An intriguing but uneven ranch account that demonstrates some descriptive flair.
A debut memoir recounts how a woman and her husband relocated to her family’s ranch in hopes of turning their lives around.
When Morrison’s father casually suggested that she and her husband, Brent, should move to Flagstaff, Arizona, to work on the family’s horse and cattle ranch, the couple jumped at the opportunity. In her mid-30s, the author held a job at a transportation consulting firm yet, despite her achievements, “woke up each day feeling more like a fool with errands.” She also found that the romance had drained from her marriage. Uprooting their lives, Morrison and Brent discovered that life on the ranch, which was in financial difficulty, was far from idyllic. Brent struggled to be accepted by the cowboys, and the couple felt that their “togetherness had grayed” further. Meanwhile, Morrison became wracked with self-doubt, sobbing to her mother: “I’m doing everything wrong. I am a disaster.” Yet as the author’s understanding of horses and ranch life developed, she was able to envisage a brighter future. The memoir ends with the emergence of Covid-19, resulting in the ranchers facing new challenges. Morrison’s love of horses is palpable throughout, and her writing captures the deep sense of satisfaction that comes from being in the saddle: “I forgot the healing sway of her gait—she ripples. I can’t help grinning as I feel the miraculous sensation of power and grace in the fluid motion beneath me.” The book also contains some keenly observant prose, capable of transporting readers directly to the trail: “We spiral our way up the hill through scrub oak, juniper, and ponderosa with the occasional prickly pear sticking out from behind a boulder or clump of cliffrose.” Disappointingly, such passages are all too scarce. When describing her life and relationships, Morrison often adopts a sterile, quasi-academic tone: “None of the structural components of a life or relationship can operate without affecting the whole; pain in one place will eventually spread.” Although the author shares her emotions, this stiff formality will make readers feel as though they are being kept at arm’s length. Morrison also repeats certain anecdotes, including how cowboys tie themselves to trees during a storm. Horse lovers will relate to the author’s writing immediately, but the prose is a bit flawed.
An intriguing but uneven ranch account that demonstrates some descriptive flair.Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-73498-990-8
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Soulstice Publishing
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2021
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
SEEN & HEARD
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