In 1986, Buruma (Behind the Mask, 1984) visited Burma, Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan. His purpose: to examine the extent to which Western-style modernization has influenced Eastern values. His conclusion: These countries are engaged in "an endless search for meaning and national identity" with no clear consensus on a solution. Curiously, Buruma starts in Burma, the one country that has kept Westernization at bay, where Rangoon molders away surrounded by "vast suburbs of brown huts on stilts in slimy water." The West intrudes only in the black market, where TV sets, wristwatches, even pages of old American magazines are snapped up. And so it goes: Thailand is a "sexual supermarket"—and also a land where the king and fundamentalist Buddhists have fostered the resurrection of a serene village culture; Malaysia looks to Islam for cohesion, while its women prance about in miniskirts and high heels; primarily Chinese Singapore comes across as a "perfect suburban paradise," but its officials dither that it will be swamped by Malays and condemn same-sex disco dancing as inimical to procreation; South Korea celebrates its "5000-year-old" civilization with folk festivals in baseball stadiums. Fascinatingly detailed, but confusingly organized and already partially outdated—the downfall of Marcos and the 1988 Burma riots have superseded the text.
Pub Date: June 1, 1989
ISBN: 0753810891
Page Count: 267
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: May 15, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1989
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
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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