A uniquely compelling, expressive memoir packed with explosive asides and raucous insight.
The acclaimed Scottish poet chronicles the misadventures of his youth.
In this witty memoir, Paterson (b. 1963), the only two-time winner of the T.S. Eliot Prize, revisits his origins in the working-class community of Dundee. Though the author is a celebrated poet, this book contains few references to the writing process. Music is the guiding thread (Paterson is also a jazz musician), and he explores how it pulled him out of his small town, where “for every family on the street, debt was a constant low drone.” As he charts a path through the 1970s and ’80s, he deftly avoids the twin pitfalls of romanticism and nostalgia, instead describing the poverty, violence, and customs of his youth with evenhanded observation and often humor. The titular “toy fight” refers to a childhood game that “was basically twenty minutes of extreme violence without pretext,” violence being as typical to his boyhood as sugar, which included both special treats and “staple forms of sugar, the ones you’d obviously die without.” Childhood led into adolescence through a series of painful school years and obsessive hobbies ranging from origami to guitar. Eventually, Paterson suffered an “acute adolescent schizophrenic episode,” about which he writes candidly. While recovering, his love of music allowed him to chart a future while providing stability and joy. This part of the memoir is the most listlike, deviating into a who’s who of the Scottish music scene, though what the book lacks in narrative connective tissue it compensates for in the plentiful obscenities and vivid descriptions that provide ample entertainment. Punctuating the primary text with frequent and often volatile footnotes, Paterson interrupts his story with rages against a variety of issues, including the “sentimental, fake-aspirational, poverty-celebrating muddle that results when middle-class white folks write black songs.” This memoir is gritty, direct, and alternately doggedly sincere and uproariously hilarious.
A uniquely compelling, expressive memoir packed with explosive asides and raucous insight.Pub Date: July 11, 2023
ISBN: 9781324093626
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Liveright/Norton
Review Posted Online: May 2, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2023
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
An engrossing and ominous chronicle, told by a master of the form.
Documenting perilous times.
In his most recent behind-the-scenes account of political power and how it is wielded, Woodward synthesizes several narrative strands, from the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel to the 2024 presidential campaign. Woodward’s clear, gripping storytelling benefits from his legendary access to prominent figures and a structure of propulsive chapters. The run-up to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is tense (if occasionally repetitive), as a cast of geopolitical insiders try to divine Vladimir Putin’s intent: “Doubt among allies, the public and among Ukrainians meant valuable time and space for Putin to maneuver.” Against this backdrop, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham implores Donald Trump to run again, notwithstanding the former president’s denial of his 2020 defeat. This provides unwelcome distraction for President Biden, portrayed as a thoughtful, compassionate lifetime politico who could not outrace time, as demonstrated in the June 2024 debate. Throughout, Trump’s prevarications and his supporters’ cynicism provide an unsettling counterpoint to warnings provided by everyone from former Joint Chief of Staff Mark Milley to Vice President Kamala Harris, who calls a second Trump term a likely “death knell for American democracy.” The author’s ambitious scope shows him at the top of his capabilities. He concludes with these unsettling words: “Based on my reporting, Trump’s language and conduct has at times presented risks to national security—both during his presidency and afterward.”
An engrossing and ominous chronicle, told by a master of the form.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2024
ISBN: 9781668052273
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2024
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