A comprehensive yet pat and sometimes patchy tome that conveys a vicarious understanding of a gritty musical era.
Brisk overview of New York City’s rock ’n’ roll tradition, from doo-wop to hard core, mirroring the city’s transformations.
Former Seconds magazine publisher Blush (American Hair Metal, 2006, etc.) intuitively understands the rock scene’s perpetual mechanics. His interviews with many key figures provide the core of this survey, in which he argues, “New York rock musicians and scenesters deserve way more credit than they’ve received.” After discussing precedents like Tin Pan Alley songwriting, the author focuses on the cultural foment and urban decay of the 1970s. Moving beyond the era’s punk explosion, Blush explores broader tales of musical innovation and competition against the scary backdrop of pre–Rudolph Giuliani NYC: “Noise rock achieved monumentality because of New York’s monumentality—in this case, of something great gone to hell.” Later, as neighborhoods gentrified and alternative rock took off, local bands tried to stand out; Blush asserts, “ ‘East Village Biker Rock’ was different from the same era’s Sunset Strip glam metal.” Yet many interviewees agree that the city’s creative vitality has been quashed, and in the 1990s, as one indie rocker notes, “everything got expensive.” Blush concurs, explaining how “The Jewish Lower East Side became the alt-rock LES.” The book is structured in support of this narrative, with chapters grouped by genre (e.g. “Glitter Rock,” “No Wave”) and then divided into “The Rise,” “The Scene,” “The Music,” and “The Fall.” In each, the author focuses on some representational acts and then briefly describes others that never moved beyond their scenes. Blush ably controls his sprawling narrative but depends too much on fragmentary quotes from scene personalities, which become repetitive, offering variations of one hard-core skinhead’s recollection: “Back then it was so true, so street.” Blush himself also falls into generic maxims—e.g. “The ’90s were a tough time for rock music, and here were twentysomethings having sexy fun amid a decidedly no-fun era.”
A comprehensive yet pat and sometimes patchy tome that conveys a vicarious understanding of a gritty musical era.Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-250-08361-6
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Review Posted Online: July 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2016
A thoughtful, well-presented argument about an issue many people face.
A doctor’s manifesto about terminally ill patients’ right to die.
While many Americans believe that the terminally ill should be able to choose to end their lives, the medical profession, the courts and the government mostly remain beholden to traditional and religious beliefs about the sanctity of life. Preston, a medical professor for more than 20 years, argues that it is time to re-evaluate those ethics in light of today’s technology and its ability to prolong life beyond its natural course. The author writes that confusion and misconception pervade most discussions about aid in dying. He distinguishes "patient-directed dying" or "aid in dying" from terms like "physician-assisted suicide” or "euthanasia." In his analysis, the word "suicide" should not apply to someone who is dying with no hope of recovery. Euthanasia, on the other hand, refers to someone other than the patient administering a lethal drug. Patient-directed dying is when a terminally ill individual is able to request and obtain a prescription for medication to end his or her life, under guidelines set to guard against abuse. Through four composite stories based on situations Preston has witnessed from counseling terminally ill patients and their families, he reveals the suffering caused by prohibitions against patient-directed dying. He adds that doctors must be more willing to care for patients when curing them is no longer possible, and recognize that exhausting every medical treatment, no matter how slim the chances of success, often just prolongs suffering. Preston states his case persuasively, illustrates the need for patient-directed dying as an option, counters arguments often made against it and suggests compromises to address concerns on both sides of the debate.
A thoughtful, well-presented argument about an issue many people face.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 1936
ISBN: 978-1-58348-461-2
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 27, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This competent biography of California senator Feinstein, who in November will be up for reelection, hews to the new archetype in political drama: It's the tale of the child who triumphs over the dysfunctions of family life and grows up to become an influential public figure. Roberts, editorial page editor of the San Francisco Chronicle, offers a tepid round-up of Feinstein's life and career. He sketches Feinstein's parents, a successful doctor and an abusive mother, and suggests that in childhood Feinstein learned to transform emotional pain into ambition. After Stanford, Dianne Goldman returned home to San Francisco in 1956, began learning politics, and eloped with lawyer Jack Berman. Divorced within three years, she raised a daughter, developed her political profile as a member of the state parole board for women, and found lasting love with neurosurgeon Bert Feinstein. In 1969, she won election to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, casting her crusade—as throughout her career, the author notes aptly—``in terms that threatened neither men nor the status quo.'' Insecure and imperious, Democrat Feinstein gained a reputation as a ``paradoxical liberal'' (most notably by abandoning her opposition to the death penalty). In 1978 her husband died, San Francisco was rocked by the Jonestown tragedy, and Supervisor Dan White assassinated Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk. Feinstein became acting mayor, and her stewardship lasted nine years, earning her a national reputation. She lost the 1990 race for governor to Pete Wilson but rebounded in 1992, when she was elected to fill out Wilson's uncompleted Senate term. She won on the strength of her campaign style, big spending, and the postAnita Hill ``Year of the Woman'' campaign of the Democratic National Committee. Though Feinstein once aspired to be president, she now says the Senate's high enough. Indeed, this book, though mainly respectful, should not garner her new acolytes. (8 pages b&w photos, not seen) ($50,000 ad/promo; author tour)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-06-258508-8
Page Count: 224
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1994
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