A beautifully written, loving tribute to the wonders found swimming in the wild outdoors.
The foundational text for the international “wild swimming” movement, originally published in 1999 in Britain—and the only book Deakin (1943-2006) published during his lifetime.
Inspired by John Cheever’s short story “The Swimmer,” Deakin began his trip across the waterways of Britain in April 1997, running naked into the waters of the Isles of Scilly. The author ended his journey the following Christmas Day, experiencing “the intoxication of the fiery cold” waters of the North Sea. Along the way, Deakin explored the springs of Malvern, famous for their “healing powers” and visited by Florence Nightingale and Charles Darwin; the mysterious Moor Barns Bath, “hidden in the brambles and nettles” in Cambridge; and the River Avon (“Avon that runs through Stratford-upon-Avon. Shakespeare’s Avon”), filled with sunbathers and loungers, creating the picture of “a water rats’ club straight from the pages of The Wind in the Willows.” Deakin ponders the joy of swimming aimlessly, noting that “the swimmer is content to be borne on his way full of mysteries, doubts and uncertainties. He is a leaf on the stream, free at last from his petty little purposes in life.” The author also had a few unexpected encounters, including with unfriendly officials while disembarking from the private waters of the Itchen River. “The right to walk freely along river banks or to bathe in rivers,” writes the author, “should no more be bought and sold than the right to walk up mountains or to swim in the sea from our beaches.” Throughout, Deakin shares lyrical descriptions of the history and geography of the varied waterways he visited, and he smoothly weaves in literary references inspired by his experiences, including reflecting on other English writers who shared his affinity for the water, such as Virginia Woolf and George Borrow. This edition also features a foreword by Bonnie Tsui and afterword by Robert Macfarlane.
A beautifully written, loving tribute to the wonders found swimming in the wild outdoors.Pub Date: May 25, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-951142-85-8
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Tin House
Review Posted Online: March 2, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.
A noted actor turns to verse: “Poems are a Saturday in the middle of the week.”
McConaughey, author of the gracefully written memoir Greenlights, has been writing poems since his teens, closing with one “written in an Australian bathtub” that reads just as a poem by an 18-year-old (Rimbaud excepted) should read: “Ignorant minds of the fortunate man / Blind of the fate shaping every land.” McConaughey is fearless in his commitment to the rhyme, no matter how slight the result (“Oops, took a quick peek at the sky before I got my glasses, / now I can’t see shit, sure hope this passes”). And, sad to say, the slight is what is most on display throughout, punctuated by some odd koanlike aperçus: “Eating all we can / at the all-we-can-eat buffet, / gives us a 3.8 education / and a 4.2 GPA.” “Never give up your right to do the next right thing. This is how we find our way home.” “Memory never forgets. Even though we do.” The prayer portion of the program is deeply felt, but it’s just as sentimental; only when he writes of life-changing events—a court appearance to file a restraining order against a stalker, his decision to quit smoking weed—do we catch a glimpse of the effortlessly fluent, effortlessly charming McConaughey as exemplified by the David Wooderson (“alright, alright, alright”) of Dazed and Confused. The rest is mostly a soufflé in verse. McConaughey’s heart is very clearly in the right place, but on the whole the book suggests an old saw: Don’t give up your day job.
It’s not Shakespeare, not by a long shot. But at least it’s not James Franco.Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9781984862105
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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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