A rich memoir about cross-cultural connection that sometimes lacks self-awareness.
Folbre recounts a whirlwind overseas trip in the early 1980s that opened her eyes to unique places, diverse cultures, and economic inequities in this travelogue.
The story, told through old journal entries, opens in Texas in 1983. Though the author was married to an attorney, Banks, and working as a teacher in a suburban Alamo Heights, she felt something was missing. So, she and Banks quit their jobs, converted their savings into traveler’s checks, and embarked on an 18-month adventure. Starting in Nepal, the couple hiked through the arduous Annapurnas. After Folbre fell ill, a Tibetan grandmother diagnosed her with a “one-night curse” and “cure[d]” her with hot coals, prayer, tea, and a stomach massage. They visited Buddhist places of worship and witnessed a woman’s body being cremated. On Trick Street in Kathmandu, the couple was offered cocaine. In India, they braved a long camel trek. During a stop in Bikaner, an English-speaking local invited them to stay in his home, where his wife and children transformed the author into a “Brahman goddess” for a portrait. Folbre and Banks visited the holy city of Pushkar, where the author suffered a dog bite that required medical treatment. The couple traveled through China by boat, bus, train, bike, and donkey, and met an international cast of fellow travelers. For the final leg of their trip, they traversed Mongolia, Moscow, and Berlin. Upon their return to Texas in 1984, Folbre studied English literature and had two children with Banks. At the book’s end, the author observes that this type of impromptu travel would be less feasible today—now, she says, “I’m afraid to travel carefree in the time of Trump.”
Folbre immerses readers in her travels through rich sensory details, like how “Camels sifted through flat sands in a bedroom slipper shuffle.” She effectively relays how traveling changed her, writing, “I was in a desert yet lacked nothing. I felt at home with a people I had never seen before and a language I had never heard.” The unromanticized account includes physical and psychological discomfort, from frozen feet in the mountains to the ways in which children heckled the foreign couple. (The author does not spare the reader heartbreaking details; she notes how children were coerced to cut their limbs off to increase their earnings as beggars.) Folbre’s photographs, paintings, and sketches enhance the narrative’s intimacy and ambiance. However, the book includes some problematic scenes in which privilege and ignorance are on display: After a soldier vulnerably described his traumatic war experience, Folbre asked if his knife was for sale, then haggled over the price. Some cultural observations seem judgmental and dismissive, such as, “Although Hans had an enriched, ancient cultural history, they seemed to live a nonchallenging, drab existence.” The book’s tone is occasionally woo-woo in lines like, “Over time I’ve gained the capacity for thinking beyond polarities and tapping into full, embodied knowing.” The journal format sometimes results in dull itinerary descriptions like, “We were pleased by a crystal-clear view of Annapurna II and Annapurna III as we followed the Sagarmatha (Everest) National Park map.” Substantial space is dedicated to meals the couple consumed, while the author’s divorce from Banks barely merits a mention.
A rich memoir about cross-cultural connection that sometimes lacks self-awareness.Pub Date: Jan. 21, 2025
ISBN: 9781595342812
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Trinity Univ. Press
Review Posted Online: June 2, 2025
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 2025 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.
