A passionately unconventional, revealing yet fragmented account of an artist’s journey.
A Cuban artist, filmmaker, and actor recalls his life and travels in this memoir.
Blazquez was born in Cardenas, Cuba, in 1944. He began painting at an early age, using any materials he could lay his hands on—from house paint to bubblegum. When his mother decided to mail his abstract works to a Cuban celebrity painter, the reply came that the author was born with a gift and should be given “total freedom of creation.” As a child, Blazquez experienced recurring dreams of ancient Egypt, despite never having encountered imagery associated with the civilization. These dreams remained with him throughout his life and later influenced his art. Feeling as though he were at the mercy of a Communist state, the author sought freedom by leaving Cuba in 1965 to live in Montreal, Paris, Madrid, and then America. In 1974, the artist began producing “Egyptian sculptured paintings,” which later became known as “mummies.” Blazquez recalls feuds with difficult and exploitative gallery owners as he struggled to get his art exhibited. Four years later, in recognition of his work, he was invited to take a three-week tour of Egypt as an official guest of that nation’s government. Arranged in nonchronological order, the memoir frequently returns to this trip, providing commentary on everything from pyramid visits to the cleanliness of the hotels. The author also inserts dream sequences into the account that further inform how they influenced his art. Published posthumously, the book notes that Blazquez’s intention is to offer readers “a clear picture of why I am the way I am.”
Blazquez is a forthright author who is unafraid to deliver an intriguing perspective on issues that affected him personally, such as Communism: “The best defense the people of the world have against cancerous communism is to be well informed.” His dream sequences provide an eerily surreal window into his artistic invention: “The sarcophagus and its constraints are non-existing now. I am floating in space like in a mummy position with my arms crossed over my chest.” But the author’s use of language is wordy to the extent that meaning can become obscured: “He was kind of apprehensive and his only concern was if I mentioned the name of the gallery which I didn’t to two of them but the person who referred me in the first place knew, but it was between us only.” The memoir’s nonchronological form is intended to impart a sense of freedom, but the manner in which Blazquez meanders back and forth between subjects soon becomes repetitive and disorienting. Disputes with a gallery owner are drawn out unnecessarily and mundanely described: “He began calling me ‘Joselito’ and ‘Antonio.’ After a while he became nasty and he was shouting at me”; “While I was painting, the phone rang. It was the owner of the gallery calling me ‘Joselito’ and ‘Antonio’ so I knew he was already drunk, interrupting my work with more drunken nonsense.” Still, admirers of Blazquez’s work will find insights into how the artist’s life shaped his creative process and may well forgive the memoir’s chaotic nature.
A passionately unconventional, revealing yet fragmented account of an artist’s journey.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2023
ISBN: 9781733117852
Page Count: 466
Publisher: Penny-a-Page Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 28, 2023
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
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
