A bleak but often engrossing real-life story of an eventful and sometimes-dangerous life.
In this debut memoir, a young man explores his sexuality and spirals into illicit drug use.
Hubert was born in 1982, and his early life in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was a continuous struggle with poverty. Still, he was mostly happy, as he grew up with a loving mother and a doting grandmother. In 2000, when he was 17, he joined the U.S. Air Force and underwent basic training in San Antonio. Hubert, though sexually inexperienced, already knew he was gay, and so did a surprising number of his fellow recruits; the experience, he says, initially seemed like a "gay paradise." The internet afforded him the chance to have casual sex with other men, and he did so with reckless abandon. This led to his first experience with a sexually transmitted disease, which the author graphically describes in perhaps the book’s most difficult scene to read. After he left the military, Hubert later found solace in volunteer work for a Christian church. He also loved partying and wearing extravagant attire, and although he’d steered clear of drugs while in the Air Force, he soon dabbled in cocaine and methamphetamines and racked up dangerous debts. Bill collectors were trying to track him down, and a terrifying drug dealer threatened him with violence. Hubert eventually lost hope when he learned that he was HIV positive, as he considered the diagnosis a “death sentence.” He knew that he wanted to realize his dream of running his own business. But before that, he’d have to fight to stay alive, and that meant getting himself far away from drugs—both as an abuser and as a dealer.
Given the subject matter, readers will likely anticipate a somber autobiography in these pages, and indeed, it frequently is. However, the author’s consistent optimism helps to alleviate the moments of grimness. He recounts numerous explicit sexual encounters shared between willing participants who enjoyed one another. Hubert also tells of how his connection to spirituality—specifically, to God and Jesus—though often tested, served him well in his life. Over the course of this book, Hubert’s straightforward prose is occasionally sparse in style, with only nominal details about his surroundings. Still, he clearly and memorably portrays the events of his life throughout. A gig at a call center during his time in Houston, for example, took place in a rowdy “maze of cubicles,” with a stunning view of the city spoiled by the loathsome manager yelling “Get to work!” His descent into cocaine and meth abuse is suitably unnerving; he had tense encounters with cops and often seemed alarmingly oblivious to the perpetual danger surrounding him—even when one person was intent on killing him. Hubert wraps up his life story in the present day, about a decade after the bulk of the events herein. Rather oddly, though, he ends the memoir with a post-epilogue in which he tells of an apparent encounter with witchcraft as a teenager.
A bleak but often engrossing real-life story of an eventful and sometimes-dangerous life.Pub Date: March 16, 2022
ISBN: 979-8985896329
Page Count: 365
Publisher: DownUnder Media LLC
Review Posted Online: Sept. 25, 2022
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
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