Next book

WHERE MADNESS LIES

THE DOUBLE LIFE OF VIVIEN LEIGH

An unconventional biography some will love and others will shake their heads at.

The famous actress confronts her mental demons.

Drawing on unpublished material, historian Spence aims to go deep into her subject’s life. She writes that her goal is authenticity and a “theatrical air with symbolism and subtext” in order to “give Vivien her power back.” Spence begins her biography of the two-time Academy Award winner in 1953, when Leigh (1913-1967) had a nervous breakdown and was diagnosed with manic depression. Leigh was in Ceylon making a film with Peter Finch. She really didn’t want to do the movie, was miserable, and missed her husband, Sir Laurence Olivier, resulting in an affair with Finch. Both Leigh and Olivier were married before they first met and had affairs going on. Spence’s storytelling technique is to go into detail—how people feel, what they say and even think—as she describes Leigh’s falling to pieces. After returning to Hollywood, Leigh’s condition worsened. She was hospitalized in London, receiving electroconvulsive therapy treatments. Throughout, Spence intermittently touches on Leigh’s earlier years, her family, and previous roles. This back and forth sometimes makes for a bumpy ride. In 1955, her “mental health was on a downward spiral” while she was trying to rekindle her relationship with Finch; she did, which Olivier accepted amid his own flings. After a miscarriage and filming Anna Karenina, she fell into a deep depression, and her tuberculosis was making her ill. In 1958, Olivier was now in love with Joan Plowright and wanted a divorce. Leigh was experiencing more manic episodes and endured more ECT. Two years later, she gave in to Olivier. Spence shows her final years as sad ones, fraught with psychosis and stage fright, dying at 53 in 1967 from chronic pulmonary tuberculosis.

An unconventional biography some will love and others will shake their heads at.

Pub Date: Jan. 7, 2025

ISBN: 9781639368051

Page Count: 288

Publisher: Pegasus

Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2024

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2024

Awards & Accolades

Likes

  • Readers Vote
  • 113


Our Verdict

  • Our Verdict
  • GET IT


  • New York Times Bestseller

Next book

TANQUERAY

A blissfully vicarious, heartfelt glimpse into the life of a Manhattan burlesque dancer.

Awards & Accolades

Likes

  • Readers Vote
  • 113


Our Verdict

  • Our Verdict
  • GET IT


  • New York Times Bestseller

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

Awards & Accolades

Likes

  • Readers Vote
  • 39


Our Verdict

  • Our Verdict
  • GET IT


  • New York Times Bestseller

Next book

LOVE, PAMELA

A juicy story with some truly crazy moments, yet Anderson's good heart shines through.

Awards & Accolades

Likes

  • Readers Vote
  • 39


Our Verdict

  • Our Verdict
  • GET IT


  • New York Times Bestseller

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

Close Quickview