A memoir that’s persuasive in its clarity, restraint, and steady sense of dignity.
Samson’s memoir of midlife gender emergence is framed by appeals for empathy in the workplace.
Raised in an immigrant household in the United States, the Dutch-born author recalls an early certainty that her assigned sex—the boy’s body she saw in the mirror—was wrong. Lacking the language to articulate her feelings, she suppressed the divide between her inner self and outward reality, struggling with depression, anger, and an ever-contentious relationship with her father. In college and early adulthood, she lived as a gay man and achieved professional stability, yet she only found further discomfort in her relationships with men; even her coming-out failed to resolve the persistent sense that her life was misaligned. While in her 40s, after considering various explanations for her lifelong discontent through extended therapy, she privately acknowledged her gender identity and began a deliberate, cautious transition. With careful preparation, she underwent hormone therapy and related medical treatments while gradually disclosing her truth to supportive family members and trusted friends, then to wider social and professional circles. The author negotiated each change in mind and body with gratitude and caution as she began living publicly as Ella. (“Gratitude came over me—for this trio of pills, for the handful of people who had supported me to get to this point, and also for the privilege I enjoyed.”) Samson uses elements from her journey (like facial electrolysis and voice training) as springboards to launch broader, informative discussions of the practical and emotional dimensions of transition while never claiming to speak for the wider community. The narrative can feel rote in stretches and rarely sensationalizes Ella’s experience, but the author’s dry humor and flashes of genuine euphoria provide lift. As Ella moves into workplace leadership, the memoir addresses professional advocacy and institutional belonging, though this dimension is more briefly sketched than fully explored, leaving the narrative’s true focus on the interior realm. The memoir’s calm, matter-of-fact tone is a defining strength as Samson makes a quiet argument for dignity and belonging amid the present-day pressures that gender-nonconforming people face.
A memoir that’s persuasive in its clarity, restraint, and steady sense of dignity.Pub Date: April 28, 2026
ISBN: 9798900520278
Page Count: 276
Publisher: River Grove Books
Review Posted Online: March 3, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2026
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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