Blending the passion of an enraptured fan with the measured eye of a seasoned journalist, free-lance sportswriter Schoenfeld (The New York Times, Sport, etc.) delivers a lyrical, unapologetic paean to bullfighting and its devoted followers. Set primarily in toreo-mad Sevilla, a contemporary city with its heart firmly in the past, the narrative, while impressive in sketching the history and current status of the sport, is overwhelmingly (and delightfully) a tribute to the unique relationship between fans and this oddly ``metaphysical'' sport. Unlike Hemingway's The Dangerous Summer (mentioned frequently, along with his Death in the Afternoon and James Michener's Iberia), Schoenfeld's study lacks a specific focus in terms of the bullfighting world, with the author meandering from bullfight to bullfight as he attempts to invoke the essence of that contest as experienced by those in its spell. Foremost are the dedicated fans, Schoenfeld included, enduring the tedium of uninspiring matches (``in contemporary bullfighting...quality is scarce'') in pursuit of one transcendent performance (``something unavailable within the bounds of daily life...the glimpse of immortality''). Among them is a strange coterie of Hemingwayesque foreign aficionados, deftly depicted, who follow the bulls throughout Spain each season. Center stage, of course, belongs to the matadors—skillful figuras, uneven young aspirants, and stubborn old-timers—alternately adored and reviled by the masses of ``taurine junkies.'' Rounding out the text is a skillful explanation of the distinct rituals and intricate maneuvers of the sport, pictured here as the ultimate high-stakes performance art. Although Schoenfeld will not convert any bullfight detractors- -true, crowds applaud particularly noble bulls, but even the best get no reprieve—he succeeds admirably on his own terms in offering an entrancing portrait of an unusual, ``passionately illogical'' world.
Pub Date: March 1, 1992
ISBN: 0-671-72748-6
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1992
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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