The first volume of Ambrose's biography of Eisenhower, chiefly on his military career, at least benefited from Ambrose's familiarity with military affairs and his earlier writing on Ike's wartime and postwar roles; if routine, it held together. This second and concluding volume, mainly on the Eisenhower presidency, is again a chronological record—but now of disparate, carry-over developments ("Bricker, McCarthy, Bravo, Vietnam, January 1—May 7, 1954"). As political history, it's flimsy (Ambrose thinks every president's biggest problem is the military budget); Its thesis that "Eisenhower dominated events," has been more solidly formulated and documented in Robert A. Divine's Eisenhower and the Cold War, more ingeniously presented (at least) in Fred Greenstein's The Hidden-Hand Presidency. But, inherent weaknesses apart, the book is riddled with blunders and bloopers—compounded by uncertain quasi-scholarship. There are personal details that would be eye-blinking, if true: did Eisenhower never so much as put on his own socks? never wear a suit (given him by manufacturers) more than twice? Ambrose doesn't find these particulars odd enough to document. There are supposed achievements for which Eisenhower's memoirs are the only source; worse, Ambrose attributes to Eisenhower-biographer Peter Lyons the opinion that, "without Eisenhower's opposition," the Bricker amendment, limiting the president's treaty-making power, "would have been adopted"—something Lyons neither says nor implies. (Rather, he points up Eisenhower's waverings—and the tie-breaking vote by wily Lyndon Johnson.) Then, confoundingly, there is the matter of Eisenhower's choice of Earl Warren for Chief Justice; never mind that Ambrose is oblivious to the politics involved (it was simply merit, he maintains); Ambrose flatly asserts that "during his Presidency, Eisenhower never doubted that he had. . . made the right choice"—disregarding Ike's famous, oft-repeated gripe that the Warren appointment was "the biggest damfool mistake I ever made." Can Ambrose have forgotten? No: 50 pages later he picks up the subject again, claiming that Eisenhower made such remarks only later, and did not even have such feelings in the White House (on the basis of selective reference to Warren's autobiography—ignoring other parts, and mounds of additional evidence). On the issues, Ambrose doesn't say anything much new either way: Eisenhower erred on McCarthy and civil rights, did well in foreign affairs (unto the Central American interventions). But the book is markedly short of common sense, accuracy, and coherence.
Pub Date: Sept. 28, 1984
ISBN: 0671605658
Page Count: 750
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 10, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1984
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
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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