An engrossing and revealing account of one man’s Hawaiian memories.
A debut memoir focuses on life in Hawaii.
Lindsey breaks down this book into three sections: Memories, Wishes, and Regrets. The author’s recollections make up the bulk of the work and they arrive in lengths that range from a paragraph to a few pages. Lindsey waxes about everything from his first memory (getting a birthday cake at school) to summer camp in Haena, Kau, in the 1960s. He reflects on the many people he has met. He got to know Earl Bakken, the inventor of the pacemaker. There is his elementary school friend Johnny Hayashi, who died after being stuck under a car. Then there are the author’s ruminations on times past. Places near Lindsey’s hometown of Waimea used to be fairly empty, without the “maddening crowds” of today. Trucks hauling sugar passed through on their way to Kawaihae. The local paperboy delivered papers on horseback. As the author observes, “My how the world has changed.” The portion on Wishes ranges from the practical (“I wish I took care of my health”) to the fantastical (“I wish I could meet Queen Lili’uokalani and converse with her about the 1893 overthrow”). Regrets is the shortest section. It includes a lament that Lindsey never learned how to dance. Unlike a more traditional memoir, the book does not unfold chronologically. The sections are varied and not necessarily grouped by time or place. Readers get bits and pieces without any episode extending for too long. The prose is conversational (Mr. Morikawa “was the best teacher I ever had”) and the entire work is under 60 pages. The result is a swift, if sometimes truncated, portrait of Hawaii. The brevity can be perplexing at times. For instance, the author recalls two Japanese neighbors as “good people I will always remember.” No other specifics are provided. Yet Lindsey still offers an assortment of rich details that add up to an absorbing, personal look at a paradise that has seen many changes over the years.
An engrossing and revealing account of one man’s Hawaiian memories.Pub Date: April 4, 2023
ISBN: 978-1961096486
Page Count: 74
Publisher: The Regency Publishers US
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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