Embarrassing, self-indulgent and just plain boring.
Soloway, an Emmy-nominated writer for HBO’s Six Feet Under, should have quit while she was ahead.
Instead, she proffers this dreary collection of autobiographical essays describing her obsession with celebrities, the boring sex she’s had, her shrink, her friendships with gay men, her dislike of dogs, her home office with the purple walls and the “hippie-dippie Moroccan bed.” Soloway (whose short story “Courtney Cox’s Asshole” was collected in Best American Erotica 2003 and caught the attention of director Alan Ball) is so fed up with the opposite sex that she wants to buy a tract of land in northern California, to be populated entirely by women; men can come for visits. Worried that a name like Wombtown would scare off potential recruits, she decides to call her haven Feather Crest. The author has a tiring penchant for WRITING IN ALL CAPS and using lots of exclamation marks!!! Despite her insistence in the introduction that this book is not mainly about sex, Soloway provides plenty of sex talk throughout. That would be fine if it didn’t seem gratuitous and superfluous, but often it is. (Ex: “Have you ever had a penis in your mouth and thought, ‘What the hell am I doing? I have a penis in my mouth!’” At least it wasn’t all in caps.) Occasionally, Soloway gets a laugh—her comparison of Jewish men and construction workers in bed is pretty droll—but most of her attempts at humor are just not smart enough to be funny. Her musings on her son’s Jewish identity are engaging, and the essay “Monica, Chandra, and Me” morphs magically from an intriguing analysis of Monica Lewinsky into a stirring ode to Soloway’s parents and grandparents. But these elevated moments are too few.
Embarrassing, self-indulgent and just plain boring.Pub Date: Sept. 14, 2005
ISBN: 0-7432-7217-X
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Free Press
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2005
BOOK REVIEW
An enjoyable slice of 20th-century music journalism almost certain to provide something for most readers, no matter one’s...
Music journalist and musician Wald (Talking 'Bout Your Mama: The Dozens, Snaps, and the Deep Roots of Rap, 2014, etc.) focuses on one evening in music history to explain the evolution of contemporary music, especially folk, blues, and rock.
The date of that evening is July 25, 1965, at the Newport Folk Festival, where there was an unbelievably unexpected occurrence: singer/songwriter Bob Dylan, already a living legend in his early 20s, overriding the acoustic music that made him famous in favor of electronically based music, causing reactions ranging from adoration to intense resentment among other musicians, DJs, and record buyers. Dylan has told his own stories (those stories vary because that’s Dylan’s character), and plenty of other music journalists have explored the Dylan phenomenon. What sets Wald's book apart is his laser focus on that one date. The detailed recounting of what did and did not occur on stage and in the audience that night contains contradictory evidence sorted skillfully by the author. He offers a wealth of context; in fact, his account of Dylan's stage appearance does not arrive until 250 pages in. The author cites dozens of sources, well-known and otherwise, but the key storylines, other than Dylan, involve acoustic folk music guru Pete Seeger and the rich history of the Newport festival, a history that had created expectations smashed by Dylan. Furthermore, the appearances on the pages by other musicians—e.g., Joan Baez, the Weaver, Peter, Paul, and Mary, Dave Van Ronk, and Gordon Lightfoot—give the book enough of an expansive feel. Wald's personal knowledge seems encyclopedic, and his endnotes show how he ranged far beyond personal knowledge to produce the book.
An enjoyable slice of 20th-century music journalism almost certain to provide something for most readers, no matter one’s personal feelings about Dylan's music or persona.Pub Date: July 25, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-06-236668-9
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Dey Street/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 15, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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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