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River Phoenix: A Short Life - Brian J. Robb
by Jake Speed
River Phoenix: A Short Life was written by Brian J Robb and published in 1995. It's a rather short book but crammed with many black and white photographs of the doomed actor. You get an interesting (if hardly exhaustive) biography of Phoenix here and a reminder of the relatively few films he managed to make until his premature death from ... a drugs overdose at the age of just 23. He shot to fame with his sensitive performance in Rob Reiner's acclaimed eighties drama Stand By Me (a film that remains a cult favourite). Phoenix displayed a natural authority in Stand By Me that marked him out as one to watch and looked a bit like James Dean when he got older. He was though destined to join what Kurt Cobain's mother called 'the stupid club' - the apparently never ending list of celebrities who die young because of drug abuse. The actor had a famously eccentric family background you learn here (although anyone interested in the actor will doubtless know this already). He was born in 1970 and his parents were very flower power and New Age and met each other hitchhiking across America. They eventually joined a religious cult called the Children of God and relocated to South America for a time to work as missionaries. It was a fairly threadbare existence on the evidence supplied here and River was soon the family meal ticket when he became a child actor in commercials. This preassure was something he always felt and contributed to his troubles away from the limelight where he was far more wild and self destructive than anyone realised.
It's nice here to be reminded of his first film break in Joe Dante's 1985 Explorers - a film I remember watching growing up and enjoying. The original family surname was 'Bottom' but they changed it to Phoenix in the seventies. I think I'd probably prefer Phoenix myself too. The full title of their second child after River before the name change was Rain Joan of Arc Bottom. It makes you thankful really that your own parents were relatively sane. The book delves into the life of the subject but always feels like it is trying to be respectful and offer a celebration of the actor's short life and career rather than be too gossipy and tacky. One theme of the book is that Phoenix was on course to be a great Hollywood star for many years having made the move from child actor to more adult roles as successfully as most manage. I suppose he would possibly be like Brad Pitt or someone maybe if he was still alive today (and he'd be several years younger than Pitt too). The book asserts - and given his demise it's obviously true - that Phoenix had a 'double life'. He had an image as a non-Hollywood type and outsider, the child of bohemian parents. The clean living vegan (the Phoenix family were all vegans). In reality he always felt under severe preassure as the money making machine in the family and was a secret drug user.
The book makes a few claims that may or may not be true. His drink was spike with liquid GHB the night of his death in 1993 and that he was bisexual. Things like this. These speculations probably add to the interest the reader might have in the book but there probably isn't an awful lot here that you didn't already know apart from these subjective theories. I think the fact that the book is part visual biography adds greatly to the appeal and with text alone this probably wouldn't have been worth going out your way to buy (it's about 160 pages). I'm not obsessed with River Phoenix but I do love Stand By Me and have always been interested in his story because it's so sad. There are publicity stills from most of his films here and they are of a high standard and enjoyable to flip through. Phoenix famously played the young Indy in the prologue to Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and was excellent in this short sequence. The pictures from this are nice but rather poignant. He's the young Indiana Jones in a blockbuster for Steven Spielberg and on the cusp of becoming a huge star (there is even talk of him taking over from Harrison Ford in a young Indy spin-off series of films) and yet a few years later he's dying of a drugs overdose on a pavement outside a Hollywood nightclub.
The book is split into ten chapters and there are also some personal family photographs of the actor to go with the film stills. There are a few errors here and there I noticed in the text regarding the films but these are not too frequent. The book provides a basic biography of Phoenix that is always interesting to read through although this is almost as much a pictorial documentary as a biography. There isn't an awful lot to say River Phoenix because his life was so short but you do learn more about how troubled he was, his difficult relationship with his father, and his secret binges on drugs and chocolate (the suggestion is that he had an eating disorder). There seems to have a scrabble over his money when he died too. How much he left was never disclosed but his parents were by all accounts pretty good at running up debts. The book is obviously out of date and I've no idea how close River's brother Joaquin, who is of course a famous Hollywood actor himself now, is to his parents. River Phoenix: A Short Life is an interesting and attractive book that tells an inevitably sad story. The last image of the actor in Stand By Me, is, as the book notes, especially poignant now with the knowledge of what happened him in the end. At the time of writing you can this used for under a fiver. The one new copy was going for £54 last time I checked!
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Not My Idea of Heaven - Lindsey Rosa
by thehonesttruth
I have something of a fascination with religion - not so much religion itself, but the cultural beliefs that go along with some religions, and the way religion affects the way people grow up, and the people they become.
So, when I saw 'Not my idea of heaven' on offer as part of a 3 for £5 book deal, with the tagline on the ... front cover proclaiming it to be 'The inspiring story of a young woman who broke free from a strict religious sect to find her own voice' , I thought it would be right up my street .
Lindsey's parents were members of the Fellowship, a strict religious group that follows the bible as translated by J.N Darby, who claimed to have discovered the truth behind the words . Members of this group keep themselves to themselves, choosing to be 'In the world, but not of the world'. The Fellowship also lay down strict rules for their followers - no long hair or beards for men, women must cover their head when praying, and TV, Music, and the use of computers are forbidden .
Despite this, her early life seems for the most part to have been largely normal - she went to a normal school, and was even permitted to have 'worldly' friends, so long as she didn't invite them home. Then one day, her family were 'shut up' and ostracised from the group for the crime of allowing their elder sun to listen to music in his car. The family were heartbroken, but always hoped to be reconciled with the religion someday - and continued to live by fellowship rules - until for Lindsey it eventually became too much .
My first criticism with this book is that, although it gave me some idea of the small customs within the religion, such as dress style and rules on entertainments and socialising, it didn't really tell me an awful lot about the core beliefs of the Fellowship. I found this disappointing, as I felt that a real understanding of Lyndseys parents beliefs might have led to a better understanding of their personalities and actions .
In fact, I spent some time attempting to research the Fellowship, in order to gain an understanding, and actually had trouble finding any religious group who go by that name - I did however find some information on the Plymouth Brethren, amongst whom J N Darby was in influential figure, and also information on the Exclusive Brethren , which seems to be the group most closely fitting with Lindseys description, which I used as a little bit of a guide as I read the book .
I also think that the blurb of the book really makes a lot of drama over nothing . Far from having to leave a strict sect, Lindseys family were actually still 'shut up' at the time she decided to leave . She didn't have to attend any kind of formal meeting to withdraw, meet with any elders, or endure people trying to coerce her back in. Her parents were a little disappointed, and certainly moving into her own home and starting a new life without any of the strict rules to live by must have been a confusing and strange time, but I would hardly describe her as 'breaking free'.
Lindseys upbringing certainly did have an impact on her life, and in many ways made her into a rather naive young woman, who was a late developer in many ways . However, I think she places too much blame for her other problems on her religion - particularly as regards her low self esteem and eating disorder. I found it really quite irritating that the other more obvious likely causes and influences - a mother who showed little affection, and who made comments about Lynsdey's weight, as well as some bullying at school, again on account of her weight, tended to be overlooked in favour of religion being the cause .
This was a fairly interesting book, but the lack of in depth information about the religious beliefs of the fellowship, and the authors slightly childish view of life, as well as the fact that she came across as rather selfish did irritate me, for which I am deducting three stars .
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Blood, Sweat and Tea - Tom Reynolds
by chrisandmark
As some of you know, I haven't read a 'proper' book since my son was born a couple of days before Chrimbo. He's the lightest sleeping baby I've ever come across, so I can't have even a lamp on in bed to read - a nightmare situation as over the years I've got into such a habit of reading when I go to bed, it was hellish to have to go ... straight to sleep. So I downloaded both Kindle and iBooks to my iPhone, determined not to start paying silly money for electronic books as I know I'll definitely go back to paperbacks as soon as possible.
I came across a few decent free books on Kindle, but turning my attention to iBooks I've found one of the best books (relatively speaking) I've read in a long time. Blood, Sweat and Tea is a highly entertaining read based on a blog written by a real-life member of the London Ambulance Service. Going under the pseudonym of Tom Reynolds, Brian Kellett gives a brilliant account of his experiences visiting the sick and malingering of Newham.
The 'chapters' (if you can call them that) are short and snappy, typical blog style but the entertaining way in which they're written just captured my attention from the very first few words. I hadn't really known what to expect when I opened the book, actually based on the cover I was expecting an American detective novel, but once I got into it I couldn't put it down.
There's no plot, it simply is Tom's jottings and thoughts on his important role. He has a very engaging personality and the kind of dry sense of humour that I love; he shows such a human side that I found myself falling a little bit in love with him. He's a no-nonsense kinda guy with no sympathy for alcoholics who have called him out for nosebleeds, but if there is something really 'wrong' with this same drunk then he'll get the same life-saving treatment as anyone else.
Tom is very self deprecating, he actually comes across a little egotistical to begin with but I soon realised this is probably his way of coping with both the regular death he sees and the internal politics within the NHS. Despite the humour in Blood, Sweat and Tea, there is a lot of seriousness in there too. How horrible it must be to go into a property and meet a seriously ill (but alive) person, only to have them die in front of your eyes minutes later even after you've tried your hardest to save their life.
In most cases discussed within the book there isn't enough personal information to really upset the reader (and anyway, most cases revolve around 'two year olds with a runny nose), but occasionally something specific has obviously upset Tom as he will launch into a diatribe about the case/situation/patient. One which stands out to me is a short piece about the death of an eight year old asthmatic, a passage reads:
"There are jobs that haunt you. This was one of them. Try calming down an 8-year-old girl who is dying [a frightening and painful death] in front of you because they can't breathe. Then try and forget about it. I did a cot death once, next to the cot was a full ashtray. Sure the parents are punished by the death of their child, but that doesn't help the child..."
That was part of a ranting post entitled Why I Hate Smoking Parents - which (as a smoking parent) did seem very judgemental until I realised that this man is entitled to be judgemental as he's the one who is,figuratively speaking, scraping these kids off the floor because their parents are too lazy and selfish to smoke outside. As I honestly ALWAYS do.
Thankfully there are too many lighthearted moments in Blood, Sweat and Tea to make these tragic tales turn it into anything like misery-lit. Tom doesn't dwell on the deaths he sees, his main issue with the public is that so many people call ambulances for pathetic reasons. I'm not the most sensible adult in the country, but how anyone can justify dialling 999 for a sore throat or swollen finger is beyond me!
One thing I would say is that if you're part of the PC Brigade you might find Tom's views a bit near to the knuckle. I live in Birmingham, I'm allowed to snigger at his comments about it usually being a seven year old girl translating for an entire Bangladeshi family - if you happen to be a Bangladeshi reader you might not find it so amusing. Newham is obviously very much like Birmingham, although Tom points out many times that despite his comments regarding the ethnic groups of London he is not a racist - he hates everyone equally. You couldn't do that job as a racist anyway, but he charmingly puts into words what many of us think but never get the outlet to actually say! Still, his comments may well upset the sensitive types (and you'll know if you're one of those or not!).
I could go on all day, but I won't. What I will say is that Blood, Sweat and Tea is an engaging and entertaining read, one that actually made me laugh out loud at times. This doesn't happen very often for me as I don't usually 'get' written humour, but Tom's dry delivery had me in stitches at plenty of points through the book. Thanks to the very short chapters it makes for a very easy read, I finished it in three days of intermittent reading and loved the way I could call the book up on iBooks and read a quick couple of anecdotes any time I had a free minute or two.
I highly recommend Blood, Sweat and Tea for anyone who is either interested in the inner workings of the London Ambulance Service or just wants to read a comical account of the medical misfortunes of the people of Newham.
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