A scrupulous, intelligently executed, if overly detailed, family history.
In this biographical work, a man charts his family’s perilous experiences during the 20th century’s two world wars and the secrets they engendered.
Von Loewe was raised in a distinctively German tradition—his family sang German songs; he studied the German language; and the house was filled with German books. But the author knew little of his father’s ancestry—Sigmund was typically tight-lipped about such matters, and he died when von Loewe was only 17 years old, before his curiosity reached full bloom. Once he began to studiously investigate his father’s genealogy, he came to some shocking realizations. His father was the bearer of a Polish passport that bore the last name Kiedrowski. Sigmund grew up in the German province of West Prussia, in a Kashubian community in what is now northern Poland. In response to the grim devastation of World War I, both Sigmund and his brother, Johann, formally changed their names, hoping a German identification would help them more securely navigate an increasingly chaotic continent. After serving as a pilot in the war and then working as a diamond trader, Sigmund made his way to the United States in 1923 to work as a jeweler. Von Loewe chronicles, with extraordinary meticulousness, not only Sigmund’s self-exile to the U.S., but also the terrible impact Nazi aggression had on the members of his family who remained in Europe during World War II—they would face execution, imprisonment, starvation, and the bleak depredations of concentration camps. He “would be a helpless observer as family in Germany and Poland were caught up in the horror.” The author’s father paid a steep price for his survival—he was compelled to abandon his heritage, a sacrifice explained poignantly by von Loewe. Furthermore, the author’s research is impressive—unsurprisingly, he’s an academic historian—and he limns his father’s story and the fate of war-torn Europe with admirable rigor. But that painstaking devotion to granular detail is as much a vice as a virtue—this microscopic account of his relatives’ experiences is unlikely to command the attention of readers who lack a personal connection to them.
A scrupulous, intelligently executed, if overly detailed, family history.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-63988-342-4
Page Count: 210
Publisher: Atmosphere Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A determined if self-regarding portrait of a candidate striving to define herself and her campaign on her own terms.
An insider’s chronicle of a pivotal presidential campaign.
Several months into the mounting political upheaval of Donald Trump’s second term and following a wave of bestselling political exposés, most notably Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson’s Original Sin on Joe Biden’s health and late decision to step down, former Vice President Harris offers her own account of the consequential months surrounding Biden’s withdrawal and her swift campaign for the presidency. Structured as brief chapters with countdown headers from 107 days to Election Day, the book recounts the campaign’s daily rigors: vetting a running mate, navigating back-to-back rallies, preparing for the convention and the debate with Trump, and deflecting obstacles in the form of both Trump’s camp and Biden’s faltering team. Harris aims to set the record straight on issues that have remained hotly debated. While acknowledging Biden’s advancing decline, she also highlights his foreign-policy steadiness: “His years of experience in foreign policy clearly showed….He was always focused, always commander in chief in that room.” More blame is placed on his inner circle, especially Jill Biden, whom Harris faults for pushing him beyond his limits—“the people who knew him best, should have realized that any campaign was a bridge too far.” Throughout, she highlights her own qualifications and dismisses suggestions that an open contest might have better served the party: “If they thought I was down with a mini primary or some other half-baked procedure, I was quick to disabuse them.” Facing Trump’s increasingly unhinged behavior, Harris never openly doubts her ability to confront him. Yet she doesn’t fully persuade the reader that she had the capacity to counter his dominance, suggesting instead that her defeat stemmed from a lack of time—a theme underscored by the urgency of the book’s title. If not entirely sanguine about the future, she maintains a clear-eyed view of the damage already done: “Perhaps so much damage that we will have to re-create our government…something leaner, swifter, and much more efficient.”
A determined if self-regarding portrait of a candidate striving to define herself and her campaign on her own terms.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2025
ISBN: 9781668211656
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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