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LIEUTENANT DANGEROUS

Name: LIEUTENANT DANGEROUS
Author: Jeff Danziger
ISBN: 978-1-58642-273-8

A VIETNAM WAR MEMOIR

by Jeff Danziger ; illustrated by Jeff Danziger ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 6, 2021

A Vietnam memoir with zero punches pulled, related by one of the most incisive observers of the American political scene.

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Acclaimed political cartoonist Danziger looks back at his year in Vietnam, somehow managing to convey difficult truths without completely depressing readers.

Drafted shortly after graduating college in 1968, Danziger believed (as many did) that the war was in its final stages. He reported to Fort Dix hoping the worst would be over before he could be sent overseas. He offers detailed, often amusing accounts of the ill-focused basic training, which was “phenomenally stupid, left over from World War II and ha[d] nothing to do with conditions in Southeast Asia. It was this side of mad.” Seeking ways to further delay deployment, he entered language school to learn Vietnamese, assuming he would then be stationed far from combat zones, interpreting intercepted signals from the field. But the instruction was perfunctory at best, and after acceptance to officer training—another ploy to postpone deployment—Danziger was sent for ordnance training, and his language skills eroded quickly. Then he was deployed to Vietnam, where he was one of many junior officers with inadequate training and no enthusiasm for the missions. The author’s account of his year “in-country” is consistently candid about the futility of the war, and he makes little effort to portray his own role as anything but ineffectual. The book’s title plays on the Vietnamese’s attempts to pronounce his name. Looking back, as if trying to explain the era to a younger audience, he tries to provide perspective. Subsequent history shows that America learned nothing from Vietnam, he writes; the country has entered one unwinnable war after another, with few moments of success and thousands of lives lost. Unsettling as these truths may be, Danziger’s compelling presentation of his experience makes the book a must-read war memoir. The author aptly opens his trenchant book with an epigraph from Joseph Heller.

A Vietnam memoir with zero punches pulled, related by one of the most incisive observers of the American political scene.

Pub Date: July 6, 2021

ISBN: 978-1-58642-273-8

Page Count: 208

Publisher: Steerforth

Review Posted Online: May 3, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2021

Categories:

- PERSPECTIVES
Two Must-Read New Books on America’s Wars

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MICHAEL AND NATASHA

THE LIFE AND LOVE OF MICHAEL II, THE LAST OF THE ROMANOV TSARS

by Rosemary Crawford & Donald Crawford ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 4, 1997

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Thwarted love, scandal, and tragedy among royals, this time played out in the genuinely moving story of Michael Romanov. At the beginning of the century, the Romanov rulers of Russia faced turmoil both in politics and in their personal lives. Scandals and feuds erupted as various Romanovs defied Tsar Nicholas by marrying commoners and divorcÇes, and by taking sides for or against the controversial Tsaritsa Alexandra. Because Michael, Nicholas's younger brother by ten years, was a potential heir to the throne, his personal life carried very public implications. Thus, when he fell in love with a married woman (and divorcÇe), Natasha Wulfert, it was both a political and a family scandal. After fathering a son with her, Michael, a loyal lover and dedicated family man, defied the tsar's orders and married Natasha secretly in Vienna. Outraged, Nicholas took drastic measures, denying him money and removing him from the regency. Yet after spending several years in European exile, Michael and Natasha returned to Russia with the outbreak of WW I; when the Motherland was at stake, family rows could be put aside. Their return also led to their tragic end: Michael, chosen by Nicholas as his heir upon his abdication, was imprisoned and executed by the Bolsheviks in 1918, while Natasha later died alone and destitute in Paris. The Crawfords, British journalists, tell two stories here: the compelling account of a private romance and enduring love, and a less focused narrative of the historical circumstances that determined the couple's fate. Well researched, but lengthy and overly detailed, the book will appeal especially to fans of royal romances. Given this intimate and persuasive account of a decent, honest man, readers cannot help but wonder about the course of history if only Michael, and not Nicholas, had been tsar. (16 pages b&w photos, not seen)

Pub Date: Nov. 4, 1997

ISBN: 0-684-83430-8

Page Count: 441

Publisher: Scribner

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1997

Categories:

GENERAL BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | HISTORICAL & MILITARY

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THE SWANS OF HARLEM

FIVE BLACK BALLERINAS, FIFTY YEARS OF SISTERHOOD, AND THEIR RECLAMATION OF A GROUNDBREAKING HISTORY

by Karen Valby ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 30, 2024

A rich, detailed, and complex history of Harlem’s first prima ballerinas.

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A journalist uncovers the forgotten legacy of a group of pioneering Black ballerinas.

In 1969, Arthur Mitchell—“the first Black principal dancer” of George Balanchine’s famed City Ballet—“formally incorporated” the Dance Theatre of Harlem, writes Valby, an Austin-based journalist and former EW writer. Begun in the shadow of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, the theater’s purpose was to “once and for all prove that a person’s skin color was irrelevant to their right or relationship to classical dance.” To this end, Mitchell recruited and trained a collection of talented Black ballerinas, including Lydia Abarca, the company’s prima ballerina, who dreamed of one day buying her parents a house; Sheila Rohan, whose widowed mother had raised her on Staten Island; and Gayle McKinney-Griffith, Marcia Sells, and Karlya Shelton, who left their Connecticut, Ohio, and Colorado families (respectively) to try to make it in the world of New York dance. In its early years, the theater grew thanks to the talent, strength, grit, and ingenuity of these remarkable women, who, in a time of intense racial inequality, earned standing ovations on European tours and solicited donations that would keep the company afloat for decades to come. Together, they weathered Mitchell’s tyrannical training techniques, colorism, and sexual harassment, all of which complicated their idolization of the man they credited with the success of their careers. Valby, “a white woman with two Black daughters who are dancers themselves,” is a skilled storyteller with an eye for significant details and thematic complexity. While her decision to begin and end the book with Misty Copeland’s widespread misidentification as the first Black prima ballerina detracts from the dynamic, tumultuous, and inspiring journey of the five central ballerinas, the book is deeply researched and full of heart.

A rich, detailed, and complex history of Harlem’s first prima ballerinas.