A compelling case for an unorthodox solution to a widespread health care problem.
Fry-Revere (The Accountability of Bioethics Committees and Consultants, 1993), the founder of a nonprofit bioethics think tank, goes to Iran to study the effects of legalizing compensation for organ donors.
Many Westerners may be shocked to learn that, as untold thousands of Americans die while waiting to receive donated organs, Iran has so many people who want to sell their kidneys that they must get on a waiting list. Fry-Revere, the founder of the U.S.-based Center for Ethical Solutions, writes that “the United States is struggling with a problem Iran seems to have solved.” Her book aims to provide readers with “insights into the ethical complexities of living organ donation.” The book is partly a scholarly study of organ donation, partly a humorous personal history, and partly a poignant, in-depth look at Iran, following the author as she recounts her trip there and the emotional transformation she underwent. The author has impressive academic credentials, including teaching bioethics and law at the University of Virginia and George Mason University, but she’s also passionately connected to this book’s issue, which has affected her personally; her son lost a kidney to cancer at a young age. Her narration proves more than capable, as her intelligence and intriguing ethical sense bring her sentences to life. She also adds personal touches; in one paragraph, she describes U.S. State Department travel warnings regarding Iran, and in the next, she relates a nightmare she had, caused by these warnings. Throughout the book, however, kidney donation remains the central focus. She interviews Iranians who sold their kidneys so they could help their families while saving a life at the same time. The issue of economic injustice soon comes into play; Fry-Revere says that some people balk at the idea of selling human organs, believing that “the United States and other countries took a stand against exploiting the poor.” Her subject matter may be somewhat controversial, but her analysis is undeniably worth reading.
A compelling case for an unorthodox solution to a widespread health care problem.Pub Date: March 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-61163-512-6
Page Count: 254
Publisher: Carolina Academic Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 31, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2014
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
BOOK REVIEW
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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