Largely superficial, perhaps a guilty pleasure for fans of stereotypical beach reads.
A Los Angeles real estate agent’s memoir about her journey to Paris to find her soul mate.
A divorced, single mother of two children, Sizlo worked for a high-end real estate company that caters to celebrities and business executives. In LA, she writes, “Appearances mattered.” To that end, despite admittedly living paycheck to paycheck, she felt compelled to purchase expensive, trendy accessories to appease her potential clients. For her 44th birthday, her best friend bought her a reading with a “sought-after” astrologer even though she admits that she did not believe in astrology. When the astrologer stated that her soul mate was born in Paris on Nov. 2, 1968, the same birth date and location as her ex-boyfriend, Sizlo became intrigued. Over the course of the book, we see her intrigue turn to obsession as she jets off to Paris with the goal of meeting all men (and perhaps women) born on that date. The author also shares the poignant story of her father’s recent death and her promise to meet him in Paris on her quest to find true love. “My father bravely faced his destiny on his own terms,” she writes, “the perfect balance of fate and free will.” At the beginning of each of the 12 chapters, Sizlo includes a passage related to the relevant house of the zodiac. While the storyline is captivating on a soap-operatic level, the author’s often self-centered behavior—especially multiple instances in which her relentless pursuit caused her to ignore the interests and feelings of her sister and friends who accompanied her—may strain readers’ ability to feel compassion. Furthermore, in the early stages of the narrative, Sizlo provides little meaningful information about herself, making it difficult to be engaged in the outcome of her quest. The author eventually arrives at some level of self-realization near the end of her trip, but the overall narrative lacks depth or memorable insight.
Largely superficial, perhaps a guilty pleasure for fans of stereotypical beach reads.Pub Date: Aug. 16, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-358-65326-4
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Mariner Books
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2022
The heartbreaking story of an emotionally battered child delivered with captivating candor and grace.
The former iCarly star reflects on her difficult childhood.
In her debut memoir, titled after her 2020 one-woman show, singer and actor McCurdy (b. 1992) reveals the raw details of what she describes as years of emotional abuse at the hands of her demanding, emotionally unstable stage mom, Debra. Born in Los Angeles, the author, along with three older brothers, grew up in a home controlled by her mother. When McCurdy was 3, her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. Though she initially survived, the disease’s recurrence would ultimately take her life when the author was 21. McCurdy candidly reconstructs those in-between years, showing how “my mom emotionally, mentally, and physically abused me in ways that will forever impact me.” Insistent on molding her only daughter into “Mommy’s little actress,” Debra shuffled her to auditions beginning at age 6. As she matured and starting booking acting gigs, McCurdy remained “desperate to impress Mom,” while Debra became increasingly obsessive about her daughter’s physical appearance. She tinted her daughter’s eyelashes, whitened her teeth, enforced a tightly monitored regimen of “calorie restriction,” and performed regular genital exams on her as a teenager. Eventually, the author grew understandably resentful and tried to distance herself from her mother. As a young celebrity, however, McCurdy became vulnerable to eating disorders, alcohol addiction, self-loathing, and unstable relationships. Throughout the book, she honestly portrays Debra’s cruel perfectionist personality and abusive behavior patterns, showing a woman who could get enraged by everything from crooked eyeliner to spilled milk. At the same time, McCurdy exhibits compassion for her deeply flawed mother. Late in the book, she shares a crushing secret her father revealed to her as an adult. While McCurdy didn’t emerge from her childhood unscathed, she’s managed to spin her harrowing experience into a sold-out stage act and achieve a form of catharsis that puts her mind, body, and acting career at peace.
The heartbreaking story of an emotionally battered child delivered with captivating candor and grace.Pub Date: Aug. 9, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-982185-82-4
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2022
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
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