A colorful, well-researched biography.
The eventful life of a daring adventurer.
Drawing on thousands of pages of memoirs, diaries, letters, travelogues, and novels, journalist Mitenbuler creates a vivid portrait of Danish explorer, writer, anthropologist, and ethnographer Peter Freuchen (1886-1957), a man whose “irrepressible restlessness” impelled him around the world. Nurtured from childhood to be independent and adventurous, Freuchen found his calling after an expedition to Greenland in 1906, which began a career of charting the Arctic, manning weather stations, establishing trading posts, investigating Inuit culture, and, most of all, “learning how to master his circumstances so he wouldn’t be dominated by them.” He savored Indigenous foods such as fermented walrus flipper, musk oxen, and boiled caribou meat; and he found the uninhibited sexual mores of the Inuit much to his liking. In 1911, he married and had two children with an Inuit woman who, sadly, died during the influenza pandemic. He was undaunted by the hardships of the polar environment, which included storms, weak ice, scarce game, and wolves that preyed on his sled dogs. Mitenbuler recounts a particularly horrific episode when Freuchen found himself trapped in a hole by snow; he escaped by forming his frozen feces into a chisel. He emerged with frostbitten toes that he amputated himself; eventually, he lost the foot as well. Unable to continue physical exploration, Freuchen went on to become a technical consultant on movies about the Arctic, some made from his novels. He spent enough time in Hollywood to be swept up in the glamour, although he was frustrated by the “mercurial flightiness” of the movie industry. Back in Denmark during World War II, he worked for the resistance after Nazis invaded, storing ammunition in his shed and passing intelligence. Mitenbuler captures the commanding presence of his outspoken, indefatigable subject: “Freuchen was tall and looked like a wild Viking raider just sprung from his longship.”
A colorful, well-researched biography.Pub Date: Feb. 21, 2023
ISBN: 9780358468325
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Mariner Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 7, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Spears’ vulnerability shines through as she describes her painful journey from vulnerable girl to empowered woman.
A heartfelt memoir from the pop superstar.
Spears grew up with an alcoholic father, an exacting mother, and a fear of disappointing them both. She also displayed a natural talent for singing and dancing and a strong work ethic. Spears is grateful for the adult professionals who helped her get her start, but the same can’t be said of her peers. When she met Justin Timberlake, also a Mouseketeer on the Disney Channel’s updated Mickey Mouse Club, the two formed an instant bond. Spears describes her teenage feelings for Timberlake as “so in love with him it was pathetic,” and she’s clearly angry about the rumors and breakup that followed. This tumultuous period haunted her for years. Out of many candidates for villains of the book, Timberlake included, perhaps the worst are the careless journalists of the late 1990s and early 2000s, who indulged Timberlake while vilifying Spears. The cycle repeated for years, taking its toll on her mental health. Spears gave birth to sons Sean Preston and Jayden James within two years, and she describes the difficulties they all faced living in the spotlight. The author writes passionately about how custody of her boys and visits with them were held over her head, and she recounts how they were used to coerce her to make decisions that weren’t always in her best interest. As many readers know, conservancy followed, and for 13 years, she toured, held a residency in Las Vegas, and performed—all while supposedly unable to take care of herself, an irony not lost on her. Overall, the book is cathartic, though readers who followed her 2021 trial won’t find many revelations, and many of the other newsworthy items have been widely covered in the run-up to the book’s release.
Spears’ vulnerability shines through as she describes her painful journey from vulnerable girl to empowered woman.Pub Date: Oct. 24, 2023
ISBN: 9781668009048
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
What a talent, what a career, what a life, and what a treat to relive it all with this most down-to-earth of demigods.
A gloriously massive memoir from a sui generis star.
When Keith Richards and Bruce Springsteen published 500-page memoirs, that seemed long—but as we learned, they really did have that much to say. Streisand doubles the ante with 1,000 pages. In addition to chronicling her own life, the author offers fascinating lessons on acting, directing, film editing, sound mixing, lighting, and more, as revealed in detailed accounts of the making of each of her projects. As Stephen Sondheim commented about her, “It’s not just the gift, it’s the willingness to take infinite pains.” The pains really pay off. With every phase of her life, from childhood in Brooklyn to her 27-year-romance with current husband, James Brolin, Streisand throws everything she has—including her mother’s scrapbook and her own considerable talent as a writer—into developing the characters, settings, conversations, meals, clothes, and favorite colors and numbers of a passionately lived existence. In the process, she puts her unique stamp on coffee ice cream, egg rolls, dusty rose, pewter gray, the number 24, Donna Karan, Modigliani, and much more. Among the heroes are her father, who died when she was very young but nevertheless became an ongoing inspiration. The villains include her mother, whose coldness and jealousy were just as consistent. An armada of ex-boyfriends, colleagues, and collaborators come to life in a tone that captures the feel of Streisand’s spoken voice by way of Yiddishisms, parenthetical asides, and snappy second thoughts. The end is a little heavy on tributes, but you wouldn’t want to miss the dog cloning, the generous photo section, or this line, delivered in all seriousness: “Looking back, I feel as if I didn't fulfill my potential.”
What a talent, what a career, what a life, and what a treat to relive it all with this most down-to-earth of demigods.Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2023
ISBN: 9780525429524
Page Count: 992
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Nov. 6, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2023
SEEN & HEARD
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