A bold and well-constructed work that takes on difficult topics in a compelling way.
A rape survivor presents a story of violence and recovery.
In this book, artist and author Moe tells of how, in 1994, she was abducted and raped for 24 hours by a man who’d raped many other women in the past. This work relates her harrowing experience, but it’s much more complex than a typical true-crime memoir. Moe is unflinching in her descriptions of her ordeal and weaves memories into the narrative in flashes, recalling details that have resurfaced through the years: “Why do we forget some parts of our lives and remember others so clearly?” she asks as she recalls that her abductor had “a pair of underwear from every woman he had raped.” Throughout her compelling account, Moe includes cited statistics about sex crimes (“it is estimated that between 64% and 96% of sexual assaults are not even reported”), feminist theory (“Yes, like it or not, anti-feminist backlashers, patriarchy is a rape culture”), and her own difficult family history (“no one in my family was there for me. Apparently, they couldn’t handle it”). The author’s comments on victim-shaming and traumatic feelings of guilt make for some of the most powerful passages: “This is…the core of my shame. The beginning of the violence I have worked the rest of my life to not inflict on myself. The violence of blame. The violence of self-blame.” Her honesty about the trauma she’s suffered and her willingness to tell her story are inspiring, and she relates it all with a strong combination of anger and pride: “Some people have told me that they worry about me because I feel too much,” she writes. “Isn’t the not-enough more worrisome?”
A bold and well-constructed work that takes on difficult topics in a compelling way.Pub Date: April 1, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-64704-470-1
Page Count: 334
Publisher: Vigilance Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 10, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A heartfelt if somewhat unsurprising view of old age by the former president. Carter (Living Faith, 1996, etc.) succinctly evaluates the evolution and current status of federal policies concerning the elderly (including a balanced appraisal of the difficulties facing the Social Security system). He also meditates, while drawing heavily on autobiographical anecdotes, on the possibilities for exploration and intellectual and spiritual growth in old age. There are few lightning bolts to dazzle in his prescriptions (cultivate family ties; pursue the restorative pleasures of hobbies and socially minded activities). Yet the warmth and frankness of Carter’s remarks prove disarming. Given its brevity, the work is more of a call to senior citizens to reconsider how best to live life than it is a guide to any of the details involved.
Pub Date: Oct. 26, 1998
ISBN: 0-345-42592-8
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1998
A powerful melding of image and text inspired by Instagram yet original in its execution.
Smith returns with a photo-heavy book of days, celebrating births, deaths, and the quotidian, all anchored by her distinctive style.
In 2018, the musician and National Book Award–winning author began posting on Instagram, and the account quickly took off. Inspired by the captioned photo format, this book provides an image for every day of the year and descriptions that are by turns intimate, humorous, and insightful, and each bit of text adds human depth to the image. Smith, who writes and takes pictures every day, is clearly comfortable with the social media platform—which “has served as a way to share old and new discoveries, celebrate birthdays, remember the departed, and salute our youth”—and the material translates well to the page. The book, which is both visually impactful and lyrically moving, uses Instagram as a point of departure, but it goes well beyond to plumb Smith’s extensive archives. The deeply personal collection of photos includes old Polaroid images, recent cellphone snapshots, and much-thumbed film prints, spanning across decades to bring readers from the counterculture movement of the 1960s to the present. Many pages are taken up with the graves and birthdays of writers and artists, many of whom the author knew personally. We also meet her cat, “Cairo, my Abyssinian. A sweet little thing the color of the pyramids, with a loyal and peaceful disposition.” Part calendar, part memoir, and part cultural record, the book serves as a rich exploration of the author’s fascinating mind. “Offered in gratitude, as a place to be heartened, even in the basest of times,” it reminds us that “each day is precious, for we are yet breathing, moved by the way light falls on a high branch, or a morning worktable, or the sculpted headstone of a beloved poet.”
A powerful melding of image and text inspired by Instagram yet original in its execution.Pub Date: Nov. 15, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-44854-0
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 5, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2022
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