May’s pursuit of enchantment will resonate with anyone feeling burned out or disconnected.
A journey to reawaken the wonder and awe within us all.
When May, the author of Wintering and The Electricity of Every Living Thing, realized her feeling of extreme exhaustion and isolation in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic wasn’t disappearing anytime soon, she set out to uncover the sense of awe she remembered accessing so readily as a child. At the heart of this memoir are the author’s often rocky attempts to figure out enchantment, which she defines as “small wonder magnified through meaning, fascination caught in the web of fable and memory.” Each section of the book—“Earth,” “Water,” “Fire,” and “Air”—brings the author closer to that sense of wonder. May chronicles her experiences swimming in the ocean, beekeeping, and watching meteor showers, among other quotidian joys. Featuring lyrical writing and clear open-mindedness, the narrative will speak to anyone feeling lonely in the modern world. May shows us that enchantment is present all around us—in our shared cultural histories, the names of wildflowers, and natural phenomena—if we only allow ourselves to look. However, “if we wait passively to become enchanted, we could wait a long time.” The active pursuit of wonder does not demand extreme, specialized circumstances but rather the ability to look at the world with an open heart and mind. Simple knowledge can provide its own kind of wonder as well. “You do not need to walk in the wilderness to make contact with the wild,” writes the author. “If you know your stories—if you understand the mythologies of your land—then you can leap from a sunlit stroll with your dog into the ancient, chthonic wood.” This book will appeal to fans of Ross Gay’s two collections of essays, Inciting Joy and The Book of Delights.
May’s pursuit of enchantment will resonate with anyone feeling burned out or disconnected.Pub Date: Feb. 28, 2023
ISBN: 9780593329993
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Riverhead
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The heartbreaking story of an emotionally battered child delivered with captivating candor and grace.
The former iCarly star reflects on her difficult childhood.
In her debut memoir, titled after her 2020 one-woman show, singer and actor McCurdy (b. 1992) reveals the raw details of what she describes as years of emotional abuse at the hands of her demanding, emotionally unstable stage mom, Debra. Born in Los Angeles, the author, along with three older brothers, grew up in a home controlled by her mother. When McCurdy was 3, her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. Though she initially survived, the disease’s recurrence would ultimately take her life when the author was 21. McCurdy candidly reconstructs those in-between years, showing how “my mom emotionally, mentally, and physically abused me in ways that will forever impact me.” Insistent on molding her only daughter into “Mommy’s little actress,” Debra shuffled her to auditions beginning at age 6. As she matured and starting booking acting gigs, McCurdy remained “desperate to impress Mom,” while Debra became increasingly obsessive about her daughter’s physical appearance. She tinted her daughter’s eyelashes, whitened her teeth, enforced a tightly monitored regimen of “calorie restriction,” and performed regular genital exams on her as a teenager. Eventually, the author grew understandably resentful and tried to distance herself from her mother. As a young celebrity, however, McCurdy became vulnerable to eating disorders, alcohol addiction, self-loathing, and unstable relationships. Throughout the book, she honestly portrays Debra’s cruel perfectionist personality and abusive behavior patterns, showing a woman who could get enraged by everything from crooked eyeliner to spilled milk. At the same time, McCurdy exhibits compassion for her deeply flawed mother. Late in the book, she shares a crushing secret her father revealed to her as an adult. While McCurdy didn’t emerge from her childhood unscathed, she’s managed to spin her harrowing experience into a sold-out stage act and achieve a form of catharsis that puts her mind, body, and acting career at peace.
The heartbreaking story of an emotionally battered child delivered with captivating candor and grace.Pub Date: Aug. 9, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-982185-82-4
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2022
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
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