Blistering portraits of a territory plagued by violence.
Striking photographs from a place “where on any night you could be awoken by a bomb exploding in your neighbor’s house."
In 2016, al-Saftawi, a documentary journalist, photographer, and social justice advocate, was seeking asylum from Gaza after escaping to New York at age 25. He was given the opportunity to share his experience as a Palestinian youth through published photographs: a rarity afforded to few refugees arriving in America. In the candid autobiographical introduction, the author describes a cruel, restrictive childhood as “the son of a jihadist who killed and contributed to the killing of innocent Israelis. I condemn these actions.” That kind of violence, he notes, was revered as heroic by the Muslim Brotherhood, who heavily influenced his father (he was recently released from an 18-year prison sentence). Though al-Saftawi acknowledges that working as a journalist in overpopulated Gaza was “like walking barefoot in a field of thorns,” he vividly demonstrates his passion for his homeland throughout this moving pictorial tribute of “memories and dreams.” The book is unfiltered in its depiction of the realities of contemporary Gaza as a dusty city awash in exploding bullets, grief-stricken citizens, and crumbling infrastructure. Through al-Saftawi’s uncompromising lens, readers witness Gazans carrying war-wounded through the streets, the author’s wife framed by a night sky of exploding flares; a bleak view from the rooftop of his childhood neighborhood; and heartbreaking portraits of children shredded by the shrapnel of a drone attack and a close-up of a 7-year-old who witnessed the massacre of his family during Israel’s three-week assault on Gaza in 2008 and 2009. Atmospheric, visually moving, and dedicated to “all those who are trapped in the hardships of this life, surviving in the hopes of a better tomorrow,” this book shows a hellish landscape with bits of humanity and resilience beaming through. The author includes a contextual timeline and glossary.
Blistering portraits of a territory plagued by violence.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-944211-97-4
Page Count: 120
Publisher: McSweeney’s
Review Posted Online: Aug. 24, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
An unflinching self-portrait.
The tumultuous life of a bisexual, autistic comic.
In her debut memoir, Scottish comedian Brady recounts the emotional turmoil of living with undiagnosed autism. “The public perception of autistics is so heavily based on the stereotype of men who love trains or science,” she writes, “that many women miss out on diagnosis and are thought of as studious instead.” She was nothing if not studious, obsessively focused on foreign languages, but she found it difficult to converse in her own language. From novels, she tried to gain “knowledge about people, about how they spoke to each other, learning turns of phrase and metaphor” that others found so familiar. Often frustrated and overwhelmed by sensory overload, she erupted in violent meltdowns. Her parents, dealing with behavior they didn’t understand—including self-cutting—sent her to “a high-security mental hospital” as a day patient. Even there, a diagnosis eluded her; she was not accurately diagnosed until she was 34. Although intimate friendships were difficult, she depicts her uninhibited sexuality and sometimes raucous affairs with both men and women. “I grew up confident about my queerness,” she writes, partly because of “autism’s lack of regard for social norms.” While at the University of Edinburgh, she supported herself as a stripper. “I liked that in a strip club men’s contempt of you was out in the open,” she admits. “In the outside world, misogyny was always hovering in your peripheral vision.” When she worked as a reporter for the university newspaper, she was assigned to try a stint as a stand-up comic and write about it; she found it was work she loved. After “about a thousand gigs in grim little pubs across England,” she landed an agent and embarked on a successful career. Although Brady hopes her memoir will “make things feel better for the next autistic or misfit girl,” her anger is as evident as her compassion.
An unflinching self-portrait.Pub Date: June 6, 2023
ISBN: 9780593582503
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Harmony
Review Posted Online: March 10, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2023
The choir is sure to enjoy this impassioned preaching on familiar progressive themes.
Essays on current political topics by a high-profile actor and activist.
Milano explains in an introduction that she began writing this uneven collection while dealing with a severe case of Covid-19 and suffering from "persistent brain fog.” In the first essay, "On Being Unapologetically Fucked Up,” the author begins by fuming over a February 2019 incident in which she compared MAGA caps worn by high school kids to KKK hoods. She then runs through a grab bag of flash-point news items (police shootings, border crimes, sexual predators in government), deploying the F-bomb with abandon and concluding, "What I know is that fucked up is as fundamental a state of the world as night and day. But I know there is better. I know that ‘less fucked up’ is a state we can live in.” The second essay, "Believe Women," discusses Milano’s seminal role in the MeToo movement; unfortunately, it is similarly conversational in tone and predictable in content. One of the few truly personal essays, "David," about the author's marriage, refutes the old saw about love meaning never having to say you're sorry, replacing it with "Love means you can suggest a national sex strike and your husband doesn't run away screaming." Milano assumes, perhaps rightly, that her audience is composed of followers and fans; perhaps these readers will know what she is talking about in the seemingly allegorical "By Any Other Name," about her bad experience with a certain rosebush. "Holy shit, giving birth sucked," begins one essay. "Words are weird, right?" begins the next. "Welp, this is going to piss some of you off. Hang in there," opens a screed about cancel culture—though she’s entirely correct that “it’s childish, divisive, conceited, and Trumpian to its core.” By the end, however, Milano's intelligence, compassion, integrity, and endurance somewhat compensate for her lack of literary polish.
The choir is sure to enjoy this impassioned preaching on familiar progressive themes.Pub Date: Oct. 26, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-18329-8
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2021
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