An affecting story of ordinary perseverance during terrible times.
Romero chronicles the courtship and separation of her parents—a Jewish man and a Lutheran woman—during World War II.
After her father’s sudden death in 1980, the author discovered a box of letters at her parents’ house dating back to 1938. While she’d grown up knowing her parents were refugees from Nazi Germany, they remained tight-lipped about what they had experienced to protect her. Romero’s relationship with her father had been difficult at times, and they frequently disagreed on politics; after his death, she finally came to understand his perspective. Emil Rueb was born in the small village of Guntersblum, Germany, the son of a successful Jewish businessman and vineyard owner. He met Elisabeth Bickel, nicknamed Deta, a Lutheran nurse, while she was working for a family in his village. Though Emil’s parents disapproved of him courting a non-Jew, and Nazi policies increasingly made the relationship untenable, they remained devoted to each other. In 1937, Deta obtained a nursing position in England. A year later, Emil emigrated to New York and then New Hampshire, intending to pursue a career as a photographer and secure passage for Deta, his parents, his sister, and her husband. As Europe headed inexorably toward war and Nazi policies became more restrictive, the possibilities for immigration narrowed. Deta and Emil spent over seven years apart, waiting to be reunited while World War II tore their homeland apart. Using her parents’ letters as a starting point, Romero retraced her parents’ steps in Europe, interviewed surviving acquaintances and relatives, and conducted extensive research to piece together Deta and Emil’s journey. The memoir includes photos and copies of important documents such as tickets, IDs, and postcards, which add a personalized feel to the narrative. Romero often intersperses her own reflections throughout the story. Though unable to reproduce exactly what her parents were thinking and feeling on some occasions, the author’s perspective as their daughter and her viewpoint of their history make this account uniquely poignant; as she writes, “May their story augment our understanding of the past.”
An affecting story of ordinary perseverance during terrible times.Pub Date: May 7, 2024
ISBN: 9781647426545
Page Count: 344
Publisher: She Writes Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 17, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024
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
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