A lively, richly detailed narrative.
The inheritance of scandal.
Holland, grandson of Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), has spent more than 40 years researching and writing about his grandfather’s life and works. His eighth volume focuses on Wilde’s afterlife: posthumous publications, including the Collected Works and many forgeries; biographies and critical studies; “sordid squabbles” and legal wrangling among Wilde’s friends and enemies; and most significantly, the impact of Wilde’s life on his two sons, Cyril and the author’s father, Vyvyan. “Branded a convict, a bankrupt, and an unrepentant homosexual in his short lifetime,” Wilde, after his release from prison in 1897, had hoped to see his wife and sons. But Constance, who had remained loyal to him throughout his troubles, died in 1898, and the boys were remanded to the care of her family, who “immediately set about re-anglicising them and obliterating all references to their father, destroying any evidence which might possibly connect them to him.” They were separated, sent to different schools, kept away from their father’s friends, and their surname was changed to Holland. They grew up feeling lonely and unwanted. Told their father was dead—even though Wilde did not die until 1900— it was years before they gleaned what was “wrong” in the family. Not until he was a student at Cambridge did Vyvyan discover his father’s writings. Holland reveals the many challenges faced by Wilde’s selfless literary executor, Robbie Ross, who befriended the boys, and helped to support Vyvyan financially when, like his father, he fell into serious debt. “Oscar’s genes were all-too powerful,” Holland writes, referring to Vyvyan’s profligacy. Cyril was killed at the Western Front in 1915; Vyvyan died in 1967. Holland’s tireless investigation debunks myths and lies and reveals hypocrisy and homophobia among the British upper classes.
A lively, richly detailed narrative.Pub Date: April 7, 2026
ISBN: 9798889661764
Page Count: 704
Publisher: Europa Editions
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2026
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
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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