Preston, who followed in Coronado's footsteps in Cities of Gold (1992), feels the itch for another rigorous, horse-borne journey—this time through the sere lands of Navajo reservation— and returns with pungent descriptions and curious encounters. Preston embarks on this journey across the Utah Strip of the Navajo reservation, from Navajo Mountain to Shiprock, at the suggestion of his soon-to-be-wife. It's a chance to knit her daughter more closely to Preston. That seems like a good idea to him, and he is also interested in following the trail of Monster Slayer, the Navajo deity responsible for ridding the earth of the enemy gods. The three undertake the journey at the pace the landscape demands: not exactly a mooch—they have to reach sources of water at least every couple of days—but not much more than a slow poke. They snake their way through a land of rimrock and butte, sandstorm and ungodly hail, a trackless place that still has the feel of wildness about it. This is holy Navajo ground; Preston approaches it with respect, always aware that this is more than just a stupendous piece of scenery (``a landscape of Zen-like emptiness, a great yellow plain bounded by blue mountains''), careful to insert the Navajo creation story and the saga of Monster Slayer into the lay of the land. Gathering together strands of landscape description, regional history, indigenous tales, ruminations on the Anasazi, and his new family's gradual union, Preston braids them into a neatly knotted story. Also woven into the adventure, giving it some needed buoyancy, are a clutch of artful characters the entourage meets en route. Many are Navajo guides required for passing through these parts, but there are also sinister types, mystics, and plain kooks. One tough journey, luminously remembered, pulled off with a combination of flair, grit, and good humor. (16 pages b&w photos, 5 maps, 25 drawings, not seen) (Author tour)
Pub Date: July 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-684-80391-7
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1995
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
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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