A frank, sharply written account of hope and survival.
A victim of childhood abuse recounts tracing the roots of her father’s violence in this debut memoir.
This candid book’s fraught opening describes Breaux at 15 years old being chased through a forest by two men with a rope. She had recently fled her home, a decision made following years of abuse at the hands of her father. Born in Louisiana in 1971, the author describes how, as a young child, she witnessed him break her mother’s arm with a crack that “echoed across the room.” The violence was also directed at her siblings, with her brother, Bubba, being “smashed” into drywall at 10. Starting at 7, Breaux recalls, she was sexually abused, and her father would threaten her with a gun. The author explains the abandonment she felt when her mother failed to stand up for her. The volume tells of Breaux’s being placed in foster care and, in adulthood, deciding to take a DNA test, which led her to research her newly discovered relatives. The author unearthed a pattern of violence that ran through her family. This is a memoir about understanding how people are shaped by their predecessors and about finding liberation from the past. Breaux’s book opens with an acute sense of urgency, showcasing the author’s viscerally descriptive use of prose: “Behind me, the footpath was intense, and thundering, as two men pursued me. Blood pulsed through my head so fast it was like a wrecking ball banging around in my skull.” Thoughtfully structured, the opening describes a girl desperate to outrun both her pursuers and her past. The account’s arc leads to a contrasting moment of closure and catharsis, with the author levelheadedly reflecting on her past from the perspective of “a strong woman who wants to spotlight and lay bare the evils of the world.” Some readers will recoil at Breaux’s detailed recollections of domestic violence directed at her mother: “Her face was distorted and bent in an odd way, and blood streamed from her nose and mouth.” But such descriptions serve to accurately communicate the unbearable horror of the author’s home life. This is a courageous, affecting, and cleverly conceived memoir that will have specific resonance with those who have suffered similar abuse.
A frank, sharply written account of hope and survival.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-1-73771-370-8
Page Count: 204
Publisher: Deacon & Roth
Review Posted Online: May 5, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2022
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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