by Lee Bergthold ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 18, 2012
A riveting if unevenly paced survival story that covers both interior psychological and exterior geographical terrain.
Former Marine and survival expert Bergthold (To Walk Away From Battle Mountain, 2013, etc.) documents his grueling trek from Death Valley to Mt. Whitney.
In October 1989, Bergthold and a longtime adventure companion set out on a 14-day odyssey through the most extreme climates and barren regions of North America. Armed with carefully selected gear and food, the men arranged to pick up water at checkpoints as their only form of outside aid, no small feat in a pre-cellphone era. Bergthold uses his trip diary and memory to reconstruct one travel day per chapter, describing in detail meager rations, odd camping spots, hard-core survival techniques, frantic water searches and wildly varying temperatures. The memoir excels at communicating the grandeur and terror of the wastelands: “The macabre, wind-swept landscape made us suddenly see and feel the effect of an outlaw wind that had nowhere to go except in all directions. It had nothing better to do than to blast an already taxed land and to batter the living beings.” Bergthold shines when explaining the internal motivations that impelled his Frodo-like quest as well as the nirvana attained during the final ascent to 14,000 feet on Mt. Whitney in severe winter weather. Largely driven by the thought of hardships faced by ancestors and the softness of modern humanity, which he and his companion deplore, Bergthold writes passionately of trying to measure up to these “real men” of yore who did battle with nature. A few issues prevent this otherwise exciting narrative from unfolding with maximum dramatic impact. For one thing, the lack of details about the men’s “real lives” prior to the trek limits the reader’s emotional investment in their journey. One often wonders where these decontextualized wanderers hail from and who might be waiting for them to come back. Second, the author considerably undercuts the climactic effect of reaching the summit of Mt. Whitney by frequently overusing exclamation points, italics and sensational adjectives throughout earlier chapters.
A riveting if unevenly paced survival story that covers both interior psychological and exterior geographical terrain.Pub Date: April 18, 2012
ISBN: 978-1463765118
Page Count: 262
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Jan. 8, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Stephanie Johnson & Brandon Stanton illustrated by Henry Sene Yee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 12, 2022
A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.
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New York Times Bestseller
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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by Brandon Stanton photographed by Brandon Stanton
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by Brandon Stanton ; photographed by Brandon Stanton
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by Pamela Anderson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 31, 2023
A juicy story with some truly crazy moments, yet Anderson's good heart shines through.
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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
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