A captivating coming-of-age saga about life trying to imitate art, with poignantly mixed results.
An awkward girl’s inspiration—the titular deceased Gilbert and Sullivan diva—is hymned in Menter’s piquant memoir.
The author, a journalist and poet, looks back on her experiences growing up in Syracuse, New York, in the 1960s, when she despaired of her chubby, cross-eyed physicality, felt alienated from her cold mother, and hid her shyness beneath a snarky exterior. She discovered a new world when her father gave her old recordings of the D’Oyly Carte troupe, leading interpreters of the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan. Menter was entranced by Gilbert’s riotous lyrics, Sullivan’s exuberant music, and their tuneful sendups of Victorian England’s stuffed shirts and preening poseurs—and especially by the company’s reigning contralto, Ann Drummond-Grant, who specialized in playing pompous battle-axes while infusing pathos into their vanity and silliness. The author sent off fan letters and was crushed to learn that Drummond-Grant had been dead for nine years, but she carried on with her resolve to become a singer like her idol—and to perhaps join D’Oyly Carte herself. What followed was a yearning, frustrating musical odyssey as Menter studied voice and piano, first in private lessons and then at Syracuse University and the Manhattan School of Music. Saddled with a lovely but weak and unbalanced voice, she struggled with a succession of teachers who never quite managed to instill the basics of technique and breathing control; her piano studies and a foray into acting classes also left her tantalizingly short of proficiency. Entwined with the author’s reminiscences is her biographical sketch of Drummond-Grant, also a late bloomer, who joined D’Oyly Carte in 1933 at the age of 28, quickly climbed from the chorus to principal roles, and was then kicked out of the company after she began an affair with the married musical director—only to return as his wife in 1951.
In part, the author’s narrative explores a young woman’s search for self-definition through passionate relationships with mentors and mother figures (“That was my life story: falling madly in love with someone or something and being drawn or driven by it”), the most prominent being the titular muse, who existed only on vinyl for her. It’s also a hilariously demystified look at the singer’s craft, seen from the most undignified of perspectives: “As I blew my nose (and blew, and blew), I reflexively pulled my diaphragm in. Lo!…At long last I made the physical connection: the diaphragm pushes the breath, and the breath pushes the snot…and the sound!” The author’s self-portrait is intimate and revealing, cleareyed in its depictions of her disappointments and failings and suffused with wry humor: “My go-to romantic strategy was to aim a stream of madcap brilliance at someone who wasn’t paying attention.” At the book’s heart is a colorful profile of Drummond-Grant written in evocative prose that conveys her talent (“The voice was thrilling: rich and clear, with a quick vibrato”) and personality (her laughter in a taped interview is “slow and doleful, like dark water lapping the side of a boat”). Gilbert and Sullivan fans—and anyone who’s reached for an improbable dream—will enjoy Menter’s journey.
A captivating coming-of-age saga about life trying to imitate art, with poignantly mixed results.Pub Date: June 18, 2024
ISBN: 9781647426620
Page Count: 272
Publisher: She Writes Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2024
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
It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.
A noted actor turns to verse: “Poems are a Saturday in the middle of the week.”
McConaughey, author of the gracefully written memoir Greenlights, has been writing poems since his teens, closing with one “written in an Australian bathtub” that reads just as a poem by an 18-year-old (Rimbaud excepted) should read: “Ignorant minds of the fortunate man / Blind of the fate shaping every land.” McConaughey is fearless in his commitment to the rhyme, no matter how slight the result (“Oops, took a quick peek at the sky before I got my glasses, / now I can’t see shit, sure hope this passes”). And, sad to say, the slight is what is most on display throughout, punctuated by some odd koanlike aperçus: “Eating all we can / at the all-we-can-eat buffet, / gives us a 3.8 education / and a 4.2 GPA.” “Never give up your right to do the next right thing. This is how we find our way home.” “Memory never forgets. Even though we do.” The prayer portion of the program is deeply felt, but it’s just as sentimental; only when he writes of life-changing events—a court appearance to file a restraining order against a stalker, his decision to quit smoking weed—do we catch a glimpse of the effortlessly fluent, effortlessly charming McConaughey as exemplified by the David Wooderson (“alright, alright, alright”) of Dazed and Confused. The rest is mostly a soufflé in verse. McConaughey’s heart is very clearly in the right place, but on the whole the book suggests an old saw: Don’t give up your day job.
It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9781984862105
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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