Windy City Media Group Frontpage News

THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985

home search facebook twitter join
Gay News Sponsor Windy City Times 2023-12-13
DOWNLOAD ISSUE
Donate

Sponsor
Sponsor
Sponsor

  WINDY CITY TIMES

BOOK REVIEW Ladies Lazarus
by Lauren Emily Whalen
2019-01-08

This article shared 3468 times since Tue Jan 8, 2019
facebook twitter pin it google +1 reddit email


By Piper J. Daniels

$16; Tarpaulin Sky Press; 128 pages

Piper J. Daniels is many things: a Columbia College Chicago graduate, a Michigan native, a queer intersectional feminist, and a professional ghostwriter. Impressive bio and city connections aside, she's a survivor, as all women are. Let's face it: Everyone who's not a straight white cis man commits a radical act by leaving the house to face a world that, more often than not, doesn't want them.

Ladies Lazarus is Daniels' stunning debut book, a collection of poetic essays on literature, suicide culture, body image and the aftermath of hometown terror. ( In addition, the essay collection has been nominated for the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay. ) Although Daniels tends to heavily quote and name-drop her literary heroes, almost to the point of saturation, her writing is both evocative and clear. Her queerness, her feminism, her self are present in every single syllable. When it comes to voice, hers is unmistakable, and memorable.

Anyone triggered by mentions of suicide should probably stay away from Ladies Lazarus, but those who have struggled with mental illness and self-harm could find these essays very therapeutic. The collection's title originates from Sylvia Plath's iconic poem "Lady Lazarus," which contains the lines "Dying/Is an art, like everything else./I do it exceptionally well." Plath, of course, committed suicide as a young wife and mother, and she wasn't alone: Anne Sexton and Kurt Cobain, both of whom Daniels quotes, also went early and of their own volition. In "Epistle for Suicided Mothers," Daniels pays homage to four female writers who have gone before her, including Virginia Woolf ( "[l]ike every sentence penned, your death was perfect" ) and fellow Midwesterner Sara Teasdale ( "[i]n the tub, in the warm water, your skin takes on that pinking pallor" ).

However, Ladies Lazarus doesn't focus exclusively on suicide; rather, its main thrust is the business of existing. In the collection's title essay, Daniels explores her mother's own illness, as well as what really happens in the Biblical story of Lazarus. As Daniels astutely points out, "[h]ow jesus [sic] was aware of Lazarus's illness, but waited until he'd been entombed for four days before doing anything about it." This pulling aside the curtain is a touchstone of the entire book: Daniels is intent on removing the stigma of mental illness, surviving sexual assault and dealing with one's past once and for all.

In the book's strongest essay, "The Twist," Daniels unpacks the murder of two preteen girls in her small Michigan hometown—when Daniels was their same age. She describes the ensuing paranoia and victim-blaming, the trial and the strangely hands-off attitude her formerly overbearing parents took toward Daniels and her younger sister. "The Twist" lays it all out in Daniels' unflinching narrative: society's fascination with young murdered girls, and how it affects the actual surviving girls in the vicinity. The events Daniels writes of in this essay laid the groundwork for the adult she would become, and the picture she paints is unforgettably haunting.

Ladies Lazarus isn't just for female readers. Anyone who loves books and knows fear is an ideal match for Daniels' debut essay collection. Though reader never meets author—only catches glimpses throughout the short 128 pages—by the final piece, they will feel like they know her.


This article shared 3468 times since Tue Jan 8, 2019
facebook twitter pin it google +1 reddit email

Out and Aging
Presented By

  ARTICLES YOU MIGHT LIKE

Gay News

BOOK REVIEW Activist Peter Staley's Memoir 'Never Silent' is a real-life thriller 2021-10-13
--From marksking.com - "Attention must be paid to such a man." Arthur Miller Peter Staley's much-anticipated new memoir, Never Silent, opens with almost unbearable nail-biting suspense, sweeping us into the behind-the-scenes machinations of an ACT UP takeover of ...


Gay News

BOOK REVIEW Gay Like Me: A Father Writes to His Son 2020-10-22
- By Richie Jackson $24.99; Harper; 163 pages Like father, like son. When you were small, people said you looked just like your dad. As you grew up, they said you had his sense of humor or his temper, you laughed alike, ...


Gay News

BOOK REVIEW Butch Cassidy: The True Story of an American Outlaw 2020-08-18
- By Charles Leerhsen $28; Simon & Schuster; 304 pages That man there? He's just a nice guy. Kind and generous, respectful and friendly, he's a true gentleman, and he's never judgmental. He loves children and animals, ...


Gay News

BOOK REVIEW Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man 2020-07-21
- By Mary L. Trump, Ph.D. $28; Simon and Schuster; 227 pages. You hadn't seen that container in ages. You really can't remember when you put it on the shelf. Sometime this year, six years ago, when ...


Gay News

BOOK REVIEW Calamity: The Many Lives of Calamity Jane 2020-05-25
- You can call yourself whatever you want. Nobody says you can't have a different name every day, if that's your wish. Reinvent your life, create a new past, change your birth year, and tell new stories, ...


Gay News

BOOK REVIEW An Indefinite Sentence: A Personal History of Outlawed Love and Sex 2020-04-15
- Coming out was difficult enough. Even if everyone supported you and very little changed, you changed; still, though you had doubts and fear, it was something you had to do. Now read the new book An ...


Gay News

BOOK REVIEW Ian McKellen: A Biography 2020-03-17
- Author: Garry O'Connor. $29.99; St. Martin's Press; 356 pages Any old stick would do. When you were a child, that's what it took to become a wizard: a stick became a makeshift wand, an old towel ...


Gay News

BOOK REVIEW The Trans Generation 2020-03-08
- By Ann Travers $25; New York University Press; 261 pages Boy or girl? That's a common enough question, if you're an expectant parent. You might've even wondered it yourself: will you need pink things or blue, ...


Gay News

BOOK REVIEW Headcase: LGBTQ Writers and Artists on Mental Health and Wellness 2020-03-02
- Edited by Stephanie Schroeder and Teresa Theophano. $29.95; Oxford University. Press; 287 pages You had a flu shot this year. You watch your cholesterol, eat better, stay active, and brush twice a day. So why do ...


Gay News

BOOK REVIEW Buzz: A Stimulating History of the Sex Toy 2020-01-22
- By Hallie Lieberman, $26.95; Pegasus Books; 359 pages Double-A. It has many uses, that little word-dash-letter. It's good for future baseball players. Good for a pre-teen girl. Great, if you're a student trying to bring those ...


Gay News

BOOK REVIEW Toil & Trouble 2019-12-24
- By Augusten Burroughs $27.99; St. Martin's Press; 320 pages Halloween is over this year, but not for you. Your decorations are still up because the season is young. There's plenty of time left for skeletons, monsters, ...


Gay News

BOOK REVIEW A Song for You: My Life with Whitney Houston 2019-11-26
- Author: Robyn Crawford. $28; Dutton; 319 pages You saw that coming. It was easy to anticipate because the signs were there. It was plain as day, couldn't have been easier to see if it was flashing ...


Gay News

BOOK REVIEW The Island of No Secrets and Other Stories 2019-10-01
- By Lou Dellaguzzo. $13; Lethe Press; 243 pages Island of No Secrets and Other Stories is a book of short stories that aim to portray what it meant to be queer in the United States in the 1970s. While the time ...


Gay News

BOOK REVIEW Sage Sapien, From Karma to Dharma 2019-09-17
- By Johnson Chong, $24.95; Koehler Books; 172 pages It's never clear who exactly Sage Sapien: From Karma to Dharma is for. The book, written by yoga impresario Johnson Chong, leans toward a number of potential audiences—yoga ...


Gay News

BOOK REVIEW Taken by the Wind 2019-09-17
- By Ellen Hart, $25.99; Minotaur Books; 320 pages Your bag was packed. There wasn't much in it except for the necessities: your two favorite toys, a clean T-shirt, the stuffed animal you couldn't sleep without, and ...


 


Copyright © 2024 Windy City Media Group. All rights reserved.
Reprint by permission only. PDFs for back issues are downloadable from
our online archives.

Return postage must accompany all manuscripts, drawings, and
photographs submitted if they are to be returned, and no
responsibility may be assumed for unsolicited materials.

All rights to letters, art and photos sent to Nightspots
(Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago
Gay and Lesbian News and Feature Publication) will be treated
as unconditionally assigned for publication purposes and as such,
subject to editing and comment. The opinions expressed by the
columnists, cartoonists, letter writers, and commentators are
their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of Nightspots
(Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago Gay,
Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender News and Feature Publication).

The appearance of a name, image or photo of a person or group in
Nightspots (Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times
(a Chicago Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender News and Feature
Publication) does not indicate the sexual orientation of such
individuals or groups. While we encourage readers to support the
advertisers who make this newspaper possible, Nightspots (Chicago
GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago Gay, Lesbian
News and Feature Publication) cannot accept responsibility for
any advertising claims or promotions.

 
 

TRENDINGBREAKINGPHOTOS







Sponsor


 



Donate


About WCMG      Contact Us      Online Front  Page      Windy City  Times      Nightspots
Identity      BLACKlines      En La Vida      Archives      Advanced Search     
Windy City Queercast      Queercast Archives     
Press  Releases      Join WCMG  Email List      Email Blast      Blogs     
Upcoming Events      Todays Events      Ongoing Events      Bar Guide      Community Groups      In Memoriam     
Privacy Policy     

Windy City Media Group publishes Windy City Times,
The Bi-Weekly Voice of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Trans Community.
5315 N. Clark St. #192, Chicago, IL 60640-2113 • PH (773) 871-7610 • FAX (773) 871-7609.