Twist

Twist

By Adele Bertei

Genre:-Memoir

Pages:-250

Publisher:-ZE Books 

Blurb:-'One of the most original, amazing stories I've ever read'-Mary Gaitskill

 From iconoclastic writer and musician Adele Bertei comes a wholly original hero's journey that wages war on the cliche of the "misery memoir." Set in a 1960s and '70s American neighbourhood rife with poverty and violence, fatherless Irish mothers and Italian mobsters, and women crucified into madness by misogyny, Bertei speaks through her electrically alive avatar Maddie Twist to flip the victim script. Through her unshakeable belief in imagination, poetry, music, and community, she transforms trauma into survival. The immediacy of Maddie's voice is a revation, providing insight into long-enduring systemic problems without the scrim of adult analysis. In an age of lies and obfuscation, Twist is a sharp yet tender arrow to the heart of naked truth.

 Bertei reveals what it's like to be a queer teen at a time when discovery could be fatal. Maddie peers deeply into the American psyche, refusing to consent to the systems of harm. Along the way we encounter an unforgettable schizophrenic mother, Catholic saints, West Side Story and Oliver!, poet killers, the abyss of rape, girl-gangsters and faux-pimps, teenage lesbian sex, racial tensions and misconceived divides, a drag family known as the Holy Maudlins, Vietnam vets in dark and light, cabaret, true family, rock and roll. And the ultimate saving grace: love.

 A compelling personal history of queer culture from a working-class view and a glimpse into worlds yet unseen, similar traumas, for teens caught in the foster care system, for the formerly incarcerated looking for hope, for writers grappling with how to tell their own stories. Most of all, it's for everyone seeking transportive experiences in art and on the page.

Thank you #Ad #Gifted

Instagram:-@adelebertei @ateliercomms @zebooks_usa @paulalearmouth

Twitter:-@Ref17 @mamof9

My Review:-A veteran musician recalls her rough coming-of-age experience in Cleveland in the 1960s and 70s. A story of survival and redemption through challenging obstacles. Adele narrates her journey through different circumstances of her life, poverty, mental illness, domestic violence, and more. Maddie comes across as curious, impulsive, observant and brought to life by the music she hears.

 After leaving foster-care, she forms a family of her own with her drag-queen neighbours, her boss from a thrift store. Her love for music and also writing is what gets her through life. This story is really emotional and one that will stay with you after you close the book. I read this book in one sitting as it had me captivated from the start.