Drexler rises from her corner, ready to fight again!
A wild ride through the underground lives of female wrestlers in early 1970s New York.
One day, Rosa—a deliberate naif, on her own since she was 15 and wandering through New York City with all her belongings in a straw bag—is depressed. She decides to wait out the “unhip” afternoon at the movies, but midway through the picture feels a hand on her thigh. This is Rosa’s introduction to Paul Partch—itinerant art critic, fetishist of large, powerful women, ardent wrestling fan—who becomes her midafternoon lover, then her love. Eventually, however, Paul’s need to assert dominance over Rosa in a fantasy version of their relationship, because, as he reasons, “ownership belongs to the creator,” leads him to finagle her introduction to Bobby Fox, the big boss of a veritable stable of traveling lady wrestlers. Rosa, who recognizes Paul’s essentially manipulative nature, decides to go along with the wrestling idea “for kicks” and enters into a complex underworld filled with characters like Lee Darling, the Beautiful Boomerang, a wrestling world washout who rides with the American Legion on the side; Tommy J. Jukes, whose cruel, patriarchal relationship with her female lover repulses Rosa; and Shorty, a loquacious “right-hand man” with dwarfism whose wife and child were “smashed to smithereens” in a car accident years before. These characters, and many more, objectify, oppress, counsel, and care for Rosa, even as Paul, oscillating between sexualized glee at her success and insecurity at her growing distance, tries to pull her back under his dominion. While at times the book, originally published in 1972, shows its age—’70s-era freak show ableism of the Tom Robbins variety rides a gleeful sidecar to the main plot—the buoyant quality of Rosa’s nature, her absolute certainty of her right to her own perspective, and her open embrace of a world that is sometimes actively trying to harm her go a long way toward recentering the reader’s attention to the novel’s real goal: a radical assertion of the power inherent in Rosa, and the rest of us, to defend the identity we’ve chosen to live. The result is a book that is both epic in its energy and intimate in its attention; a much-needed reminder of the enduring, and transformative, power of the weird.
Drexler rises from her corner, ready to fight again!Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9781965028025
Page Count: 200
Publisher: Hagfish
Review Posted Online: March 22, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
Have tissues ready as you read this. A small package will do.
A love story about a life of second chances.
In Nassau, in the Bahamas, casino detective Vincent LaPorta grills Alfie Logan, who’d come up a winner three times in a row at the roulette table and walked away with $2 million. “How did you do it?” asks the detective. Alfie calmly denies cheating. You wired all the money to a Gianna Rule, LaPorta says. Why? To explain, Alfie produces a composition book with the words “For the Boss, to Be Read Upon My Death” written on the cover. Read this for answers, Alfie suggests, calling it a love story. His mother had passed along to him a strange trait: He can say “Twice!” and go back to a specific time and place to have a do-over. But it only works once for any particular moment, and then he must live with the new consequences. He can only do this for himself and can’t prevent anyone from dying. Alfie regularly uses his power—failing to impress a girl the first time, he finds out more about her, goes back in time, and presto! She likes him. The premise is of course not credible—LaPorta doesn’t buy it either—but it’s intriguing. Most people would probably love to go back and unsay something. The story’s focus is on Alfie’s love for Gianna and whether it’s requited, unrequited, or both. In any case, he’s obsessed with her. He’s a good man, though, an intelligent person with ordinary human failings and a solid moral compass. Albom writes in a warm, easy style that transports the reader to a world of second chances and what-ifs, where spirituality lies close to the surface but never intrudes on the story. Though a cynic will call it sappy, anyone who is sick to their core from the daily news will enjoy this escape from reality.
Have tissues ready as you read this. A small package will do.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9780062406682
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 18, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
With captivating dialogue, angst-y characters, and a couple of steamy sex scenes, Hoover has done it again.
After being released from prison, a young woman tries to reconnect with her 5-year-old daughter despite having killed the girl’s father.
Kenna didn’t even know she was pregnant until after she was sent to prison for murdering her boyfriend, Scotty. When her baby girl, Diem, was born, she was forced to give custody to Scotty’s parents. Now that she’s been released, Kenna is intent on getting to know her daughter, but Scotty’s parents won’t give her a chance to tell them what really happened the night their son died. Instead, they file a restraining order preventing Kenna from so much as introducing herself to Diem. Handsome, self-assured Ledger, who was Scotty’s best friend, is another key adult in Diem’s life. He’s helping her grandparents raise her, and he too blames Kenna for Scotty’s death. Even so, there’s something about her that haunts him. Kenna feels the pull, too, and seems to be seeking Ledger out despite his judgmental behavior. As Ledger gets to know Kenna and acknowledges his attraction to her, he begins to wonder if maybe he and Scotty’s parents have judged her unfairly. Even so, Ledger is afraid that if he surrenders to his feelings, Scotty’s parents will kick him out of Diem’s life. As Kenna and Ledger continue to mourn for Scotty, they also grieve the future they cannot have with each other. Told alternatively from Kenna’s and Ledger’s perspectives, the story explores the myriad ways in which snap judgments based on partial information can derail people’s lives. Built on a foundation of death and grief, this story has an undercurrent of sadness. As usual, however, the author has created compelling characters who are magnetic and sympathetic enough to pull readers in. In addition to grief, the novel also deftly explores complex issues such as guilt, self-doubt, redemption, and forgiveness.
With captivating dialogue, angst-y characters, and a couple of steamy sex scenes, Hoover has done it again.Pub Date: Jan. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5420-2560-7
Page Count: 335
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Review Posted Online: Oct. 12, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2021
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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