Remarkably lacking in both sensationalism and vengeance, this sad story will be familiar to anyone who has loved an addict.
Hunter Biden's ex-wife takes her turn at the mic.
When events in your private life are nonstop, salacious tabloid fodder, there are two equally natural reactions. One is to hide under the biggest rock you can find. The other is to reclaim the narrative by telling it yourself. Buhle's memoir follows Hunter Biden’s Beautiful Things, published last year. Tellingly, she plays a relatively small role in his book, while hers focuses solely on their relationship, beginning in 1992 when they met in the Jesuit Volunteer Corps and fell madly in love, ending in 2019 on the September day she visited a D.C. courthouse to renounce the famous surname that had defined her for decades. Publishing under her maiden name is an apt metaphor for the reclamation project this book represents. Refreshingly, Buhle relates only what she knows firsthand and avoids exploiting her proximity to fame by leaking insider details that may be irrelevant to her personal story. For example, she calls Michelle Obama, also a Chicago South Sider from a working-class family, an "invaluable friend and inspiration, helping me to own my past and my choices with honesty," but leaves it at that. She even avoids saying much about her sister-in-law, Hallie Biden, who became Hunter's lover after Beau Biden's death. One of the most touching scenes in the book is when Buhle's daughters, who broke into their father's phone, become the ones who bring her the truth of the situation. Quoting David Sheff's insight from Beautiful Boy—“Caring about an addict is as complex and fraught and debilitating as addiction itself”—the author is fairly hard on herself in describing the years of paranoia and lurching attempts to regain control that resulted from her husband's addiction.
Remarkably lacking in both sensationalism and vengeance, this sad story will be familiar to anyone who has loved an addict.Pub Date: June 14, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-24105-9
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 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
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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