A well-composed, poignant reflection on an international childhood.
The daughter of an American mother and an Arab father recalls her years growing up in the Middle East.
In 1951, Abdul-Baki’s parents met in a grocery store in Washington, D.C., where East Jerusalem–born Khalil Mohammad Karjawally was working one of two jobs to supplement his income while he completed his master’s degree in economics from George Washington University. At the time, Jean Ashburn Pedigo, the lively, red-haired daughter of a prominent Southern family, was in the city as an adventure. They were married in 1951 when Jean was 19 and Khalil was 22, and one year later, the author was born. Khalil, who Americanized his name to Kal, went on to work for the U.S. government, and in 1956, the family moved to Tehran, where Kal was sent to establish an English language program for Iranian military officers. For two years, they lived in luxurious accommodations, enjoying the perks of the foreign elite. When Kal’s contract ended two years later, he secured a job with the American Independent Oil Company, and the family moved to an expatriate desert compound in Kuwait on the Persian Gulf. The author’s mother was committed to her daughter learning to speak Arabic, so the girl was enrolled in a Kuwaiti girls’ school outside the compound in the village of Shuaiba. Abdul-Baki vividly recollects her early feelings of loneliness and the struggle to find her place as a 6-year-old outsider: “I was the only red-haired and half-American girl in the school, and I was not a part of the village life of my friends.” This eloquently composed remembrance has a musical lilt and emotionality, and it effectively relates the joys, fears, and tragedies the author experienced during a youth spent learning to navigate two cultures. In abundant personal vignettes, the memoir also lovingly portrays Kal’s family in Jerusalem and their welcoming embrace of the author and her mother. The narrative is filled with detailed descriptions of Arab food and dress, and of the warmth and closeness of family connections, while offering an intriguing view of expatriate life.
A well-composed, poignant reflection on an international childhood.Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2023
ISBN: 978-1647425371
Page Count: 336
Publisher: She Writes Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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 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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