An intimate, accomplished biography of a peerless musician.
A perceptive look at the rock superstar.
Norman has created a successful niche for himself writing first-rate biographies of rock musicians, including John Lennon, Mick Jagger, Eric Clapton, Elton John, and Buddy Holly. Add to that esteemed list James Marshall Hendrix (1942-1970). Sharon Lawrence, a former reporter and a close, “platonic” friend of Hendrix’s, was a consultant, and the title of the book ostensibly refers to Hendrix. However, born in Seattle to alcoholic parents, Jimi wasn’t all that wild—until he got on stage, playing his guitar with his teeth, something he learned from a band mate, or smashing and burning it. Norman describes a poverty-stricken, shy youth whose aunt gave him the $5 he needed to buy his first guitar at age 15. Left-handed, he turned it upside down to play. “From that moment on,” his brother recalls, he “lived only for the guitar.” Hendrix dropped out of high school, did a stint in the Army, and played backup for the likes of Ray Charles, the Isley Brothers, and Little Richard. His big break came thanks to Chas Chandler of the Animals, who was interested in trying management. Much impressed by Hendrix, he brought him to London in 1966 to perform, later signing him up. Chandler also found his band mates for the Jimi Hendrix Experience: bassist Noel Redding and drummer Mitch Mitchell. Norman does a fine job recounting the remaining whirlwind years of his subject’s life, discussing individual songs; the admiration of fellow guitarists; his stunning American debut at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967, which turned him into a flamboyant fashion icon and a legend in his own time; and the “bizarre” tale of his plaster-cast penis. The author goes into detail about the days and hours before Hendrix’s death in London from an overdose of sleeping pills. "Jimi’s death,” writes Norman, “would be replayed over and over, with as many variations, and improvisations, as one of his guitar solos.”
An intimate, accomplished biography of a peerless musician.Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-63149-589-2
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Liveright/Norton
Review Posted Online: June 11, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2020
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
Not so deep, but a delightful tip of the hat to the pleasures—and power—of glamour.
A coffee-table book celebrates Michelle Obama’s sense of fashion.
Illustrated with hundreds of full-color photographs, Obama’s chatty latest book begins with some school portraits from the author’s childhood in Chicago and fond memories of back-to-school shopping at Sears, then jumps into the intricacies of clothing oneself as the spouse of a presidential candidate and as the first lady. “People looked forward to the outfits, and once I got their attention, they listened to what I had to say. This is the soft power of fashion,” she says. Obama is grateful and frank about all the help she got along the way, and the volume includes a long section written by her primary wardrobe stylist, Koop—28 years old when she first took the job—and shorter sections by makeup artists and several hair stylists, who worked with wigs and hair extensions as Obama transitioned back to her natural hair, and grew out her bangs, at the end of her husband’s second term. Many of the designers of the author’s gowns, notably Jason Wu, who designed several of her more striking outfits, also contribute appreciative memories. Besides candid and more formal photographs, the volume features many sketches of her gowns by their designers, closeups on details of those gowns, and magazine covers from Better Homes & Gardens to Vogue. The author writes that as a Black woman, “I was under a particularly white-hot glare, constantly appraised for whether my outfits were ‘acceptable’ and ‘appropriate,’ the color of my skin somehow inviting even more judgment than the color of my dresses.” Overall, though, this is generally a canny, upbeat volume, with little in the way of surprising revelations.
Not so deep, but a delightful tip of the hat to the pleasures—and power—of glamour.Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9780593800706
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 7, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2026
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