A fascinating yet cautionary account regarding the hazards of rock ’n’ roll and celebrity.
A memoir by the Blondie co-founder and guitarist.
Founded in 1974 by Debbie Harry and Stein, Blondie was a leading light of the American new wave music scene. In this no-holds-barred memoir, Stein (b. 1950) shares his memories, from his childhood in Brooklyn to his present life, including his early musical and artistic interests, how he and Harry met, the formation and rise of Blondie, his breakup with Harry, his struggles with substance abuse, and details regarding his wife, Barbara, his children, and his enduring friendship with Harry. With a stream-of-consciousness writing style and a talent for storytelling, the author recounts with intriguing specificity the trajectory his life has taken, replete with wild, sometimes unbelievable stories of crazed fans, exhausting gigs, a “disrespectful and borderline abusive” manager, and the many excesses of fame. Among the many notable celebrities that make an appearance are Jimi Hendrix, Tony Sirico, Boz Scaggs, David Bowie, and Andy Warhol. A common theme through much of the narrative is the ever-presence of drugs and alcohol. As Stein contends in the epilogue, “Going into writing all this I hadn’t considered writing about so much addiction and death, but it was unavoidable.” He goes on to candidly discuss his feelings about his daughter’s recent death from an accidental overdose. Acknowledging his “glamorization of addiction” throughout the text, Stein sorrowfully states, “I thought that I presented my own drug experiences in a negative light to our kids, but I’m wracked with guilt that any discussions might have been misconstrued.” The book features a foreword by Harry, in which she describes her feelings and memories regarding her friendship with Stein and being a part of Blondie. “Chris has written a many-layered view with his tireless memory,” she notes.
A fascinating yet cautionary account regarding the hazards of rock ’n’ roll and celebrity.Pub Date: June 11, 2024
ISBN: 9781250286727
Page Count: 304
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: March 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2024
A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.
A former New York City dancer reflects on her zesty heyday in the 1970s.
Discovered on a Manhattan street in 2020 and introduced on Stanton’s Humans of New York Instagram page, Johnson, then 76, shares her dynamic history as a “fiercely independent” Black burlesque dancer who used the stage name Tanqueray and became a celebrated fixture in midtown adult theaters. “I was the only black girl making white girl money,” she boasts, telling a vibrant story about sex and struggle in a bygone era. Frank and unapologetic, Johnson vividly captures aspects of her former life as a stage seductress shimmying to blues tracks during 18-minute sets or sewing lingerie for plus-sized dancers. Though her work was far from the Broadway shows she dreamed about, it eventually became all about the nightly hustle to simply survive. Her anecdotes are humorous, heartfelt, and supremely captivating, recounted with the passion of a true survivor and the acerbic wit of a weathered, street-wise New Yorker. She shares stories of growing up in an abusive household in Albany in the 1940s, a teenage pregnancy, and prison time for robbery as nonchalantly as she recalls selling rhinestone G-strings to prostitutes to make them sparkle in the headlights of passing cars. Complemented by an array of revealing personal photographs, the narrative alternates between heartfelt nostalgia about the seedier side of Manhattan’s go-go scene and funny quips about her unconventional stage performances. Encounters with a variety of hardworking dancers, drag queens, and pimps, plus an account of the complexities of a first love with a drug-addled hustler, fill out the memoir with personality and candor. With a narrative assist from Stanton, the result is a consistently titillating and often moving story of human struggle as well as an insider glimpse into the days when Times Square was considered the Big Apple’s gloriously unpolished underbelly. The book also includes Yee’s lush watercolor illustrations.
A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.Pub Date: July 12, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-250-27827-2
Page Count: 192
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2022
Maher calls out idiocy wherever he sees it, with a comedic delivery that veers between a stiletto and a sledgehammer.
The comedian argues that the arts of moderation and common sense must be reinvigorated.
Some people are born snarky, some become snarky, and some have snarkiness thrust upon them. Judging from this book, Maher—host of HBO’s Real Time program and author of The New New Rules and When You Ride Alone, You Ride With bin Laden—is all three. As a comedian, he has a great deal of leeway to make fun of people in politics, and he often delivers hilarious swipes with a deadpan face. The author describes himself as a traditional liberal, with a disdain for Republicans (especially the MAGA variety) and a belief in free speech and personal freedom. He claims that he has stayed much the same for more than 20 years, while the left, he argues, has marched toward intolerance. He sees an addiction to extremism on both sides of the aisle, which fosters the belief that anyone who disagrees with you must be an enemy to be destroyed. However, Maher has always displayed his own streaks of extremism, and his scorched-earth takedowns eventually become problematic. The author has something nasty to say about everyone, it seems, and the sarcastic tone starts after more than 300 pages. As has been the case throughout his career, Maher is best taken in small doses. The book is worth reading for the author’s often spot-on skewering of inept politicians and celebrities, but it might be advisable to occasionally dip into it rather than read the whole thing in one sitting. Some parts of the text are hilarious, but others are merely insulting. Maher is undeniably talented, but some restraint would have produced a better book.
Maher calls out idiocy wherever he sees it, with a comedic delivery that veers between a stiletto and a sledgehammer.Pub Date: May 21, 2024
ISBN: 9781668051351
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: March 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2024
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