A thoughtful portrait of a complex world leader.
An in-depth portrait of a woman of contradictions.
An emeritus law professor and member of the Elie Wiesel Center for Judaic Studies, Lahav takes a feminist perspective in her examination of Golda Meir (1898-1978), the former prime minister of Israel, seeking to show how “she balanced her womanhood with her political ambitions.” Born in Kiev, Golda (as she preferred to be called) was the second daughter in a traditional patriarchal family; she was expected to marry and become a homemaker. The family moved to America in 1906, settling in Milwaukee, where Golda became increasingly oppressed by her parents’ strictures. When she was 14, she took off for Denver, joining her older sister. There, she became attracted to the nascent Zionist party and began her career as a Zionist-socialist activist. By 1921, she had married and moved with her husband to Palestine, where her “energetic talents” were prized. The marriage, though, suffered, even after the couple had two children. Golda and her husband separated, and she relegated her child care to nannies so she could devote herself to politics. Despite misogyny both within Israel and abroad, Golda rose to prominence. Although she was not named to the nation’s first cabinet in 1948, a slight that angered her, she soon gained central roles: as minister of labor and social security in 1949, minister of foreign affairs in 1956, and Israel’s first female prime minister in 1969. Lahav tries to understand Golda’s lack of interest in feminism, her refusal to “challenge the othering of women,” and her vehement criticism of the women’s liberation movement by speculating about what Golda “might have” felt and by posing salient questions. Famously called “the ablest man in the cabinet” by her mentor, David Ben-Gurion, she was deeply aware that she navigated a man’s world, but as Lahav shows, she felt no responsibility to break the glass ceiling for other women. Her interest was solely in the survival of Israel.
A thoughtful portrait of a complex world leader.Pub Date: Sept. 6, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-691-20174-0
Page Count: 376
Publisher: Princeton Univ.
Review Posted Online: June 16, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2022
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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