Goodall (Through a Window: My Thirty Years with the Chimpanzees of Gombe, 1990, etc.), with the help of religious scholar Berman, sets down the spiritual and ethical lights that serve as guides in her rather extraordinary life. A couple of questions keep popping up for Goodall: from where does she get her serenity, considering all the cruelty and violence she has seen between humans and humans, humans and animals, and humans and the environment? And is there any hope? This book is an honest and often elegant groping toward an answer to these questions; in it she relates her belief in God—a God both personal and inclusive—and a divine plan. But she isn’t about to foist that notion on her readers; indeed, she has trouble reconciling the coincident presence of evil and an all-good, all-powerful God. Rather, her hope comes from a number of other wellsprings. One is the evolution of human bioethics, which she sees as steadily, if glacially, improving. Another is the frequent display of fundamental values she witnesses in humans: “honesty, self-discipline, courage, respect for life, courtesy, compassion, and tolerance.” Since she has observed some of these traits in chimpanzees, she considers them, and by extension all animals, worthy of our respect and empathy, thus her work to protect animals. Because Goodall is so decent and intelligent a person, she can go out on a limb without concern of ridicule: she speaks of states of grace, merge states wherein she is one with the forest and its inhabitants, quiet ecstasies of timelessness and peace, out-of-body experiences that grant her an appreciation of the potential beauty inherent in the world, and the application of these intuitive capacities for good in science and everyday behavior. She sets all this in the context of her life’s progress. Goodall is a rare creature accomplishing great things. Her last hope is that readers may find here some good to take away. A PBS tie-in will air in the fall of 1999. (16 pages b&w photos) (Author tour)
Pub Date: Sept. 16, 1999
ISBN: 0-466-52225-2
Page Count: 320
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1999
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
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
