‘The Master of Us All: Balenciaga, His Workrooms, His World’ by Mary Blume
Posted on May 20, 2013 by Curt Weber in Bio/Memoir, Reviews
How does one write a biography about someone who has been dead for 40 years, was a bit of a recluse his whole life, and whom few people really knew? If you are Mary Blume, and the subject is Cristobal Balenciaga—one of fashion’s most unique and forward-thinking designers in his day—you focus on the fashion itself, the time when the subject was most creative, and on the impact he had on fashion. (more…)
‘Harley Loco: A Memoir of Hard Living, Hair, and Post-Punk, from the Middle East to the Lower East Side’ by Rayya Elias
Posted on May 12, 2013 by Rachel Wexelbaum in Bio/Memoir, Reviews
Millions of Syrian refugees have fled their homeland due to decades of civil war. While most settle in Turkey, Greece, and Lebanon, those with a little more money can travel farther from the chaos. As of May 2013, approximately 150,000 Americans identify as Syrian—a small minority, even among other Arab Americans living in the United States. Syrian immigrants have historically settled in tight-knit communities in New York, Boston, and Detroit, but wherever they’ve landed, “home” has been with family. (more…)
‘The End of San Francisco’ by Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore
Posted on April 30, 2013 by Sassafras Lowrey in Bio/Memoir, Reviews
Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore’s long awaited memoir The End of San Francisco (City Lights) will rip you open; crack your rib-cage and pour glitter into your heart. It’s hard and captivating, a book that truly pulls you in and won’t let you go. Brutal and brilliant, the memoir weaves in and out of time, bringing readers into the intimate details of Sycamore’s adolescence and early activist days. Never defaulting to tidy recounts, cleaned with the passage of time, Sycamore invites readers to share in the complexities of growing up and finding yourself. Sycamore doesn’t shy away from pain, terror, or disappointment of young queer adulthood. (more…)
‘The Soundtrack of My Life’ by Clive Davis
Posted on April 17, 2013 by Rashod D. Ollison in Bio/Memoir, Reviews
Clive Davis made headlines when his doorstop of a biography, The Soundtrack of My Life (Simon and Schuster), recently filled bookstore shelves. The pop impresario revealed that he’s bisexual. He arrived at this great “relief,” as he calls it, during the heady days of Studio 54. (more…)
‘I Await the Devil’s Coming’ by Mary MacLane
Posted on April 15, 2013 by John Bavoso in Bio/Memoir, Reviews
Based solely on its title, I Await the Devil’s Coming (Melville House Publishing) sounds like a canonical text for Satanists. In reality, it’s the fiercely feminist, wickedly witty, and decidedly deranged glimpse into the life and thoughts of a transgressive young woman growing up unhappily in the Midwest at the beginning of the 20th century. (more…)
‘Does This Baby Make Me Look Straight? Confessions of a Gay Dad’ by Dan Bucatinsky
Posted on April 14, 2013 by Thomas March in Bio/Memoir, Reviews
Families don’t just happen. Gay, straight, single or coupled, nobody could possibly find it easy to build (and maintain) a happy, healthy family. Maybe nobody ever gets it completely right, but Dan Bucatinsky’s Does This Baby Make Me Look Straight? (Touchstone/Simon & Schuster), a memoir of his experience thus far as a gay father, provides proof enough that compassion, generosity, honesty—and humor—might just get you close. (more…)
‘Farther and Wilder: The Lost Weekends and Literary Dreams of Charles Jackson’ by Blake Bailey
Posted on April 8, 2013 by Ken Harvey in Bio/Memoir, Reviews
Blake Bailey’s fascinating new biography, Farther and Wilder: the Lost Weekends and Literary Dreams of Charles Jackson (Knopf), begins and ends with a fatal crash. The first is unexpected: on a leisurely ride in 1916, Jackson’s older sister and younger brother are killed when a train strikes their car. Thirteen-year-old Charlie is spared, having holed up in the library that Sunday afternoon. The second crash–Jackson’s long decline into substance abuse and depression that leads to his suicide – is anything but surprising. Indeed, one finishes Bailey’s biography wondering how Jackson survived as long as he did. (more…)
‘Body Geographic’ by Barrie Jean Borich
Posted on April 2, 2013 by Rachel Wexelbaum in Bio/Memoir, Reviews
During the dawn of the Middle Ages, the average peasant rarely traveled more than sixty miles from their ancestral home. People did not dare move far from familiar people, places, professions, or ideas, for fear of falling off the edge of the known world. At the same time, peasant faces and bodies reflected their exposure to the elements, revealing a deeper connection and knowledge of that world than modern people will ever have. As they had no mirrors, those peasants did not spend much time reflecting on their identities or their sense of place. The longest journey they would ever make would be to Heaven, and they believed what priests and fellow villagers told them to be true about themselves. (more…)
‘Prairie Silence: A Memoir’ by Melanie Hoffert
Posted on March 17, 2013 by Lydia Harris in Bio/Memoir, Reviews
The people of the prairie gave me no context for my feelings. And yet the entire idea of being with a woman, being in love with a woman, was so deeply engrained in my being I couldn’t dismiss it, not even as my physical reality begged me to reconsider the sanity of it all.
“A Woman Like Me” by Bettye LaVette (with David Ritz)
Posted on March 10, 2013 by L. Michael Gipson in Bio/Memoir, Reviews
In most families there is at least one lady who is a larger-than-life pip. She lives life a little too hard, over shares the details of her dubiously acquired knowledge with a wry laugh, and a generously filled rock glass. She’s the life of every party and one is never quite sure how she comes by her income. Presenting herself never less than expensive, never less than fly, she always keeps some moneyed or easy-on-the eyes lovin’ in her life (sometimes both). If you aren’t lucky enough to have an aunt, sister, or even a grandmother in your life like that, you can borrow singer Bettye LaVette for a while and get an experience. But, buckle your seat-belt. (more…)
