A mostly hilarious book about embracing life's least flattering situations.
Irby returns with another collection of wide-ranging personal essays.
The author, a self-declared fat, sick, and queer comic, comments on everything from her mother’s last words to her favorite Dave Matthews Band songs (“People always pretend to be shocked when I say I unabashedly love Dave Matthews, but…why?”). Irby begins her latest book by telling readers to respond to cultural snobs with the simple declaration, “I like it!” And yes, “the exclamation point is necessary.” So begins a sprawling essay collection that humorously celebrates all manner of quirky, even socially unacceptable, behavior, from unapologetically loving the seriously uncool items in the first essay—e.g., Justin Bieber, milk, Trader Joe’s, and Instagram—to bickering with her sisters over her mother’s deathbed. As in her previous books, Irby delivers a few formally inventive pieces. One chapter, for example, consists mostly of an explanation of the tags on modern porn videos. Another is a list of answers to questions about toilets and bowel movements, while yet another is a “list of the greatest Dave Matthews songs to swoon over.” Scatological humor aside, Irby’s most successful essays are her most vulnerable, especially the one about losing her mother. At the line level, the author’s humor and wordplay positively sizzle, and her chapter titles are characteristically amusing: “I Like To Get High at Night and Think About Whales,” “Oh, So You Actually Don’t Wanna Make a Show About a Horny Fat Bitch With Diarrhea? Okay!” However, some of the essays carry on too long, bogging readers down in repetitious detail—e.g., an exhaustive list of ways in which Irby would ruin old Sex and the City episodes if she could time travel back to the original writers room. Overall, though, the narrative bursts with the compassion, insight, honesty, and wit that have made Irby a household name.
A mostly hilarious book about embracing life's least flattering situations.Pub Date: May 16, 2023
ISBN: 9780593315699
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Vintage
Review Posted Online: Jan. 24, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2023
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
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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