A poignant testament to the endurance and character of the Jewish community during one of history’s darkest times.
A first-person account of life inside the Warsaw Ghetto during the Holocaust, combined with later reflections on the period.
As explained in the introduction of Auerbach’s unforgettable memoir, translated by Kassow, the author kept a secret diary during the war, recalling her life in the Warsaw Ghetto. While she describes historical events, like Germany’s invasion of Poland, in harrowing detail—“The corpses buried underneath collapsed houses filled the air with the stench of death that, combined with the smell of smoke, hung over Warsaw during all the years of the occupation”—Auerbach primarily focuses on day-to-day life in the ghetto and tributes to fellow writers, artists, workers, and librarians. She begins her diary recounting the last prewar generation of Jewish writers in Poland, where she was a young journalist in the summer of 1939. When Germany invaded, she took up work in a public kitchen. Avoiding what she calls the Great Deportation, Auerbach attributes her survival to luck. Within the regular waves of horror of 1942 and 1943, there were brief moments of hope, such as the excitement when Mussolini fell in the summer of 1943. Auerbach recalls the collective anticipation at the time: “Like most people in Warsaw I was full of excitement....I fantasized and spoke nonstop about what would come next.” She also details the valiant struggle and tragic death of Emanuel Ringelblum, the organizer of the secret ghetto archive, without whose help this book most likely wouldn’t exist. Despite the dire conditions, an artistic movement flourished between November 1940 and July 1942, which, thanks to the Yiddish Culture Organization and local librarians, was documented. In the final section, Auerbach describes leaving the Warsaw Ghetto in March 1943 and reflects on life on the Aryan side. This poignant account isn’t meant to be read in one sitting but revisited over time. Alongside Auerbach’s direct writing and reflections are quotes and testaments from others, providing a comprehensive view of Jewish life in the ghetto during the Holocaust. Includes extensive endnotes, biographical notes, and a chronology.
A poignant testament to the endurance and character of the Jewish community during one of history’s darkest times.Pub Date: July 2, 2024
ISBN: 9798988677390
Page Count: 423
Publisher: White Goat Press
Review Posted Online: June 18, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2024
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
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