A frank, courageous, and powerful account that will lend strength to survivors of abuse.
A child sexual abuse survivor recounts her journey to freedom in this memoir.
Williams’ biological father walked away from her family in the 1960s when she was only a few days old. She was raised in a suburb of Mobile, Alabama, by her mother and stepfather, Carl Rivers. The author recounts that from the age of 3 onward, she was subjected to 14 years of physical, psychological, and sexual abuse at the hands of Rivers. Williams reveals how he would treat her like an animal, threaten to kill her mother if she revealed his secret, and attempt to break her spirit by taking away items she loved, like her crayons. By fourth grade, she decided to tell a teacher that she had been raped, but her claims were dismissed. At 17, Williams attempted suicide, but heard a voice she believed to be God’s say, “We’ll figure it out.” Thus began her quest for freedom. Yet after Rivers’ death in a train wreck, Williams’ trauma seemed to become only “more real.” The author explains how her faith in God gave her back her identity stolen by her abuser. Williams’ writing is passionate and persuasive, charged with energy and a yearning for change: “Generations of secrecy have destroyed lives, hopes, and dreams. The wounded among us now reach epidemic proportions, yet there are so few platforms for honesty and for healing.” But her prose can also prove intimate, speaking directly to readers: “If you know this fear, if you identify with surviving…please know it is because you did not have power.” Some readers may consider Williams’ descriptions of her abuse too graphic: “Not a word was uttered while he was rubbing me, then he climbed on top of me. I tried to pull away. I squirmed, and he pulled me back to him.” This results in a harrowing read, but it is the author’s intention to make the audience fully grasp the horror of the act. Williams’ liberation is driven predominantly by her Christian beliefs, and those who do not share her religious viewpoint may struggle to connect with her story. Still, this is stirring, proactive writing that empowers survivors with memorable, pithy statements: “Silence enables the injustice; silence is the enemy of healing.”
A frank, courageous, and powerful account that will lend strength to survivors of abuse.Pub Date: May 16, 2023
ISBN: 978-1665306638
Page Count: 276
Publisher: BookLogix
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
A juicy story with some truly crazy moments, yet Anderson's good heart shines through.
The iconic model tells the story of her eventful life.
According to the acknowledgments, this memoir started as "a fifty-page poem and then grew into hundreds of pages of…more poetry." Readers will be glad that Anderson eventually turned to writing prose, since the well-told anecdotes and memorable character sketches are what make it a page-turner. The poetry (more accurately described as italicized notes-to-self with line breaks) remains strewn liberally through the pages, often summarizing the takeaway or the emotional impact of the events described: "I was / and still am / an exceptionally / easy target. / And, / I'm proud of that." This way of expressing herself is part of who she is, formed partly by her passion for Anaïs Nin and other writers; she is a serious maven of literature and the arts. The narrative gets off to a good start with Anderson’s nostalgic memories of her childhood in coastal Vancouver, raised by very young, very wild, and not very competent parents. Here and throughout the book, the author displays a remarkable lack of anger. She has faced abuse and mistreatment of many kinds over the decades, but she touches on the most appalling passages lightly—though not so lightly you don't feel the torment of the media attention on the events leading up to her divorce from Tommy Lee. Her trip to the pages of Playboy, which involved an escape from a violent fiance and sneaking across the border, is one of many jaw-dropping stories. In one interesting passage, Julian Assange's mother counsels Anderson to desexualize her image in order to be taken more seriously as an activist. She decided that “it was too late to turn back now”—that sexy is an inalienable part of who she is. Throughout her account of this kooky, messed-up, enviable, and often thrilling life, her humility (her sons "are true miracles, considering the gene pool") never fails her.
A juicy story with some truly crazy moments, yet Anderson's good heart shines through.Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2023
ISBN: 9780063226562
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Dey Street/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
SEEN & HEARD
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