A perceptive dual biography.
An unlikely friendship illuminates each poet's life.
In the spring of 1959, Sylvia Plath (1932-1963) and Anne Sexton (1928-1974) were both students in a Boston University poetry writing workshop led by Robert Lowell. After class, along with classmate George Starbuck—Sexton’s lover at the time—they would repair to the bar at the tony Ritz-Carlton, overlooking the Public Garden, to drink martinis and talk. “Family, poetry, husbands, sex, and Boston gossip in general were all fascinating topics,” as were therapy and the women’s attempts at suicide—“the center bolt of the relationship, the death connection.” After Plath returned to England in late 1959, their friendship played out in letters that reveal rivalry, respect, and growing admiration. Drawing on biographies, published letters and journals, and archival sources, Crowther, author or co-author of three previous books on Plath, uses their meetings at the Ritz as a springboard for a sympathetic recounting of the poets’ lives, underscoring their struggles against prevailing images of womanhood. Although in appearance and personality the two were quite different—Plath, “neat and self-contained,” Sexton, “wilder and more flamboyant”—Crowther sees commonalities in their efforts to escape “the cultural and historical messages they had absorbed” about women’s aspirations and behavior. Both, for example, tried to reconcile their creative drive and ambition with motherhood. Plath, a friend recalled, “desperately wanted to be a mother but was terrified it would get in the way of her poetry.” Sexton, who was bipolar, plummeted into recurring depressions after her daughters were born. Crowther laments that “Plath and Sexton are portrayed as crazy, suicidal women, an attitude that impressively manages to sweep up sexism and stigma toward mental illness and suicide in one powerful ball of dismissal.” As a corrective, she shows them as “so ahead of their time,” with their works and the examples of their lives contributing still to “the long slow struggle that is social change.”
A perceptive dual biography.Pub Date: April 20, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-982138-39-4
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 21, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
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 slick, vacuous glimpse into the former first lady’s White House years.
A carefully curated personal portrait.
First ladies’ roles have evolved significantly in recent decades. Their memoirs typically reflect a spectrum of ambition and interests, offering insights into their values and personal lives. Melania Trump, however, stands out as exceptionally private and elusive. Her ultra-lean account attempts to shed light on her public duties, initiatives, and causes as first lady, and it defends certain actions like her controversial “I REALLY DON’T CARE, DO U?” jacket. The statement was directed at the media, not the border situation, she claims. Yet the book provides scant detail about her personal orbit or day-to-day interactions. The memoir opens with her well-known Slovenian origin story, successful modeling career, and whirlwind romance with Donald Trump, culminating in their 2005 marriage, followed by a snapshot of Election Day 2016: “Each time we were together that day, I was impressed by his calm.…This man is remarkably confident under pressure.” Once in the White House, Melania Trump describes her functions and numerous public events at home and abroad, which she asserts were more accomplished than media representations suggested. However, she rarely shares any personal interactions beyond close family ties, notably her affection for her son, Barron, and her sister, Ines. And of course she lavishes praise on her husband. Minimal anecdotes about White House or cabinet staff are included, and she carefully defuses her rumored tensions with Trump’s adult children, blandly stating, “While we may share the same last name, each of us is distinct with our own aspirations and paths to follow.” Although Melania’s desire to support causes related to children’s and women’s welfare feels authentic, the overall tenor of her memoir seems aimed at painting a glimmering portrait of her husband and her role, likely with an eye toward the forthcoming election.
A slick, vacuous glimpse into the former first lady’s White House years.Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2024
ISBN: 9781510782693
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
Review Posted Online: Oct. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2024
PERSPECTIVES
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