Other Voices

Name: Other Voices
Author: Tony Blenman
ISBN: 978-1-4602-8549-7

by Tony Blenman ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 30, 2016

While offering strong elements, this recollection of surviving violence and reconciling with one’s past lacks a fully...

bookshelf

Blenman tells of persevering through a childhood of abuse to lead a Christian life in this debut memoir.

Born to a poor family in rural Barbados, Blenman endured a grueling childhood. While he was instilled early on with respect for his elders and a strong work ethic, he was also the subject of multiple forms of abuse. In addition to the corporal punishment he suffered at the hands of his short-tempered parents (his father once killed the family dog for eating from Blenman’s dinner bowl), the author was also the victim of sexual abuse from two of his sisters. Throughout his schooling, he was often beaten with a strap based on the arbitrary determinations of his teachers. In addition to documenting his abuse and the ways in which it made his life more difficult, Blenman seeks to record those people who influenced his life in a more positive way, the eponymous “other voices” whose words and advice have remained with him over the course of his life. There was Mammy, the older woman down the road who gave him sweetbreads and told him not to curse. There was Mr. Messiah, a teacher whose encouragement led to Blenman’s grades improving and ultimately winning him a scholarship. Blenman eventually moved to Canada to attend college and remains there still. While he continued to suffer trials in his adult life, he has weathered them using the lessons of his childhood. He credits his subsequent success, in part, to responding to his circumstances “in a behavioural manner that brings healing to self.” The author’s prose is capable, if not always gripping. The book is divided into short chapters that hew closely to Blenman’s memory, but they rarely provide the details that would help make the Barbados of his story come across with greater intensity. The other characters, particularly his family members, could have used a bit more exploration: they loom enigmatically at the edges of his account but never feel fully realized. The raw material of the memoir is robust, but the way it is presented does not ensure it will linger long in the reader’s mind.

While offering strong elements, this recollection of surviving violence and reconciling with one’s past lacks a fully developed narrative.

Pub Date: March 30, 2016

ISBN: 978-1-4602-8549-7

Page Count: 210

Publisher: FriesenPress

Review Posted Online: June 10, 2016

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

bookshelf

I AM OZZY

by Ozzy Osbourne with Chris Ayres ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 25, 2010

An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.

bookshelf

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

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION | BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | ENTERTAINMENT, SPORTS & CELEBRITY

- BOOK REVIEW
LAST RITES
by Ozzy Osbourne with Chris Ayres

- IN THE NEWS
Ozzy Osbourne Dies at 76

bookshelf

NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

bookshelf

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)