There’s plenty of pain and pleasure tucked within the details of this transcendent jailhouse memoir.
A writer’s agonizing journey through “four different New York State prisons over the span of nearly two years.”
During a particularly bleak decade in his life—during which three chapters of his biography of Timothy McVeigh were plagiarized and published in a book by a different author and publisher, without consequence, and he fell into the grip of substance abuse—journalist Stickney lost everything, including his marriage. A string of arrests and a 2014 conviction for selling drugs to an undercover police officer sent him to prison. A raw and engaging narrative that lays bare the unvarnished truths behind both addiction and incarceration, the book retraces the episodes and experiences he endured while serving his sentence. The thrust of the memoir, however, involves Stickney’s belief that he would not have survived without the intervention, assistance, and street-smart counsel of four inmates and a corrections officer, all of whom “kept [him] from going crazy.” Stickney was immediately befriended by a part Native, part Italian inmate named Bear while “Pastor Mark,” who was serving time for having a sex-charged online conversation with a 14-year-old girl who turned out to be an undercover cop, encouraged and stoked the author’s faith with a stack of Bibles and some stern words of wisdom. Gummy, one of his bunkmates, dispensed the kind of homespun wisdom that grounded Stickney when his behavior and his patience needed reining in. A convivial highway drifter named Gandhi delivered mystical guidance while Valefor, an uncommonly fair-minded, approachable corrections officer, offered protection and friendly control. Stickney refreshingly avoids sermonizing, accepting full responsibility for his wrongdoings, and his memoir rests on the gratitude he expresses for the five men who served as guideposts of hope and direction. Amid the prison theatrics, the author also delivers eye-opening facts (“many inmates are homeless upon release”), well-considered personal reflection, and the kind of intensive growth that he acknowledges was sorely needed in his life.
There’s plenty of pain and pleasure tucked within the details of this transcendent jailhouse memoir.Pub Date: Sept. 22, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-61088-196-8
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Bancroft Press
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2020
A fierce, penetrating, and empowering call for change.
Artist and activist Vaid-Menon demonstrates how the normativity of the gender binary represses creativity and inflicts physical and emotional violence.
The author, whose parents emigrated from India, writes about how enforcement of the gender binary begins before birth and affects people in all stages of life, with people of color being especially vulnerable due to Western conceptions of gender as binary. Gender assignments create a narrative for how a person should behave, what they are allowed to like or wear, and how they express themself. Punishment of nonconformity leads to an inseparable link between gender and shame. Vaid-Menon challenges familiar arguments against gender nonconformity, breaking them down into four categories—dismissal, inconvenience, biology, and the slippery slope (fear of the consequences of acceptance). Headers in bold font create an accessible navigation experience from one analysis to the next. The prose maintains a conversational tone that feels as intimate and vulnerable as talking with a best friend. At the same time, the author's turns of phrase in moments of deep insight ring with precision and poetry. In one reflection, they write, “the most lethal part of the human body is not the fist; it is the eye. What people see and how people see it has everything to do with power.” While this short essay speaks honestly of pain and injustice, it concludes with encouragement and an invitation into a future that celebrates transformation.
A fierce, penetrating, and empowering call for change. (writing prompt) (Nonfiction. 14-adult)Pub Date: June 2, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-09465-5
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: March 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2020
The lessons to draw are obvious: Smoke more dope, eat less meat. Like-minded readers will dig it.
The chef, rapper, and TV host serves up a blustery memoir with lashings of self-help.
“I’ve always had a sick confidence,” writes Bronson, ne Ariyan Arslani. The confidence, he adds, comes from numerous sources: being a New Yorker, and more specifically a New Yorker from Queens; being “short and fucking husky” and still game for a standoff on the basketball court; having strength, stamina, and seemingly no fear. All these things serve him well in the rough-and-tumble youth he describes, all stickball and steroids. Yet another confidence-builder: In the big city, you’ve got to sink or swim. “No one is just accepted—you have to fucking show that you’re able to roll,” he writes. In a narrative steeped in language that would make Lenny Bruce blush, Bronson recounts his sentimental education, schooled by immigrant Italian and Albanian family members and the mean streets, building habits good and bad. The virtue of those habits will depend on your take on modern mores. Bronson writes, for example, of “getting my dick pierced” down in the West Village, then grabbing a pizza and smoking weed. “I always smoke weed freely, always have and always will,” he writes. “I’ll just light a blunt anywhere.” Though he’s gone through the classic experiences of the latter-day stoner, flunking out and getting arrested numerous times, Bronson is a hard charger who’s not afraid to face nearly any challenge—especially, given his physique and genes, the necessity of losing weight: “If you’re husky, you’re always dieting in your mind,” he writes. Though vulgar and boastful, Bronson serves up a model that has plenty of good points, including his growing interest in nature, creativity, and the desire to “leave a legacy for everybody.”
The lessons to draw are obvious: Smoke more dope, eat less meat. Like-minded readers will dig it.Pub Date: April 20, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-4197-4478-5
Page Count: 184
Publisher: Abrams
Review Posted Online: May 5, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2021
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