Beastie Boys fans will devour this book, as will anyone interested in the early days of hip-hop, the art/music/street life...
A lively and accessible account of the Beasties’ decadeslong career, told by the Boys themselves and a coterie of friends and admirers.
The long-awaited first book from co-authors and fellow Beastie Boys Diamond and Horovitz is a fan’s dream. The narrative details the group’s meteoric rise to fame, from their humble beginnings in the New York hardcore scene of the early 1980s, to their first tours (opening for the likes of Madonna and Run-DMC), and on through the many permutations of their music and persona as they held on to their position as standard-bearers in the worlds of music, fashion, and pop culture throughout the ’80s, ’90s, and 2000s. Diamond and Horovitz each wrote roughly half of the chapters, and their respective personalities shine through in their writing styles; they play off each other the way comedy teams do, much as they did when they were on the mic. These chapters alternate with insightful essays from heavy hitters like Luc Sante, Jonathan Lethem, and others as well as goofy rap album–style interludes—e.g., a comprehensive review of all of their music videos by comedienne Amy Poehler. The book is often laugh-out-loud funny, especially when Horovitz narrates, and Diamond’s comparatively dry sense of humor makes him the perfect foil. The fact that third Beastie Adam Yauch (1964-2012) wasn’t around to contribute lends the book an elegiac tone that bubbles just under the surface of the narrative. Superfans may long for more details from the later years of the group's career; the amount of space devoted to the band’s formative years is huge. There are, however, song-by-song details for all of their records, which will delight the faithful, and the aforementioned “interludes” fill out the overall picture quite well.
Beastie Boys fans will devour this book, as will anyone interested in the early days of hip-hop, the art/music/street life of New York City in the 1980s, and the alternative-nation zeitgeist of the ’90s.Pub Date: Oct. 30, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-8129-9554-1
Page Count: 592
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau
Review Posted Online: June 26, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2018
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
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