Life, education, and advocacy supersede placing blame in this cleareyed chronicle of HIV.
An HIV diagnosis expands a young mother’s community and purpose in Lewis’ memoir.
In 1990, doctors could not tell the author, a young mother, why she was growing increasingly exhausted. A comment from her mother about HIV seemed outlandish in light of the lack of credible information available about the new virus; “a white, heterosexual, young mom was not what they were looking for, even when her history and symptoms matched this infection,” she writes. Lewis observes that the stigmatization of HIV/AIDS as a “gay man’s disease” imposed an unfair hierarchal scale on who did or didn’t deserve empathy and marginalized the large population of people who contracted the disease through infected blood supplies, heterosexual relationships, and birth. Not until a phone call from her physician in 1990 did she find out that, by receiving a blood transfusion after the birth of her daughter in 1984, she had unknowingly joined that population. The author chronicles the effect of her diagnosis on her mental, physical, and spiritual well-being and its collateral impact on her family and immediate community. She also describes the community of care that would support the HIV/AIDS cause through education and advocacy. With Koenig’s assistance, Lewis recounts striking moments along the trajectory of her treatment, such as her nurse consulting her notes for giving HIV tests as she administers both her and Julie’s very first (“Opening it up she read the protocol, word for word. She appeared visibly nervous, continuing through the lengthy notebook in the most awkward way imaginable. Clearly, I was the first person she had ever tested”). While Christianity plays a big part in her life and is evident in her testimony, Lewis does not burden the narrative with religiosity. She recognizes the contradictions present in some Christian communities and does not hesitate to call them out. As a “high thinker, low feeler,” the author has crafted a narrative light on emotion; however, the outlook suggested by the double meaning of the title carries the reader through.
Life, education, and advocacy supersede placing blame in this cleareyed chronicle of HIV.Pub Date: May 23, 2023
ISBN: 9781611534924
Page Count: 350
Publisher: Torchflame Books
Review Posted Online: May 2, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
IN THE NEWS
PERSPECTIVES
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
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