Dench’s memoir of the roles she has loved is a witty, thoroughly entertaining romp through the Shakespearean world.
A literary demonstration of how the iconic actor has lost none of her energy, flair, and fiery intelligence.
These days, Dench (b. 1934) is often thought of as the flinty M of several James Bond movies, but she spent the bulk of her career on the stage, mainly performing Shakespeare plays. In this follow-up to And Furthermore, the author looks back at her experiences via conversations with her fellow actor and close friend Brendan O’Hea. This was necessary because Dench’s eyesight is failing, but her memory is razor-sharp and her knowledge of Shakespeare’s plays is encyclopedic. Her starting point was Macbeth, which remains one of her favorite plays. She also has a liking for A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Twelfth Night, and King Lear, but she has mixed feelings about The Merchant of Venice and Coriolanus. Her first professional role was as Ophelia in Hamlet; later, she played Gertrude. Even at the age of 89, Dench retains an impish sense of humor, and she has plenty of stories about mischief and mayhem behind the scenes. Impressively, she quotes large chunks of various plays from memory. She insists that none of her performances are definitive, and she believes that there are as many interpretations of Shakespearean roles as there are actors. This view underscores her appreciation of the wide-ranging work of the Bard, which she sees as entirely relevant to our era: “Everything you have felt or are yet to feel is all in there in his plays: oppression, ambition, loneliness, remorse, everything….Shakespeare has examined every single emotion….His writing has the capacity to make us feel less alone.” Through these lively conversations, Dench creates a highly satisfying mix of fun, insight, and art.
Dench’s memoir of the roles she has loved is a witty, thoroughly entertaining romp through the Shakespearean world.Pub Date: April 23, 2024
ISBN: 9781250325778
Page Count: 288
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Jan. 13, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
PERSPECTIVES
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
