A skillfully written, thought-provoking account that positively reconsiders an antagonist as an important teacher.
A divorced woman’s perceptions of her controlling ex-husband shift radically when she establishes a new bond with him following his death in this debut memoir.
In 1985, Mickelwait returned to California after working as a tour guide in Rome. Setting up as a freelance marketing writer, she found her social life waning before meeting her future husband, an attorney named Steve, at a friend’s wedding. Described by others as looking like “an actor playing a politician,” Steve had plenty of charisma. The author gradually capitulated to his charms and they began dating. The couple went on to marry and have two children before cracks started to show in their relationship. Steve’s personality began to change. He became reliant on drugs for chronic back pain and started growing marijuana and collecting guns and knives. Mickelwait later discovered that Steve was having an affair with Mitzi, their close friend and realtor. Following the couple’s divorce, Steve was diagnosed with colon cancer and later died. The author was left to deal with her ex-husband’s $1.5 million debt because her name was still on the banks’ loan records. Mickelwait’s journey to forgiveness began after seeking spiritual guidance and reconnecting with Steve through a psychic. This is emotionally frank writing in which the author is unafraid to share even her darkest feelings, such as “I thought of all the times I’d wished Steve dead,” after learning of his cancer diagnosis. The memoir’s structure makes for compelling reading, beginning with Steve’s funeral, where, despite sharing 26 years together, Mickelwait admits her “eyes were dry.” The author then backtracks to recall the arc of their relationship, explaining the period of understanding and healing that occurred after his death. Mickelwait is also buoyantly descriptive in these pages. Recalling her “spiritual life coach,” she writes: “Like my own personal Yoda, Arjuna would sit cross-legged in the big striped chair and dispense pithy advice.” Skeptics will struggle to accept the fact that the author communicated with Steve after his death, and cynical readers may find her psychic’s conclusion that “everything he did to you, he did for you” difficult to swallow. Still, those who believe in parapsychology will enjoy this smartly conceived book that tracks a major shift in personal perspective made possible through spiritual counseling.
A skillfully written, thought-provoking account that positively reconsiders an antagonist as an important teacher.Pub Date: June 1, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-64742-030-7
Page Count: 344
Publisher: She Writes Press
Review Posted Online: March 23, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
A juicy story with some truly crazy moments, yet Anderson's good heart shines through.
The iconic model tells the story of her eventful life.
According to the acknowledgments, this memoir started as "a fifty-page poem and then grew into hundreds of pages of…more poetry." Readers will be glad that Anderson eventually turned to writing prose, since the well-told anecdotes and memorable character sketches are what make it a page-turner. The poetry (more accurately described as italicized notes-to-self with line breaks) remains strewn liberally through the pages, often summarizing the takeaway or the emotional impact of the events described: "I was / and still am / an exceptionally / easy target. / And, / I'm proud of that." This way of expressing herself is part of who she is, formed partly by her passion for Anaïs Nin and other writers; she is a serious maven of literature and the arts. The narrative gets off to a good start with Anderson’s nostalgic memories of her childhood in coastal Vancouver, raised by very young, very wild, and not very competent parents. Here and throughout the book, the author displays a remarkable lack of anger. She has faced abuse and mistreatment of many kinds over the decades, but she touches on the most appalling passages lightly—though not so lightly you don't feel the torment of the media attention on the events leading up to her divorce from Tommy Lee. Her trip to the pages of Playboy, which involved an escape from a violent fiance and sneaking across the border, is one of many jaw-dropping stories. In one interesting passage, Julian Assange's mother counsels Anderson to desexualize her image in order to be taken more seriously as an activist. She decided that “it was too late to turn back now”—that sexy is an inalienable part of who she is. Throughout her account of this kooky, messed-up, enviable, and often thrilling life, her humility (her sons "are true miracles, considering the gene pool") never fails her.
A juicy story with some truly crazy moments, yet Anderson's good heart shines through.Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2023
ISBN: 9780063226562
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Dey Street/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2023
SEEN & HEARD
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