An insightful and engrossing account of a German immigrant’s experiences as a police deputy in Arizona.
In this memoir, a German immigrant recounts how he became a police deputy along the U.S.–Mexico border.
This remembrance offers a unique perspective on modern policing and life as an immigrant in American society. Peine was born in the German town of Gütersloh, where his teenage desire to serve in the local police force was thwarted by a failed medical test. Gravitating to the computer industry instead, he became a successful software salesman and immigrated to the U.S. after meeting his future American wife, Annie, in the late 1990s. On 9/11, he was due to meet a banking client at the World Trade Center complex when his universe was changed forever as he escaped the carnage of that terrible day. Moved by the bravery of the first responders and increasingly disillusioned with his sales career, Peine followed his wife to Tucson, Arizona, where, at the age of 40, he enrolled for training as a deputy in the Pima County Sheriff’s Department. He writes frankly about the brutal training course, recalling a harsh drill sergeant known as “The Hat.” The formidable figure punished recruits who made errors by ordering them to perform their exercise drills in a sand pit. While the author was adept at learning police procedure and his subsequent career as a deputy was marked by dedication and courage, the value of his well-written story is in its distinctively European point of view. Coming from a German society where weapons were difficult to obtain, for example, he found the many gun-related suicides he investigated hard to accept: “Time and time again, I had to witness how the use of firearms had resulted in deformed, damaged and destroyed bodies and lives, often enough self-inflicted.” He also notes that because his own route to American citizenship was a relatively easy one, he cannot help but feel sympathetic toward the desperate plight of migrants crossing the border from Mexico due to violence and poverty in their home countries. Some readers may find Peine’s account overly detailed at times, but the author’s self-deprecating humor and his honest discussions of police work from an immigrant perspective make it enjoyable and worthwhile reading.
An insightful and engrossing account of a German immigrant’s experiences as a police deputy in Arizona.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2023
ISBN: 9798869009449
Page Count: 298
Publisher: Indie Owl Press
Review Posted Online: March 22, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 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
SEEN & HEARD
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