A poignant, unsparing, often poetic memoir.
A Canadian-born educator’s account of an unexpected homecoming that forced her to come to terms with a dysfunctional family past.
Laveau-Harvie returned to Alberta from Australia after learning that a fall had landed her elderly, "mad as a meat-ax" mother in the hospital. The author’s concern was not so much for her mother, but more for her foggy-brained father, whom her mother had starved and turned against his daughters. Long disinherited by her parents, Laveau-Harvie knew that keeping her mother confined was the only way to save her father. As she began to assess the world her estranged parents inhabited in their filthy, isolated house on 20 acres, memories of her past life with them resurfaced. Most of the memories involved her mother. Though given to sometimes-outrageous exaggeration, she could make "anything sound reasonable. On her urging, Mormons have been known to consume alcohol.” She also seemed to take pleasure in making both her daughters feel like "prey,” often repeating the refrain, "I'll get you and you won't even know I'm doing it.” The author and her sister both fled and made lives far away from home, but when her more conciliatory sister offered to move from her home in Vancouver, her mother suggested that "trespassing anywhere near them would be answered with a Kalashnikov.” For 18 months, the sisters traveled back and forth to ensure that their mother would be ruled incompetent and to see that their father received proper care. The home care specialists they hired—such as the "housekeeping slut,” the “gold digger,” and the “serial killer"—eventually made them realize that they would need to reforge broken ties and bring their father back into their lives. This riveting book explores family relationships—and the sometimes-devastating pain they cause—with a darkly humorous ferocity that is both remarkable and eloquent.
A poignant, unsparing, often poetic memoir.Pub Date: Aug. 27, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-525-65861-0
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 16, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2020
A slick, vacuous glimpse into the former first lady’s White House years.
A carefully curated personal portrait.
First ladies’ roles have evolved significantly in recent decades. Their memoirs typically reflect a spectrum of ambition and interests, offering insights into their values and personal lives. Melania Trump, however, stands out as exceptionally private and elusive. Her ultra-lean account attempts to shed light on her public duties, initiatives, and causes as first lady, and it defends certain actions like her controversial “I REALLY DON’T CARE, DO U?” jacket. The statement was directed at the media, not the border situation, she claims. Yet the book provides scant detail about her personal orbit or day-to-day interactions. The memoir opens with her well-known Slovenian origin story, successful modeling career, and whirlwind romance with Donald Trump, culminating in their 2005 marriage, followed by a snapshot of Election Day 2016: “Each time we were together that day, I was impressed by his calm.…This man is remarkably confident under pressure.” Once in the White House, Melania Trump describes her functions and numerous public events at home and abroad, which she asserts were more accomplished than media representations suggested. However, she rarely shares any personal interactions beyond close family ties, notably her affection for her son, Barron, and her sister, Ines. And of course she lavishes praise on her husband. Minimal anecdotes about White House or cabinet staff are included, and she carefully defuses her rumored tensions with Trump’s adult children, blandly stating, “While we may share the same last name, each of us is distinct with our own aspirations and paths to follow.” Although Melania’s desire to support causes related to children’s and women’s welfare feels authentic, the overall tenor of her memoir seems aimed at painting a glimmering portrait of her husband and her role, likely with an eye toward the forthcoming election.
A slick, vacuous glimpse into the former first lady’s White House years.Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2024
ISBN: 9781510782693
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
Review Posted Online: Oct. 14, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2024
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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