While this Hollywood account delivers plenty of raucous debauchery, the humor sometimes overwhelms the story.
A faux autobiography focuses on Hollywood’s queen of crass—Aida Libido, the salacious star of song, stage, and screen.
Aida was born with platinum blond hair; her first words were “Hello Sailor”; and puberty hit when she was only 4 years old. The “hyper-flexible, over-developed pre-adolescent with no gag reflex” became a dancer, contortionist, and prolific sword swallower who would quickly abandon the sideshow and board a Greyhound for Hollywood. The Tinseltown waiting for her was not quite the one that most readers know—sure, the money trench was just as shallow and casting couches abounded, but this Los Angeles was the once-thought-impossible love child of John Waters and Anna Nicole Smith, a place where Aida’s bountiful assets opened doors wide. After a short detour sharing an apartment with a lascivious, underwear-stealing hustler named Meryl Streep, Aida landed the lead in Steven Spielberg’s “tour de force” Beach Blanket Bimbo and won an Oscar. What followed was everything she could have ever wanted—two Grammys, a Tony, a relaxing stint in White slavery, and true love with her third husband, a dashing Latin count. But when he turned murderous—and worse, willing to ally himself with Streep to destroy her—Aida found herself at a fantastical rock bottom in LA’s secret, orgiastic, mildly Satanic celebrity theme park of perversion known as Jizzneyland. Easton, who performs the role of Aida on stage, brings the outrageous yet conversational conventions of drag onto the printed page, not just spilling the tea, but also its vodka chaser. Real-life torrid tales of the rich and famous blur together with Aida’s own experiences, with the garrulous narrator sometimes having to work quite hard to make sure the truth isn’t stranger than the fiction. But the book suffers from the law of diminishing returns—Aida’s charm is in the constantly shocking things she says, but these observations come so hard and fast that after constant zingers about racial stereotypes and Streep’s inhuman promiscuity and more blowjob jokes than most readers can stomach, the audience will find that it’s easy to become numb. As the biting wit and political incorrectness begin to lose their impact, the tale reveals itself as mostly a long setup for recurring punchlines.
While this Hollywood account delivers plenty of raucous debauchery, the humor sometimes overwhelms the story.Pub Date: April 29, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-73779-393-9
Page Count: 246
Publisher: Demimonde
Review Posted Online: May 12, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.
A lifetime’s worth of letters combine to portray a singular character.
Sybil Van Antwerp, a cantankerous but exceedingly well-mannered septuagenarian, is the titular correspondent in Evans’ debut novel. Sybil has retired from a beloved job as chief clerk to a judge with whom she had previously been in private legal practice. She is the divorced mother of two living adult children and one who died when he was 8. She is a reader of novels, a gardener, and a keen observer of human nature. But the most distinguishing thing about Sybil is her lifelong practice of letter writing. As advancing vision problems threaten Sybil’s carefully constructed way of life—in which letters take the place of personal contact and engagement—she must reckon with unaddressed issues from her past that threaten the house of cards (letters, really) she has built around herself. Sybil’s relationships are gradually revealed in the series of letters sent to and received from, among others, her brother, sister-in-law, children, former work associates, and, intriguingly, literary icons including Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry. Perhaps most affecting is the series of missives Sybil writes but never mails to a shadowy figure from her past. Thoughtful musings on the value and immortal quality of letters and the written word populate one of Sybil’s notes to a young correspondent while other messages are laugh-out-loud funny, tinged with her characteristic blunt tartness. Evans has created a brusque and quirky yet endearing main character with no shortage of opinions and advice for others but who fails to excavate the knotty difficulties of her own life. As Sybil grows into a delayed self-awareness, her letters serve as a chronicle of fitful growth.
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9780593798430
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
A pleasant if not entirely convincing tribute to the power of art.
A French art historian’s English-language fiction debut combines the story of a loving relationship between a grandfather and granddaughter with an enlightening discussion of art.
One day, when 10-year-old Mona removes the necklace given to her by her now-dead grandmother, she experiences a frightening, hour-long bout of blindness. Her parents take her to the doctor, who gives her a variety of tests and also advises that she see a psychiatrist. Her grandfather Henry tells her parents that he will take care of that assignment, but instead, he takes Mona on weekly visits to either the Louvre, the Musée d’Orsay, or the Centre Pompidou, where each week they study a single work of art, gazing at it deeply and then discussing its impact and history and the biography of its maker. For the reader’s benefit, Schlesser also describes each of the works in scrupulous detail. As the year goes on, Mona faces the usual challenges of elementary school life and the experiences of being an only child, and slowly begins to understand the causes of her temporary blindness. Primarily an amble through a few dozen of Schlesser’s favorite works of art—some well known and others less so, from Botticelli and da Vinci through Basquiat and Bourgeois—the novel would probably benefit from being read at a leisurely pace. While the dialogue between Henry and the preternaturally patient and precocious Mona sometimes strains credulity, readers who don’t have easy access to the museums of Paris may enjoy this vicarious trip in the company of a guide who focuses equally on that which can be seen and the context that can’t be. Come for the novel, stay for the introductory art history course.
A pleasant if not entirely convincing tribute to the power of art.Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2025
ISBN: 9798889661115
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Europa Editions
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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