Two essays by Solzhenitsyn, with a counterpoint of contributions from six other underground writers who still live in the Soviet Union. Solzhenitsyn is utterly eloquent and utterly bound up in his religious commitment. The Soviets must adopt inwardness and self-restriction: "It requires from each individual a moral step within his power—no more than that. . . . The nation is mystically welded together in a community of guilt, and its inescapable destiny is common repentance. . . . unless we recover the gift of repentance, our country will perish and will drag down the whole world with it." Solzhenitsyn warns the Russians against abetting a Vietnamese revolution and claims that Willy Brandt's "spiritual" opening toward the East bloc was met by "grasping political greed" on the other side. He stresses that the "Russians" must adopt "nil growth" in production and recommends the "Club of Rome arithmetic" sponsored by Gianni Agnelli The other pieces, edited by Solzhenitsyn, are relatively one-dimensional: Mikhail Agursky attacks Communism for "stimulating consumption," a writer called "A. B." adds a commendation of "the abstinent spirit," F. Korsakov cites "the intelligentsia's nonsensical moralism." "Godless humanism which is destroying mankind" receives attack by Evgeny Sarabanov, while a glorification of spiritual revival and national personality by Vadim Borisov recalls nothing so much as volkisch German tracts. Igor Shaferivich winds up with a blast against the notion of progress and a plea for sacrifice. The writers' concept of religion as an ascetic, anti-liberal force—the opposite of expansive concern for all human beings—is, as they themselves stress, a very Russian one. Solzhenitsyn's name and expository power will reach, but not necessarily convert, a broad readership.
Pub Date: June 23, 1975
ISBN: 0895268906
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Oct. 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1975
BOOK REVIEW
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
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
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