A true story that may be useful to anyone seeking emotional healing.
A debut memoir of a traumatic childhood and a spiritual adulthood.
Nerestant’s story begins in her native Philippines in 1987,when she was a young child. She writes that her alcoholic father frequently meted out “punishments” to any member of the family who set off his anger, often for reasons known only to himself. Most often the victim was her mother, the author says, but no one was exempt. She notes that she felt powerless and fell into deep despair that she couldn’t save her mother, siblings, or herself from her father’s frequent cruelty, which included an incident in which he placed a chunk of burning coal in her palm. Eventually, Nerestant writes, her mother left her five children and fled to the United States to join her sister but didn’t forewarn the kids of her departure; the author recalls that she “woke up one day, and she wasn’t there. Poof. Gone. Vanished.” Many years later, however, the mother and children were reunited in New York. After Nerestant grew up, she sought therapy and forgave her father. She also came out of the “spiritual closet,” as she puts it, revealing herself as a spiritual medium and starting a practice called Self-ish Lifestyle. The title of this book is appropriate, and a fitting subtitle would be the oft-quoted saying attributed to Friedrich Nietzsche: “That which doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” Nerestant’s remembrance recounts a violent upbringing and how she not only survived it, but also made a career of helping other trauma sufferers. Many readers are likely to find it an excruciating read, though, as the depictions of abuse are disturbingly vivid. She tells of how she learned to embrace her past instead of seeing it as a curse. Few readers, if any, would consider such an upbringing a gift, but over the course of the book, the author effectively relates how she sees gifts everywhere, even in the most painful experiences. Indeed, this is her gift to readers: effective guidance to creating a healthier, more fulfilling life.
A true story that may be useful to anyone seeking emotional healing.Pub Date: Sept. 8, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-63152-799-9
Page Count: 192
Publisher: She Writes Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 14, 2020
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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