An unvarnished recollection of the difficulties and rewards of overcoming addiction.
Wrestling serves as an apt metaphor in this real-life tale of turmoil and redemption.
Jensen opens this gripping memoir during the summer after his high school graduation as he envisions wrestling at the community college level. However, his decision to make quick money in the Alaska fishing industry—where the mental and physical tolls of long, intense hours are often soothed with alcohol and drugs—leads to an extended, harrowing set of detours spanning nearly two decades. The devastating effects of Jensen’s meth addiction are on full display, with countless scenes of drug-fueled rage, recklessness, and depravity. At one point, he nearly died from blood loss, too altered to notice a serious injury. In a striking irony, readers witness the slow destruction of a body that in the context of wrestling would be treated as a temple through nutrition, training, and discipline. At the same time, Jensen’s physical prowess, spatial awareness, and mental acuity occasionally came in handy when violence erupted. The author effectively employs visceral language to describe these conflicts: “I was a master at masking fear, but you can only wear a mask for so long before the face beneath, the true face of who you are, eats its way to the surface.” In addition, he recounts several heartbreaking moments with family members, and if there’s a minor flaw to this book, it’s a lack of familial context at the beginning of his story. Jensen often mentions his reliance on values instilled in his upbringing, but it’s not clear what these are. Eventually, an epiphany and one last arrest sparked his grueling journey to recovery. Finally, at 36, he found himself where he had planned to be all those years before, wrestling on a community college team. Although the author repeatedly emphasizes that the ultimate goal was not necessarily winning, he reached the pinnacle of his wrestling career in 2016, becoming a Folkstyle national champion in the Masters Division. Overall, this memoir’s content and style make it easy to see why Jensen later found success as a motivational speaker.
An unvarnished recollection of the difficulties and rewards of overcoming addiction.Pub Date: April 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-987476-44-6
Page Count: 214
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Sept. 7, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A memoir of vivid detail and understandable ambivalence.
The bassist for Prince during the Purple Rain era provides glimpses into the kingdom.
BrownMark—who was born Mark Brown in 1962—describes his rise from a single-parent home in a city of racial discrimination (Minneapolis) to success with the musical supernova. Yet there were plenty of bumps along the way. For example, in 1982, even a big raise only brought his salary to $425 per week; later, he quit after discovering that his Purple Rain Tour bonus that he’d imagined might be $1.5 million was in fact only $15,000. Those looking for a memoir awash in sex, drugs, and the seamier sides of Prince’s private life will instead discover hard work and rigid discipline under a stern taskmaster, an artist who became what he was through minute attention to detail as well as genius. The author ably chronicles his own life growing up Black in a city so White he thought of it as a “Scandinavian Mecca.” As a boy, his family didn’t have a TV, and his early experiences playing music involved a makeshift guitar constructed out of a shoe box and rubber bands. Before he auditioned for Prince, he had never been to the suburbs, and before he joined the band, he had never been on a plane. His life changed dramatically at a time when the world of music was changing, as well. Disco was breaking down walls between Black and White, and punk was bringing a new edge and urgency. As Prince’s star was ascending, he demanded the full spotlight and resented any response his young bassist was generating. The author left the band in the mid-1980s feeling that he lived “in a world of filth, greed, and deception.” Still, the connections and impressions he made as a member of The Revolution launched his career, and he notes that “working with Prince was like going to the finest music school in the land.” One of Kirkus and Rolling Stone’s Best Music Books of 2020.
A memoir of vivid detail and understandable ambivalence.Pub Date: Sept. 22, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5179-0927-7
Page Count: 144
Publisher: Univ. of Minnesota
Review Posted Online: July 6, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
Disjointed in spots but thoughtful and often inspirational.
An acclaimed actor “taught not to make scenes” as a young girl explores how “scenes” from her life have made her into the woman she became.
In her first book, Wu, best known for her roles in the TV show Fresh Off the Boat and the film Crazy Rich Asians, reflects on the experiences that transformed her from a shy girl into a self-confident performer able to create meaningful, stereotype-defying characters. The American-born daughter of Taiwanese immigrants, Wu, who dreamed of a professional acting career, assimilated well into the conservative White Virginia suburb where she grew up. Yet the Asian actors she saw often made her want to cringe for the way they brought attention to the “Asian-ness” Wu could not entirely accept in herself. It wasn’t until she began studying drama in college that the author began to dig within herself to find what could truly make her characters come alive. In her personal life, Wu deepened her emotional maturity with lessons in love while also experiencing the turmoil caused by a traumatic sexual experience. “I didn’t feel attacked or assaulted or coerced and I certainly didn’t feel raped,” she writes. “Strange as it sounds, the word ‘rape’ didn’t even occur to me.” After moving to California for her acting career, she began to educate herself on rape culture. Her awakening, however, could not protect her from Hollywood anti-feminism or her own desire to be a “cool girl” who could brush off casual misogyny. As she gained professional visibility and acclaim, Wu found herself at the mercy of an Asian American producer who intimidated and sexually harassed her. The essays—parts of which she cleverly imagines as stage scenes—are intimate and rich in emotional detail. However, the time shifts and occasional lack of thematic connection sometimes limit the impact of the author’s message.
Disjointed in spots but thoughtful and often inspirational.Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-982188-54-2
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
SEEN & HEARD
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