One of the best loved painters in English history, ThomasGainsborough (1727-1788) was also one of the mostpersonally engaging. Bon vivant, wit, amateur and enthusiasticmusician, he charmed sitters and friends alike. His ebullient,if not always reliable, personality comes to life in these twomemoirs, written by two very different friends.
Based on over 250 psychiatric case files, this book traces the lives of Kenya's 'white insane' to focus not on the 'great white hunters' and heroic pioneer farmers but on those Europeans who did not manage to emulate the colonial ideal. In doing so, the book raises important new questions around deviance, transgression and social control. -- .
America is at a crossroads, and it may take a street-smart misfit to sort it all out. In this hilarious political satire, vignettes burlesquing the absurd and grotesque contortions of male chauvinism alternate with postmodern Lady Godivas parading alluringly and dreaming of retirement. Exponents of sexism and exploitation confront each other and slap each other's resting bitch- faces. Exotic dancers in a strip club speak their minds. Tales of a wayward wienermobile, perils of aging and youthful blunders, spilling the beans, leaving gossipy stink scattered like broken winds. Tragicomic pratfalls of American ideals in an age of authoritarianism and rampant materialism take center stage, and a man who dreams of wearing a grizzly bear costume to go berserk in gives us the bird. The vixen narrator, lil Vireo, can tell no lies. She sees all and wears no disguise. A romp through life's Strip-Club of pretenders and deniers fooling themselves while slapped in the rump. Politician dudes using parade costumes as messages, and strippers taking off symbolic garb redolent with our times-revealing our naked carnival of phantasmagorical human desires and fears.