A brilliantly poignant exploration of nature, masculinity, and the struggles of depression.
In this memoir, Anderson discusses finding solace in the beauty of nature while in the depths of depression.
When Anderson realized that doing what he was “supposed to do”—advancing his education and “climbing the ladder”—was making him miserable, he quit his job in academia to focus on his mental health. Deep in the throes of suicidal despair, Anderson turned to the woods and wilderness of Ohio. As a child, Anderson found comfort in nature, climbing trees or watching his mother ask “pregnant does if they were getting enough to eat.” Anderson divides the chapters of his book along the four seasons, beginning with winter and concluding with autumn. Each chapter is themed around a living organism, such as the white-tailed deer, the morel, and the shagbark hickory. The author connects each organism to stories and people from his life, giving context to his account of his experience with depression. One of the best examples of this approach is in the morels chapter, where Anderson beautifully describes his family’s tradition of morel hunting in the springtime: “The trick of it is that even looking and failing to find anything meant a handful of hours carefully noticing the details of a spring woodland.” Along with the personal narrative, the author includes facts about the chapters’ natural subjects as he connects them to his journey toward mental health. In the morel chapter, he relates looking for the mushrooms to finding the right therapist; rather than despairing at the difficulty of the search, he learned something from the experience: “Every time the belittling voice in my head would whisper, back to square one, I could shake it off and reply, no, not exactly. No mushrooms. But something.” Anderson frequently reflects on toxic masculinity and how it affected his depression (most directly in the field mouse chapter), allowing him to connect stories from his childhood that resonated into his adulthood. Part self-help, part nature narrative, the memoir is a beautiful affirmation of life that asks a hopeful question: “What if it all works out in the end?”
A brilliantly poignant exploration of nature, masculinity, and the struggles of depression.Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2024
ISBN: 9781643262291
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Timber Press
Review Posted Online: March 17, 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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