A haunting, if not particularly nuanced, war memoir and reminder of Vietnam’s tragic legacy.
Lindsey recounts his experiences in Vietnam in this debut memoir.
The opening paragraph of this book takes readers through “the darkest night I have ever known,” as the author sat watch in a “deserted village” on the lookout for a Viet Cong infiltrator who had killed two United States Marines earlier in the evening. This grim anecdote sets the stage for the rest of the book, which immerses readers in the life of a young Marine in the late 1960s. A war memoir, the narrative generally avoids discussions of Lindsey’s childhood or personal life (his first marriage, from meeting his wife to their divorce, is covered in two terse sentences), maintaining a laser focus on the war and its lasting effects. The book’s first chapter covers the author’s infantry training at California’s Camp Pendleton with detailed descriptions of his rapid education in military life—from truck-driving school and crawling under barbed wire to patrolling simulated Vietnamese villages and watching graphic combat movies. By the second chapter, Lindsey has arrived in Southeast Asia. Having participated in 19 operations, the author admits that they “blended together” and that he doesn’t “remember even being informed at the time which operation started and which operation ended.” Thus, instead of highlighting overarching military strategies and following the chronology of the war, the book offers general commentary and vignettes conveying the experiences of an unathletic, skinny, nearsighted, “somewhat average guy.” While detailing harrowing moments of battle, the narrative also emphasizes the daily routines and culture of military life, including contraband inspections, interracial strife, and “the Marine Corps’ penchant for goofy humor.”
While generally avoiding commentary on the Cold War context of the war, the text does not hide the author’s disdain for anti-war protestors (“enemy sympathizers”) and the Hollywood depiction of Vietnam combatants as, in his view, trigger-happy psychopaths in movies like Platoon and Rambo. Lindsey is equally critical of government officials, who, he asserts, were “missing in action throughout our war.” While there is certainly room for a more complex discussion of the war in this book, which tends to settle on moral absolutes and avoid topics like the My Lai massacre, this is nevertheless a powerful, haunting journey into the tragedy of Vietnam. Its final chapters deal with the lasting effects of the war on Lindsey’s life, including “the flinches,” nightmares, and an emotional breakdown after watching a funny television commercial he knows those killed in action will never see. The book concludes with an epilogue recounting a return trip to Vietnam in 2000 that included a search for a Viet Cong soldier who had helped save the author’s life. An engineer by training, the author also includes ample appendix material that describes, in minute detail, the military vehicles and weapons used in the war. Barring this encyclopedic backmatter, the book’s deeply personal writing style and concise narrative make for an engaging read. Its accessibility is enhanced by the inclusion of photographs, maps, replications of primary sources, and other visual ephemera that enhance the reading experience.
A haunting, if not particularly nuanced, war memoir and reminder of Vietnam’s tragic legacy.Pub Date: March 25, 2022
ISBN: 9781639371662
Page Count: 198
Publisher: Dorrance Publishing Co.
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 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
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