An incredible story of courage and compassion.
A harrowing memoir from “one of the few remaining Dutch Jewish survivors” of World War II.
With captivating and heartbreaking detail, van de Perre (b. 1922) shares her memories of the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, offering “a testament to our fight against inhumanity.” Though the author enjoyed a happy childhood, in 1936, the Netherlands started taking in immigrants from Germany who “told troubling tales of National Socialism and what happened to people who renounced the Nazis.” At first, nobody paid much attention, but soon enough, German soldiers invaded and “beg[a]n to commit acts so horrific that I now struggle to believe they really happened, in spite of having experienced them myself.” As a child, being Jewish in Amsterdam never posed a problem. Her family wasn’t strictly observant, and people barely mentioned religious differences. While it may not have seemed significant at the time, “the fact that I didn’t look Jewish would later save my life.” By 1942, van de Perre was working for the resistance as a courier. For her own security, she bleached her hair and assumed a new name and identity, Margareta van der Kuit. Despite her subterfuge, however, she was arrested and put on a train to the female-only Ravensbrück concentration camp, where she was greeted by SS officers with whips. She was subjected to hard labor and meals consisting of watered-down coffee for breakfast and a thin slice of bread and soup (“water with a few blades of grass or cabbage”) for supper. Throughout her time at Ravensbrück, the author remained cautious and quiet, fearing that her true identity would be revealed. Due to perseverance and some good fortune, she managed to survive her brutal circumstances, which she ably conveys in a plainspoken, touching manner, displaying a sharp memory and acute sense of the gravity of her experiences. In April 1945, she was marched to freedom. Next came the task of picking up the pieces.
An incredible story of courage and compassion.Pub Date: May 11, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-982164-67-6
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: March 2, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
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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