A comprehensive, if sometimes long-winded, familial study.
Seeking to understand his parent’s undiagnosed mental illness, retired veteran Affield analyzes primary sources for a holistic view of his subject.
Continuing his investigation into his family’s past that he begun in Chickenhouse Chronicles(2017), the author compiles decades of diaries and letters to examine the life of his mother, Barbara, who died in 2010. Letters that she sent to and from the author’s maternal grandmother, Elsie, provide much of the insight into Barbara’s childhood. She was born in 1920 to parents who maintained a lavish lifestyle, on the surface at least, as the ’20s ended and the Great Depression began. Elsie wrote often to family members about Barbara’s “attacks” and how she isolated herself. Affield notes throughout how Barbara’s symptoms match his hypothesis that she suffered from borderline personality disorder; however, he’s cautious to note where his grandmother’s words may be unreliable, as she “often wrote in her diary after the fact so she could put a favorable spin on her own actions.” The transcribed diary entries and letters are sometimes tedious to read, but they’re also resoundingly thorough. If the goal of this project is to put in modern terms what didn’t have a name during his mother’s time, then it’s successful. The book is at its finest, however, when Affield inserts his own memories or observations, such as an assessment of a photo of his mother in “the trappings of affluence…her folded, gloved hands” as she sets sail for an ill-fated time in Europe at the dawn of World War II. He tracks correspondence between anxious family members following her troubled return to America; she changed her name and moved from suitor to suitor, “running from problems—a common borderline personality disorder defense mechanism,” which resulted in a mystery regarding the identity of Affield’s father. The book comes alive as the author begins to seek out information on his unknown parent in Part 3 and a genetic investigation plays out in emails and letters.
A comprehensive, if sometimes long-winded, familial study.Pub Date: Sept. 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-945902-08-6
Page Count: 396
Publisher: Whispering Petals Press, LLC
Review Posted Online: Nov. 20, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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
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