And somewhere out in left field, too: The Sterns' new addition to their popular volumes of Americana (The Encyclopedia of Bad Taste, Sixties People, Elvis World, etc.) tackles ``the West of the imagination''—the West mythologized by dime novels, TV, and films; populated by singing cowboys who kiss their horses, Indians who raise their right hands and say ``How,'' and pesky ``critters'' like rattlesnakes and scorpions; and redolent with the scent of hot chili and chicken-fried steak. The husband-and-wife team do their usual entertaining job of rounding up this retrograde West— providing plenty of lore on rodeos, natural wonders, ``equine superstars'' (the rumor is true: Trigger is indeed stuffed and on display at the Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Museum in Victoryville, California, along with Bullet the Wonder Dog and Dale's horse, Buttermilk), lariat-throwing, proper cowboy dinners, and so on. But to pretend—other than in a few paragraphs—that this West isn't a mirage floating above a sea of oppression and bloodshed, and to celebrate this phantasmagorical vision, seems akin to celebrating the Old South without reference to the slavery that sustained it. Moreover, the author's survey leaves out several crucial, if less cute, elements of the Western myth. Astonishingly, there's no discussion of outlaws here—no Billy the Kid, no Jesse James; there's no survey of the black cowboys who rode alongside the whites (and who do figure in the myth, as in Woody Strode's many Western film roles); and while the Sterns chronicle the stereotyped representation of Indians, they offer no survey of more real, and equally enduring, images of Indians, as in the film A Man Called Horse. All in all, then, a lopsided, outdated guide, best suited for those who still think that Custer died with his boots on. (Photographs—200 b&w and 300 color)
Pub Date: Nov. 30, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-016873-0
Page Count: 416
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1993
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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