In this extended rejoinder Conservatism's most notable spokesman reviews the issues and events of New York City's 1965 Mayorality campaign in which he was such a controversial participant. Mr. Buckley re-presents his assessments of the city's problems, its political parties, the connections he sees between race, religion and politics, the actualities of the campaign itself, and, perhaps of greater interest now, how he decided to run for Mayor. He complains that upon the annunciation of his candidacy the press (with whom he has a large quarrel here, though with more finesse than another loser, Mr. Nixon) "personalized the event." It's difficult to avoid doing so since what Mr. Buckley has to say is far less interesting than the way he says it; he is, indisputably, a "personality." Indeed, if we are to take Murray Kempton's long-standing infatuation with him at face value, he is not only a phenomenon to be observed but a "gentlemen" par excellence. His book was to "controvert...misrepresentations," usually considered a futile endeavor, but it is the type of task which seems to consume a good deal of the author's time, here and in other media. Another purpose was "to capture the realities of the polemical situation in our time." It's at least questionable whether such a self-justifying book as this actually furthers that lofty ambition or whether it merely serves to keep William F. Buckley, Jr. in the public eye.
Pub Date: June 15, 1966
ISBN: 0870003917
Page Count: 341
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 13, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1966
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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