An earnest personal reflection on the wide-ranging effects of World War II-era internment camps.
Mueller offers a memoir in three parts chronicling her unusual childhood; her friendship with Mary Mon Toy, the titular showgirl; and her search for truth about the past.
When the U.S. government imprisoned people of Japanese heritage in internment camps in 1942, it tore families apart. Fifty-two years later, a remarkable friendship developed in which the camps’ legacy of trauma was still evident. In Part One of this remembrance, the author guides readers through her childhood as one of the few white children born in the internment camps. Her father, a conscientious objector, organized the prisoner-operated cooperative stores in California’s Tule Lake Camp, and her mother was a teacher there. The author writes that she later hid her past at the camp from others, just as she hid her mother’s Jewishness from antisemitic neighbors and her father’s political activism from those who might disapprove: “I’ve often wondered if my country’s failure to atone for the crime I was born into contributed to my creating my alternate persona,” she says. In Part Two, Mueller shifts the setting to New York City, where she met Mary Mon Toy, a charming Japanese American woman whose persona was as fictitious as the characters she played on Broadway. The two women’s lives intertwined, and Mueller supported Mon Toy through her final days; Mon Toy died in 2009 at the age of 93. In Part Three, Mueller uncovers the traumas that Mon Toy, whose given name was Mary Watanabe, suffered as an interred American citizen, and as an Asian American performer in America. Mueller presents readers with a frank investigation of the effects of internment on individuals and on American society; along the way, she effectively adds context and insights from a range of historical texts and academic papers, noting how repercussions have reverberated through time. She uncovers truths about herself, as well, exploring the similarities and differences of her and Mon Toy’s experiences. The book feels excessively detailed in places and somewhat longer than it needs to be. Still, it’s an insightful and worthwhile read.
An earnest personal reflection on the wide-ranging effects of World War II-era internment camps.Pub Date: July 14, 2023
ISBN: 9781950444588
Page Count: 488
Publisher: Peace Corps Writers
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2024
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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