Equally fascinating for its exploration of both the physical complexities of housebuilding and the theory and history that...
An absorbing account of amateur builder Howard’s construction of his family home.
A latter-day embodiment of that quintessential American, the homesteader, Howard (The Preservationist’s Progress, 1991) is determined to build his family a home in the little town of Red Rock, two hours and a world away from New York City. A writer, Howard is as taken with the intellectual aspects of the project as he is with the physical; he traces his design influences back to 16th-century Italian architect Andrea Palladio, his heating system is one conceived by a Victorian building reformer, and the layout of his grounds finds its roots in 18th-century England. No effete intellectual, however, the author spends his days hoisting beams and driving nails with his one hired helper. But his most remarkable attribute is his fundamental belief in his totally untried abilities, his unshakeable assumption that he can actually build his own house from the foundation up. For the specialized needs of the building process—the heating system, the landscaping—he employs skilled workmen, and each of them in turn becomes a character in story (from the practical stonemason to the landscaper whose vision requires that the garden look as if “an old lady lost control of it”). Yet despite the new friends and day-to-day gratification, all does not run entirely smooth. Howard makes no effort to cover his mistakes, which run from budget miscalculations to serious accidents averted only by luck; the very first vignette has him misjudging the depth of the house’s foundation by two feet. These setbacks don’t stop the inevitable forward motion of the project or the author’s pleasure in the work, however, and Howard’s assertion that “one of the joys of building is that it is at once work and leisure” is entirely convincing.
Equally fascinating for its exploration of both the physical complexities of housebuilding and the theory and history that lie behind the ways homes are made.Pub Date: June 8, 2001
ISBN: 1-56512-293-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Algonquin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2001
BOOK REVIEW
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
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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