A courageous, emotive, and potent account by a survivor.
A debut memoir recounts a daughter’s battle with alcohol addiction after providing end-of-life care for her parents.
Ethiopian American Asfaw grew up in Los Angeles, supported by devoted parents who were respected in their community for helping others. In adulthood, she became a “young go-getter and ambitious operational director” but took on the responsibility of caring for her father and mother after they fell ill. Following their deaths, the author faced the feeling of being “utterly alone.” This was compounded by a sense of “self-pity” and the “tragic financial reality” of losing her father’s income, which, combined with medical expenses, sent her into “enormous financial debt.” Asfaw confides that she “declared war on reality” by turning to alcohol. The severity of her addiction led to an extreme, alcohol-induced psychosis and a terrifying seizure. During a stay in a residential treatment center, she began to rebuild her life and gain a deeper sense of self-understanding through therapy. The memoir describes how the author went on to help other women battling addictions by developing outreach programs and working with those in recovery. Asfaw is a direct writer who understands the progression of addiction: “Alcohol worked for me and it worked well. It calmed me down when I couldn’t shut my mind off, when I needed to sleep, when I needed to pause my work brain for the day.” Her prose can be powerfully moving in its ability to pinpoint the withering pain of caring for a terminally ill loved one: “Every morning broke my heart. Every single morning, I died a little more with him.” Descriptions of her parents’ illnesses are unflinching, such as her father’s edema: “They were swollen like hot, overpumped balloons. Tight, stretched-out tree-trunk legs.” Some readers will deem such graphic details unnecessary, although they accurately reflect the trauma of observing the pain of others. The memoir is also not always in a linear sequence, leading the author to make surprising digressions, such as revealing that she met Michael Jackson. The exact timeline of events is consequently difficult to ascertain on some occasions. Still, Asfaw’s voice is a triumphant one that radiates positivity and will inspire others: “Each day as I got stronger, I saw my work as a gift instead of a burden.”
A courageous, emotive, and potent account by a survivor.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 979-8985274905
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Oct. 17, 2023
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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