Insightful, clever, and amusing ruminations on the joys of home and family.
A Southern writer’s astute collection of observances and reflections.
In Stamper’s third collection of essays, the author and former English and theater teacher recounts her experiences as a native rural Kentuckian. The anthology, comprising 58 essays, focuses on family, the art of homemaking, personal opinions, and stories about the selfless acts of good people and daily life in bucolic Owen County in northern Kentucky. Greatly influenced and defined by place and “the culture as it has shifted around me,” Stamper writes candidly about the “wise country people who raised me.” She escorts readers to sprawling annual family reunion potlucks and introduces them to Uncle Murf, a resilient World War I military veteran who survived a mustard gas attack in the field and lived well into his 90s. The author mourns her beloved grandfather, who died on Father’s Day when she was 9, and her mother, who passed from ovarian cancer after a Christmas Eve dinner. In a section devoted to domestic life, Stamper ponders underappreciated wonders like hominy, a proper table setting, philodendrons, and an ingredients-only recipe for her Anna Mae’s Jam Cake (unfortunately, the instructions vanished over time). Stamper remains an honest observer and commentator throughout, even when the stories put her in a less-than-flattering light, like when she “overstepped…adult boundaries.” The author is particularly witty in anecdotes about raising her three daughters, being a grandmother, growing up on a tobacco farm, and Queen Elizabeth.
Some of the best entries are also the most intimate, like when Stamper finds profundity in everyday objects, like a quilt fashioned by her husband’s late grandmother stricken with Parkinson’s disease or her great-grandmother Hudson’s delicate dessert dishes. What begins as a funny conversational essay on getting older ends up imparting sage, seasoned takeaways about better living: “I don’t know about you, but I’ve spent most of my adult life wandering through a forest of very tall trees without a map—not exactly lost, but unsure of my way through. I assumed other people had the map. Now I’m not so sure they did.” Stamper closes with impressively researched history about the two free Black enclaves that thrived near the family farm prior to the Civil War. As in previous volumes, the author, a seventh-generation Kentuckian, eloquently limns the ebb and flow of Southern life through a range of situations, moods, and perspectives. In their own way, each story imparts a gentle reminder on the importance of cherishing family, faith, and one’s roots. Having been raised by a farmer father who loved to read and a science teacher mother (both “keepers of stories”), Stamper became a natural raconteur brimming with anecdotes of her life and the idyllic ways of the Natlee region. With an enjoyable sense of humility, she contributes a wealth of knowledge and wisdom on aging, love, family, tradition, generational nurturing, and living a good, honest (Southern) life. Sentimental but never mawkish, Stamper’s insightful, heartfelt anecdotes about “what it means to be human” will resonate with readers. A wonderful conclusion to Stamper’s trilogy.
Insightful, clever, and amusing ruminations on the joys of home and family.Pub Date: May 17, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-945049-25-5
Page Count: 306
Publisher: Shadelandhouse Modern Press
Review Posted Online: Oct. 1, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 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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