A great read for Styron devotees, but fans of correspondence will miss the conversational quality of most letter collections.
A good portion of William Styron’s personal and business correspondence brought together in one volume.
Starting with letters written to his father while at college, this book also includes writings to early girlfriends, an influential professor, Army buddies, other notable authors, fans, agents and others. The author wrote about a wide variety of subjects, including literature, politics, illness and sex. Styron’s distaste for critics (particularly those who didn’t appreciate his work) was a frequent subject, as were his struggles with writing and self-doubt. With so much ground covered, it is impossible not to learn some fascinating new tidbit about Styron’s life. Unfortunately, editors Styron and Gilpin (John Brown Still Lives!: America's Long Reckoning with Violence, Equality, and Change, 2011, etc.) do not include a single letter written to Styron, which leaves many stories half-told. While some of the one-sided correspondence is explained via the frequent footnotes, most of it is not. Gilpin notes in his introduction that footnoted material was kept to a minimum and only included when necessary. However, many footnotes seem inconsequential at best. For instance, Gilpin explains certain facts that seem obvious, such as Shirley Temple’s status as a famous child actress. Such notes can be abrasive in a 650-page book, often proving distracting rather than edifying. The William Styron timeline at the beginning, however, is helpful.
A great read for Styron devotees, but fans of correspondence will miss the conversational quality of most letter collections.Pub Date: Dec. 4, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4000-6806-7
Page Count: 672
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Oct. 6, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2012
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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