A scholarly but swiftly flowing text that glistens with attitude.
A lively combination of scholarship, cultural history and sharp-tongued social commentary about our buildings—what we use them for and what they reveal about their designers and about us.
Wilkinson, who has lectured on the history of architecture at various academic venues in England, Germany and China, begins with a simple hut—surely the first human habitation—and ends with a “curvaceous footbridge” in Rio de Janeiro. In between are his investigations and ruminations about specific sorts of architecture developed for specific purposes—for the powerful, for religion, commemoration, entertainment, work, medicine and others. In each section, the author focuses on a specific structure, provides its history, tells us about its designer (when this is known) and describes its evolution and/or fate. But Wilkinson does much more than this. He also riffs on aspects of the building, its architect or purpose that he finds most compelling, and he manages to animate readers in the process. In some cases, he will probably anger some readers. He is manifestly liberal and humanitarian in his political views, so terms like “religious wing nuts,” broadsides at Ayn Rand and descriptions of buildings (Henry Ford’s factories) that are like machines “for squeezing the maximum profit from the workers inside” will not endear him to some of his readers—though they will certainly delight others. The author includes a fascinating chapter about Le Corbusier and his passion for a house designed by Eileen Gray—a house much damaged, writes Wilkinson, by Le Corbusier’s murals (added later). His is a sad portrait of the house’s decline and its very slow restoration. The author punctuates his text with bright, varied allusions to Hawthorne, the Marx Brothers, Wagner, Nero, Brueghel and the 1959 “kitchen debate” between Khrushchev and Nixon.
A scholarly but swiftly flowing text that glistens with attitude.Pub Date: July 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-62040-629-8
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Review Posted Online: May 16, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2014
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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