Strikingly bland memoirs from the former teen tennis-phenom. Sports Illustrated cover story at 13, professional at 15, US Open champ at 16, top-seeded in the world and a millionaire at 17, and forced by injuries into retirement at 21, Austin (with the assistance of sportswriter Brennan) here turns a potentially fascinating tale of early fame and loss into a dull, albeit likable, autobiography. Irritated by misperceptions of her meteoric rise, Austin takes pains to separate herself from today's adolescent superstars. The youngest of five tennis-mad siblings, she never received any parental pressure, resisted turning pro until she had outgrown the amateur ranks, and insisted on finishing high school as normally as possible, even if it meant missing the Australian and French Opens until after graduation. Furthermore, she stresses, contrary to rumor, she did not ``burn out,'' but fell victim to a series of back, leg, and foot injuries, capped by a leg-shattering car accident in 1989 on the eve of a long-planned comeback. Today, ``beyond center court,'' she mainly still plays tennis (with income from numerous exhibitions as well as TV, motivational-speaking, and endorsement contracts providing ``a very nice living''). Here, Austin concentrates mostly on saying nice things about people—primarily former opponents and current players, but also old boyfriends and the various celebrities she has met—although a glint of malice shows up now and then (e.g., regarding Pam Shriver, who criticized Austin in her own book: ``I beat Pam nine times in a row in age-group competition...I bugged her''). Lacking is any perspective on the ``intensity and concentration'' that propelled Austin to the top or on the consequences of being ``finished'' when most people are just starting. A weak net-ball of a book, best reserved for tennis fanatics looking for something to thumb through during changeovers. (Sixteen pages of b&w photographs—not seen.)
Pub Date: Aug. 17, 1992
ISBN: 0-688-09923-8
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1992
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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