A harrowing and soulful memoir to be read, savored, and reread.
A potent reflection on emerging from a nomadic youth marked by trauma into an adulthood containing stability and tenderness.
Means’ childhood was punctuated by drives with her mother, journeys between places that were not quite homes and that took them out of and into abusive situations. The author’s devotion to her mother is the centrifugal force of this exceptionally crafted memoir. The author chronicles her mother’s favorite songs, quirks, chain-smoking, and days full of sleep, and she investigates the deleterious effects of her family’s Pentecostal traditions. “The only thing I dreaded more than being alive was going to hell,” writes Means, who writes vividly about “the barn,” which her grandparents built to accommodate their hoarding, and her half brother’s movement in and out of their lives. The author’s recollections of her youth tumble out in a series of artful vignettes, some almost hypnotic, revealing tumultuous relationships, addictions, and abuse just as a child might come to understand them, gradually and in retrospect, rather than immediately or chronologically. The countless blows—physical, psychological, and spiritual—that Means endured at the hands of people (including her mother) who were supposed to care for her are not easy to read about, but her reckoning with both the events and what they mean for her own, emerging identity is honest, graceful, and disarming. “When you can’t tell your own account, can’t exorcize it, it can get stuck inside you,” she writes. As Means brings hazy memories into focus for herself and readers, she constructs a method of thinking about, owning, and releasing her past as well as a fresh way of writing about personal trauma that both acknowledges victimhood and resists the simplicity of sensationalism and pity. This book is an outstanding debut that finds resolution while also leaving plenty of intriguing themes to explore in her future work.
A harrowing and soulful memoir to be read, savored, and reread.Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2023
ISBN: 9798985282894
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Zibby Books
Review Posted Online: July 6, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2023
Spears’ vulnerability shines through as she describes her painful journey from vulnerable girl to empowered woman.
A heartfelt memoir from the pop superstar.
Spears grew up with an alcoholic father, an exacting mother, and a fear of disappointing them both. She also displayed a natural talent for singing and dancing and a strong work ethic. Spears is grateful for the adult professionals who helped her get her start, but the same can’t be said of her peers. When she met Justin Timberlake, also a Mouseketeer on the Disney Channel’s updated Mickey Mouse Club, the two formed an instant bond. Spears describes her teenage feelings for Timberlake as “so in love with him it was pathetic,” and she’s clearly angry about the rumors and breakup that followed. This tumultuous period haunted her for years. Out of many candidates for villains of the book, Timberlake included, perhaps the worst are the careless journalists of the late 1990s and early 2000s, who indulged Timberlake while vilifying Spears. The cycle repeated for years, taking its toll on her mental health. Spears gave birth to sons Sean Preston and Jayden James within two years, and she describes the difficulties they all faced living in the spotlight. The author writes passionately about how custody of her boys and visits with them were held over her head, and she recounts how they were used to coerce her to make decisions that weren’t always in her best interest. As many readers know, conservancy followed, and for 13 years, she toured, held a residency in Las Vegas, and performed—all while supposedly unable to take care of herself, an irony not lost on her. Overall, the book is cathartic, though readers who followed her 2021 trial won’t find many revelations, and many of the other newsworthy items have been widely covered in the run-up to the book’s release.
Spears’ vulnerability shines through as she describes her painful journey from vulnerable girl to empowered woman.Pub Date: Oct. 24, 2023
ISBN: 9781668009048
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: tomorrow
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
What a talent, what a career, what a life, and what a treat to relive it all with this most down-to-earth of demigods.
A gloriously massive memoir from a sui generis star.
When Keith Richards and Bruce Springsteen published 500-page memoirs, that seemed long—but as we learned, they really did have that much to say. Streisand doubles the ante with 1,000 pages. In addition to chronicling her own life, the author offers fascinating lessons on acting, directing, film editing, sound mixing, lighting, and more, as revealed in detailed accounts of the making of each of her projects. As Stephen Sondheim commented about her, “It’s not just the gift, it’s the willingness to take infinite pains.” The pains really pay off. With every phase of her life, from childhood in Brooklyn to her 27-year-romance with current husband, James Brolin, Streisand throws everything she has—including her mother’s scrapbook and her own considerable talent as a writer—into developing the characters, settings, conversations, meals, clothes, and favorite colors and numbers of a passionately lived existence. In the process, she puts her unique stamp on coffee ice cream, egg rolls, dusty rose, pewter gray, the number 24, Donna Karan, Modigliani, and much more. Among the heroes are her father, who died when she was very young but nevertheless became an ongoing inspiration. The villains include her mother, whose coldness and jealousy were just as consistent. An armada of ex-boyfriends, colleagues, and collaborators come to life in a tone that captures the feel of Streisand’s spoken voice by way of Yiddishisms, parenthetical asides, and snappy second thoughts. The end is a little heavy on tributes, but you wouldn’t want to miss the dog cloning, the generous photo section, or this line, delivered in all seriousness: “Looking back, I feel as if I didn't fulfill my potential.”
What a talent, what a career, what a life, and what a treat to relive it all with this most down-to-earth of demigods.Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2023
ISBN: 9780525429524
Page Count: 992
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Nov. 6, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2023
SEEN & HEARD
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