An endearing account that will appeal to the author’s circle of friends and family.
A woman recounts an adventurous childhood abroad with missionary parents and the problems that the unconventional lifestyle produced in this debut memoir.
Henderson-James was born in 1945 and lived a peripatetic life from the ages of 2 to 16. Her parents, Lawrence and Muriel, were Christian missionaries, spending years stationed in Angola. As a result, the author traveled back and forth between Angola and the United States as a youngster, an experience “rich beyond comprehension.” She learned Portuguese, French, and some Umbundu and was introduced to a world of remarkably extended horizons, one largely alien to her American peers, whom she generally found “pallid and provincial.” But Henderson-James’ exciting life was not without its dislocations and challenges. She was often sent away to school—she went to high school in Southern Rhodesia—and those protracted absences took their toll on the family, engendering a diminishment of intimacy. And her father—generally an “ethical, honest, and principled man”—was also a morally hypocritical one. While he took uncompromising stances against drinking and smoking and shunned the author’s sister for her divorce, he was guilty of an “extra-marital liaison.” Henderson-James, no longer in contact with a sister who turned her back on her as well, sees her “father’s moral dilemmas” at the core of these estrangements, a predicament candidly and skillfully discussed. The memoir is as thoughtful as it is lucidly composed, and the author’s life has been a fascinatingly memorable one. In addition, her recollection is a moving homage to her “allo-parents” and “missionary aunts,” all of the adults who took care of her during the prolonged absence of her own family. But her autobiography is unlikely to sustain the attention of those who don’t count themselves as family or friends. She furnishes an account so saturated with granular details, including the history of both sides of her clan and the family of her husband, Doug, that this is a work best appreciated by those who know the principal players of the story.
An endearing account that will appeal to the author’s circle of friends and family.Pub Date: July 30, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-63210-072-6
Page Count: 238
Publisher: Plain View Press, LLC
Review Posted Online: July 15, 2020
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
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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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