An often transporting, if uneven, elegy for a man who eluded easy categorization.
A biography in verse of one of the 20th century’s most versatile artists.
Gordon Parks (1912-2006) and his decadeslong legacy in photography, film, and literature might seem too vast and sprawling a topic to convey within a traditional biography. So Parr, a nonfiction and children’s book author, instead threads hours of research and interviews with Parks and his family into poems that traverse all 94 years of his life, from his birth in Jim Crow Kansas to his success creating photo essays for Life magazine, directing films such as Shaft (1971), and developing his writing career. The poems cover such topics as Parks falling in love with his first and second wives; traveling to Brazil on assignment; meeting Malcolm X; and ultimately “blossoming from an old shadow / into the light of being a photographer.” Curiously, Parr makes Parks the speaker in these works, which gives them a sense of whimsy that undercuts the racism he faced as a Black man and the “deadly sadness” he experienced throughout his life. The author deftly conveys yearslong spans in relatively short poems and mindfully curbs abstraction to avoid opacity. Her sense of care in these 50-odd poems is palpable, as is the friendship she had with Parks. The strongest poems are those that lyrically interpret his experiences, such as “Yoo Hoo: Piano Concerto Calls Me”: “My lover—music—showed up for a long, overdue visit. / A musical line about flashing red capes and a gored matador / made its way into my restless fingers.” Others read more like biographical prose and thus have less emotional weight. The poems include slurs, such as the N-word, when chronicling moments in Parks’ segregated upbringing; some works make awkward references to Black skin: “If I hadn’t been Black, / he would have seen me turn red from embarrassment.”
An often transporting, if uneven, elegy for a man who eluded easy categorization.Pub Date: Feb. 12, 2022
ISBN: 979-8-9854440-0-1
Page Count: 302
Publisher: WriteOn Publications
Review Posted Online: April 20, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
The choir is sure to enjoy this impassioned preaching on familiar progressive themes.
Essays on current political topics by a high-profile actor and activist.
Milano explains in an introduction that she began writing this uneven collection while dealing with a severe case of Covid-19 and suffering from "persistent brain fog.” In the first essay, "On Being Unapologetically Fucked Up,” the author begins by fuming over a February 2019 incident in which she compared MAGA caps worn by high school kids to KKK hoods. She then runs through a grab bag of flash-point news items (police shootings, border crimes, sexual predators in government), deploying the F-bomb with abandon and concluding, "What I know is that fucked up is as fundamental a state of the world as night and day. But I know there is better. I know that ‘less fucked up’ is a state we can live in.” The second essay, "Believe Women," discusses Milano’s seminal role in the MeToo movement; unfortunately, it is similarly conversational in tone and predictable in content. One of the few truly personal essays, "David," about the author's marriage, refutes the old saw about love meaning never having to say you're sorry, replacing it with "Love means you can suggest a national sex strike and your husband doesn't run away screaming." Milano assumes, perhaps rightly, that her audience is composed of followers and fans; perhaps these readers will know what she is talking about in the seemingly allegorical "By Any Other Name," about her bad experience with a certain rosebush. "Holy shit, giving birth sucked," begins one essay. "Words are weird, right?" begins the next. "Welp, this is going to piss some of you off. Hang in there," opens a screed about cancel culture—though she’s entirely correct that “it’s childish, divisive, conceited, and Trumpian to its core.” By the end, however, Milano's intelligence, compassion, integrity, and endurance somewhat compensate for her lack of literary polish.
The choir is sure to enjoy this impassioned preaching on familiar progressive themes.Pub Date: Oct. 26, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-18329-8
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
A fascinating and funny look at the life of a famous actor who found further fulfillment through giving back.
The actor discusses his career on the stage and in film, and his life focusing on the value of art and public service.
Now 66, Stern, perhaps best known for his roles in Home Alone and City Slickers, is no longer "the precocious teenager who moved to New York as a seventeen-year-old, at least ten years younger than all of my friends, the youngest dad at all my kids’ school events.” As he discusses his childhood in Maryland, his introduction to the theater, and writing a musical version of Lord of the Flies, the author's love of the work shows through on every page—as does his family’s legacy of a strong work ethic (his mother told him, “I don’t care what you do but you are out of this house when you turn eighteen”). Realizing that “academics were not going to get me anywhere,” he committed to acting. After some early stage work, he began working in films, appearing in a number of critically successful projects in the late 1970s and early ’80s, including Breaking Away and Diner. Stern analyzes key moments in the development of his craft, as well as the twists and turns of a very public life, which included work with the USO and the experience of being sued for $25 million over a TV show. Although readers may pick up the book to learn more about Hollywood, his focus on his work-life balance brings some of the most memorable passages, from his narration and directing work in the TV series The Wonder Years (which included no on-screen billing), which helped him overcome his childhood dyslexia, to his experience working with the Boys & Girls Club and his lifelong focus on public service.
A fascinating and funny look at the life of a famous actor who found further fulfillment through giving back.Pub Date: May 21, 2024
ISBN: 9781632280930
Page Count: 300
Publisher: Viva Editions
Review Posted Online: Jan. 30, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2024
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