Well-researched, crisply perceptive writing on art.
A debut memoir recounts how a self-confessed introvert tried to make it as a painter but was left confounded by the art world’s expectations and restrictions.
Downey’s erudite and thought-provoking book opens with a brief recollection of an art class that emphasized the importance of communication over technique. Having strong convictions about how art should be taught, she quit the class. Before becoming a mother, the author worked in publishing in Boston. Parenthood left her little “brain space” to create, but after her children were in school, she decided to become an artist. A keen writer, she set up a blog about her journey and her first steps in the painting world. Downey found the social aspects of her work exhausting, with her introversion leaving her feeling like an outsider. The author looked at the role of contemporary artists, examining the cult of celebrity and self-promotion and the necessity of being fluent in “artspeak” and forging connections in an “ultra-social, extrovert” society. Downey’s odyssey became one of self-understanding, as she dissected her creative drives and the personal roots of her consternation regarding societal expectations. The author describes her own creative process with forthright clarity: “I plan, then I execute my plan. It may sound uninspired, but I argue that it is just as valid a way to paint as any other.” In doing so, she makes readers reconsider why artists are expected to be spontaneous and extroverted. Downey employs a sound knowledge of art history to illustrate her arguments. For example, she discusses the anonymity of painters and sculptors in ancient Egyptian and Greek civilizations in contrast to the “personal fame” of artists from the Renaissance onward. The author also offers illuminating moments of introspection: “Each of these issues around art, which all came down to matters of identity and social status, brought up how I felt about myself in the world.” Some readers may be disappointed that Downey did not proceed to become a professional painter, but her memoir remains inspirational as a thorough exploration of the creative self and a search for personal satisfaction. This work will prove an invaluable handbook for readers trying to gain a foothold in the art world and for those feeling ostracized by it.
Well-researched, crisply perceptive writing on art.Pub Date: Aug. 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-9716775-2-4
Page Count: 338
Publisher: Green Tea Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 30, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 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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