An important book even (or perhaps especially) for goyim that offers a glimpse into the everyday rigors of the Orthodox...
Volume 2 of Semenow’s memoir begins with Aliyah, the family's spiritual homecoming to Israel.
After the author initially describes the madness of customs at the airport upon arrival in Israel, we soon see the family beginning to settle into their new environment. This is the fulfillment of a dream nurtured since Semenow began to get serious about Judaism back in Cleveland while a law student. He is a convert of sorts, with a convert’s zeal: He even performs the bris on his own son. Then there is the learning of Hebrew, no small task for one whose neural pathways are pretty much set. The Semenow kids—three daughters and a son—pick it up much faster than their middle-aged dad. Speaking of kids, the author stresses the importance of finding challenging, reputable schools, and he devotes a chapter to each child’s education. (As it turns out, American-born kids are often looked down upon by their classmates as not spiritually serious.) But the kids learn to deal with the pressure and come out stronger for it. The author then tells of his several stints as a teacher of religion and then as a matchmaker—an important job among Orthodox Jews. Another essential task he takes on is that of schnorrer (Yiddish for “beggar”), raising funds for the yeshiva, the rabbinical school. He is sent around the world to do this and comes back not just with copious charitable donations, but also with a wealth of engaging stories. Semenow’s excitement throughout the memoir is infectious. He clearly loves anecdotes and revels in telling compelling stories not only about people who found religion as he did, but also about heroic Holocaust survivors. The penultimate chapter—the last is in awed praise of Jerusalem (the “center of the universe” as he describes it)—reveals his conservative political views. When Semenow is not schmoozing, he is exulting his faith and happiness, and as his Orthodoxy grows, the glossary of terms in the first book proves woefully inadequate.
An important book even (or perhaps especially) for goyim that offers a glimpse into the everyday rigors of the Orthodox Jewish experience.Pub Date: May 30, 2024
ISBN: 9781804399330
Page Count: 250
Publisher: Olympia Publishers
Review Posted Online: July 31, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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