Engrossing, sensitive and humorous—a bighearted winner.
In this debut graphic memoir, a woman looks back on growing up with five siblings, her often overwhelmed mother, and a mostly absent father who was both charming and pathological.
The “Mousehouse” of the title refers to the family’s tiny, 700-square-foot house that reminded Haney’s mother, Meg, of a children’s book. They lived there for seven years, but the memoir actually stretches from 1919 to 1966, interspersed with present-day sections in which Haney converses with her dying mother; for Haney, this book is her eulogy. Her line drawings are crude, similar to children’s work or to cartoonists like Lynda Barry—effective and appropriate given the child’s-eye view. Pleasingly scrapbooklike family photographs, newspaper articles, advertisements and letters help tell the story. The beginning sections that delve into family history are revealing, especially those about Haney’s father, Billy, and how he came to be such a selfish, charming, extravagant, risk-taking, sex-obsessed narcissist. As the family grows and Meg tries to find independence, the children are often left to fend for themselves, with their father swooping in now and then with presents and treats. Haney’s writing skillfully balances tone, employing wry humor and dry commentary to talk about darker happenings, including what might be seen today as child neglect, as when Meg charges 7-year-old Gus with being man of the house, having him go to the bank, mail letters and go grocery shopping. But there’s more: Billy gets Haney a subscription to Playboy—for her 11th birthday. And it gets worse. Haney doesn’t dwell on these incidents, feeling that people are tired of incest memoirs and not wanting “Dad’s slimy stuff to take over.” Haney is honest about conflicts with her mother and generous in imagining Meg’s point of view, derived from letters and journals as well as memory. Her five siblings are also given their dues. Hopefully, we’ll see more from this talented writer/cartoonist.
Engrossing, sensitive and humorous—a bighearted winner.Pub Date: Sept. 30, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-927375-16-7
Page Count: 358
Publisher: Civil Sector Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 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
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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