Rosen ably navigates these murky waters where sexual-harassment, libel, and invasion of privacy jurisprudence intersect with...
A comprehensive and disturbing assessment of the often well-intentioned legal efforts that have culminated in a multi-pronged assault on civic notions of privacy and discretion—usefully epitomized by the Lewinsky affair.
Rosen (George Washington Univ. Law School/New Republic) deftly examines the daunting web of our wired, voyeuristic culture in developing a well-modulated argument for individual privacy in the public sphere. Much of Rosen’s thesis revolves around such diverse phenomena as sexual-harassment law and the increasingly commonplace workplace monitoring of e-communication. Yet Rosen is also concerned with what he persuasively views as a generalized whittling-down of the sanctity of the citizen’s space and “papers,” noting that protections guaranteed in landmark 18th- and 19th-century decisions have been tarnished by recent, infamous proceedings like the Bob Packwood affair (alongside less notorious but interesting cases). Still, Rosen is not tremendously polemical: his arguments are subtly modulated, combining sophisticated legal discussion with a keen sense of our contemporary scene’s foibles, funny and otherwise (as in Bill Clinton’s ironic support for Susan Molinari’s amendments regarding evidence admission to his 1994 crime bill, which later facilitated the Paula Jones lawsuit). Structurally, Rosen follows a sleek line, with simply titled chapters like “Privacy at Home” and “Privacy at Work” that allows his study to function both as an over-arching narrative of this grandiose erosion of the private society and as a handbook for those concerned enough to contemplate resistance, at least on the personal or community level. Such individuals may be most alarmed by the chapter “Privacy in Cyberspace,” which presents recent controversial cases—such as that of a Harvard Divinity School dean ousted for downloading pornography—and describes how every e-mail is centrally preserved and every online move tracked.
Rosen ably navigates these murky waters where sexual-harassment, libel, and invasion of privacy jurisprudence intersect with the mutated informational boundaries of cyberspace; his debut is a cohesive, attractive, and informative take on a truly unsettling, even grotesque face of contemporary life.Pub Date: June 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-679-44546-3
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2000
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
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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