Analyzing Osbourne's Memoir 'I Am Ozzy'

708 Words3 Pages

Memoir Analysis

Ozzy Osbourne’s memoir I Am Ozzy consists of the now aged rocker recounting his life from early childhood all the way through his long career. Many of the stories he tells are what can be expected from a man who is famous for his craziness and rock-and-roll lifestyle. The book is organized a little differently than most others in regard to the breakup of chapters, writing style, and organization of thoughts.

While most books use each chapter to take the reader through a specific moment before sectioning that plot point off, I Am Ozzy tends to end chapters in seemingly arbitrary places. In a book that is around 390 pages long, there are only eleven chapters. As a result of this, each chapter covers many plot points and then abruptly cuts off. There does not appear to be any sort of rhyme or reason to these cutoffs. Some events that could have easily ended a chapter, such as the release of his first album, occur nowhere close to the chapter’s completion. I believe the book was written this way because Ozzy Osbourne did not want it to come across as a professionally written book that was well edited and nicely packaged for a publisher. He was telling his own story the way …show more content…

At points Ozzy will mention an artist he worked with or met, and then recommend a song by that person or talk about how much he loved a certain album of the artists. He continues on with the main story of his life after that, but the book is full of tangents and non-sequiturs about any number of random things. The ideas or thoughts are included and then moved passed, just as a one off comment in a conversation would be. This further lends itself to the books personal feel. The memoir not only offers an opportunity to read this often talked about rock icon’s own version of events, but also allows for glimpses into the way he