The author charts a navigable course for embracing one of the most painful and universal human emotions.
An attempt to understand isolation through a blend of memoir, biography, and a history of the emotion itself.
“I believe we must reinvent loneliness in order to survive it. I have been trying to do this my whole life,” writes Deming, director of creative writing at Yale and author of Art of the Ordinary. In 2021, a Harvard study found that 36% of adults “described themselves as experiencing ‘serious loneliness’ ” In young adults 18-25, the percentage was even higher: a “staggering” 63%. Despite its purported ability to provide human connection, the internet has been increasingly shown to exacerbate feelings of loneliness. Meanwhile, the emotion remains heavily stigmatized and difficult to discuss. The feeling, however, is nothing new, and Deming traces the lives of six figures whose lives were shaped largely by their feelings of seclusion. They include psychoanalyst Melanie Klein, writer Zora Neale Hurston, photojournalist Walker Evans, philosopher and cultural critic Walter Benjamin, expressionist painter Egon Schiele, and Twilight Zone creator Rod Serling. Throughout his study of these artists, Deming interweaves descriptions of his own struggles with loneliness, as well as its previous manifestation as addiction. The question, in all cases, is what can be done with isolation: Is it useful, or even necessary, to experience loneliness in order to create memorable art? The author ably navigates the timely and poignant concern of how to manage “the dailiness of contemporary isolation,” though the mini-biographies are too brief to create a lasting momentum. Still, the examples combine to create a fuller picture of how the emotion can be used creatively. This is an uplifting book that provides a blueprint on how to manage such a common yet challenging emotion, and Deming’s personal experiences add necessary heft to the text.
The author charts a navigable course for embracing one of the most painful and universal human emotions.Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2023
ISBN: 9780593492512
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2023
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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