Revealing account of the experience of tuberculosis from the patient's point of view. A scholar at Columbia's College of Physicians and Surgeons, Rothman (Woman's Proper Place, 1978) examined numerous collections of family papers, diaries, and memoirs searching for ``narratives of illness,'' specifically for accounts by those with tuberculosis, the leading cause of death in the 19th century. First come the writings of young, educated New Englanders in the opening half of that century—a time when the disease, then called consumption, was believed to be hereditary and noncontagious. Its sufferers were considered invalids, a label with both medical and social implications, requiring the ill to seek cures and modifying their social obligations. Male invalids might have to change their careers, giving up the bookish professions, for instance, to go off on lengthy ocean voyages or take up the outdoor life of a farmer; women, however, were expected to seek their cures at home, surrounded by family. Through their narratives, we see how the sufferers lived with life-altering illness and how their families and friends responded. Rothman turns then to the western frontier during the period 1840-90. Here, consumptives became health seekers, full of confidence and optimism, until, with Robert Koch's discovery of the tubercle bacillus in 1882, fear of contagion changed everything. Those diagnosed with tuberculosis were thereafter segregated in sanitoriums, their illness narratives narrowing from life stories to accounts of encounters with the disease, nurses and doctors, and other patients. Rothman's selection of narrative passages, along with her own descriptions, make the transition from invalid to health seeker to patient a poignant one, and her revelations about the nature of illness from the patient's perspective are especially valuable in light of the current tuberculosis comeback and the national debate about health care policy. Rich in detail and human interest.
Pub Date: Feb. 28, 1994
ISBN: 0-465-03002-5
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Basic Books
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 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
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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