A stirring work that will particularly appeal to Christian readers.
In this memoir, a man rebuilds his life with religious faith in the wake of institutionalization.
After moving to Texas at 21 to begin a landscaping business, Duncan experienced a severe nervous breakdown in 2001 triggered, in part, by stress and insomnia. After police found him wandering outside, removing all his clothes near a shopping mall, he was institutionalized for 10 days; during that time, he was prescribed a blend of potentially toxic medications, and for five years, he says, he struggled further with depression. When he wished to join the military, his requests to his psychiatrist to reduce his prescription intake were denied, so he weaned himself off the medication himself. He didn’t go into the military, after all; instead, for the next several years, he struggled with unfulfilling jobs and relationship problems, and he was burdened by a feeling of disconnection from God. However, his connection to Catawba Valley, and its crowning glory, Cove Mountain, remained a source of solace. When a terrifying storm forced Ian to take shelter on the mountain, he emerged from the experience feeling reborn in his Christian faith. Even after the stigma of his institutionalization reemerged, he found strength in his religion to make the choices required to build a relationship that led to marriage and to grow as a Christian. Duncan’s powerful and thoughtful remembrance effectively presents Cove Mountain as a symbol of God’s plan and recalls the Christian hymn “Rock of Ages.” As the work unfolds, the author offers a relatable narrative of a young man who finds himself lost in others’ expectations. Early on, as he’s swept away by his desire for success and oppressed by his institutional experience, he becomes detached from faith, which is held up as the source of true meaning. His search for fulfilling love, self-actualization, and closeness with God is engaging throughout. Duncan reviews his past mistakes with a self-awareness that will give hope to readers who may be facing their own demons.
A stirring work that will particularly appeal to Christian readers.Pub Date: July 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-73428-227-6
Page Count: 212
Publisher: Hammerdown
Review Posted Online: Sept. 4, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.
A noted actor turns to verse: “Poems are a Saturday in the middle of the week.”
McConaughey, author of the gracefully written memoir Greenlights, has been writing poems since his teens, closing with one “written in an Australian bathtub” that reads just as a poem by an 18-year-old (Rimbaud excepted) should read: “Ignorant minds of the fortunate man / Blind of the fate shaping every land.” McConaughey is fearless in his commitment to the rhyme, no matter how slight the result (“Oops, took a quick peek at the sky before I got my glasses, / now I can’t see shit, sure hope this passes”). And, sad to say, the slight is what is most on display throughout, punctuated by some odd koanlike aperçus: “Eating all we can / at the all-we-can-eat buffet, / gives us a 3.8 education / and a 4.2 GPA.” “Never give up your right to do the next right thing. This is how we find our way home.” “Memory never forgets. Even though we do.” The prayer portion of the program is deeply felt, but it’s just as sentimental; only when he writes of life-changing events—a court appearance to file a restraining order against a stalker, his decision to quit smoking weed—do we catch a glimpse of the effortlessly fluent, effortlessly charming McConaughey as exemplified by the David Wooderson (“alright, alright, alright”) of Dazed and Confused. The rest is mostly a soufflé in verse. McConaughey’s heart is very clearly in the right place, but on the whole the book suggests an old saw: Don’t give up your day job.
It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9781984862105
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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
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