A chilling yet compelling look at overcoming the desolation of addiction.
An unusual biography/memoir reveals the devastating consequences of one woman’s abusive family.
According to author and journalist Muller, the first things she learned about Mathews were that she was a restaurant server and on lifetime parole for murder. Using a series of interviews with Mathews and her friends, family, and former cellmates, blended with autobiographical essays the parolee wrote while incarcerated, Muller crafts a life story redolent with trauma, second chances, and the ability to endure. Mathews was born in California in 1960 to two abusive parents; her mother left the family when she was 3 years old. Drinking and drugs came into Mathews’ life before she was even in high school, but after a stint in the Army and an abusive marriage, she succumbed to multiple vices, including alcohol, cocaine, meth, and gambling. She could not keep a job, money, or custody of her kids as she oscillated among unstable housing, meth binges, and dangerous characters. Even murdering self-confessed killer Frank Belize in her own house (with her children upstairs) could not catalyze her healing. It wouldn’t even be for that homicide that she eventually served over 10 years in prison. She was convicted of the murder of her boyfriend David Hepburn. As Mathews continued to hit bottoms (she says her “bottoms have bottoms”), the stains of her abusive family, poverty, and institutional neglect eroded her ability to stay sober, employed, and present for her kids. Mathews’ life is nothing to envy, but her survival, vividly recounted in these pages, is mind-boggling. Muller meticulously constructs an engrossing account with both Mathews’ voice and her own, drawing readers in until the very end. The tragic heart of Mathews’ gripping story is not so much her crimes but her inability to get herself out of a mindset of deserving her suffering. Mathews’ redemption—which Muller does not oblige readers to accept—came with taking responsibility for her actions while recognizing that “this long history of criminal thinking and behavior, addiction, selfishness, impulsivity, irresponsibility and disregard for society and for human life, along with a lack of accountability,” led her to murder.
A chilling yet compelling look at overcoming the desolation of addiction.Pub Date: April 2, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-66782-658-5
Page Count: 264
Publisher: BookBaby
Review Posted Online: May 17, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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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