon-Mueller (Population Policy and Women’s Rights, 1993, etc.) has written a concise but comprehensive guide to navigating these murky waters that considers the full range of stakeholders and competing principles. She begins by sketching a synoptic history of the very idea of inheritance, discussing its ancient iteration within the Roman Republic and its several permutations through the American Colonial period until today, showing how shifts in popular attitudes to inheritance were partly a function of changing social and moral norms. Then the author discusses broader issues of equity that pull the reader into the realm of political philosophy, pitting freedom against the collective needs of society and, by extension, interrogating the proper scope of state regulation. While she provides practical guidance regarding potentially challenging conversations about the way in which one bequeaths one’s property, she artfully dedicates much of the work to raising and refining, in almost a Socratic fashion, moral problems that might be easy to miss. For example, Dixon-Mueller sensitively discusses the difficulties posed by sentimental heirlooms and contradictory claims to them. Also, she discusses problems that arise when determining the proper timing of disbursement of property: what if one’s adult children could use that wealth now, well in advance of one’s passing? The entire work is laced with a kind of pragmatic optimism; although many of these puzzles may seem intractable, the author is confident that reasonable solutions can be found: “balances can be struck; that is part of the challenge.” Overall, this is a marvelously accessible book, which is remarkable given its philosophic depth and rigor.
A valuable resource crafted with intelligence and thoroughness.Pub Date: Sept. 17, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5469-9147-2
Page Count: 194
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Oct. 16, 2017
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
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
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