A riveting biography of one of the late-20th-century’s most fascinating and inscrutable figures. Greenberg and Jordan have set themselves a difficult task, writing the life of an individual who did his best to interpose a façade between himself and the world at all times, but they pull it off, in part by letting their subject’s metamorphosis govern their text. They begin at the beginning, with Warhol’s childhood infatuation with Shirley Temple and follow their subject to art school and beyond, when he began experimenting with both art and life to the point where they became one and the same. Warhol’s determination to create himself and his world marks one of the central themes, as it must; his alienation from the world he effectively escapes is its mirror. Liberally incorporating quotations from interviews and reminiscences, the narrative moves back and forth from explication of Warhol’s art and methods to an almost awed (and frequently very funny) chronicling of the ever-increasing weirdness of Warhol’s life and work. By the end, the man and the myth have become one—Warhol would’ve liked that. (full-color insert of selected art, chronology, glossary, filmography, bibliography, notes, sources) (Biography. YA)
Pub Date: Oct. 12, 2004
ISBN: 0-385-73056-X
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2004
Small but mighty necessary reading.
A miniature manifesto for radical queer acceptance that weaves together the personal and political.
Eli, a cis gay white Jewish man, uses his own identities and experiences to frame and acknowledge his perspective. In the prologue, Eli compares the global Jewish community to the global queer community, noting, “We don’t always get it right, but the importance of showing up for other Jews has been carved into the DNA of what it means to be Jewish. It is my dream that queer people develop the same ideology—what I like to call a Global Queer Conscience.” He details his own isolating experiences as a queer adolescent in an Orthodox Jewish community and reflects on how he and so many others would have benefitted from a robust and supportive queer community. The rest of the book outlines 10 principles based on the belief that an expectation of mutual care and concern across various other dimensions of identity can be integrated into queer community values. Eli’s prose is clear, straightforward, and powerful. While he makes some choices that may be divisive—for example, using the initialism LGBTQIAA+ which includes “ally”—he always makes clear those are his personal choices and that the language is ever evolving.
Small but mighty necessary reading. (resources) (Nonfiction. 14-18)Pub Date: June 2, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-09368-9
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: March 28, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2020
Evocative, elegant prose tells the true, first-person story of Samantha’s difficult childhood navigating a learning disability. Sam has dyscalculia, which severely hinders her ability to understand sequential processing. Academic skills affected include math, spelling, and grammar; other inabilities are telling time, understanding how hours pass, counting money, and dialing the phone. As a child, Sam disguises both her inability to function like other children as well as her shame and fear about it. The eventual diagnosis of “learning disabled” is a godsend, but still leaves many challenges. At age 15, Sam publishes a group-project book of her own original poems (Reach for the Moon), and although high school and college are massive challenges, she finishes both. Crippling social anxiety turns out to be caused not just by the learning disability, but also by depression. Medication brings some long-needed relief. Educational and beautifully written, perfectly demonstrating how learning disabilities can coexist with real talent. (Memoir. YA)
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-439-33904-9
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Orchard/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2003
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