Mon, 23 Dec 2024 01:06:25 GMT
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Mon, 23 Dec 2024 01:06:25 GMT
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A thoughtful account of personal discovery and the pursuit of dancing dreams in ’70s and ’80s America.
Colón offers an inspirational memoir about escaping a dreadful childhood to become a successful entertainer in the late 20th century.
The author’s family was from Puerto Rico, but she felt estranged from any Latine identity as she grew up in the Bronx. When she was not yet 4 years old, her father put her in an orphanage and had her mother committed. Colón unsuccessfully tried to run away from the institution and lived at the home until she was a teenager. She reports enduring both physical abuse and cruel punishments; when she wet the bed, she remembers having to kneel on the floor with the wet sheet wrapped around her head. The author was able to see the Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall and take dance classes, which put her on a path to become a performer. She was accepted into the High School of Performing Arts and was able to live with a foster family starting in 1970. Colón began performing, and, to escape her status of being a ward of the state (which would have continued until she was 21), she married her boyfriend when she turned 18. She left him due to his violent behavior and went on tour for six months with the No, No, Nanette company. By 1983, Colón had returned to New York, where she worked her way up to being a Rockette for the 1990 Christmas Spectacular. The author’s story is dramatic and compelling, boasting many twists and appearances by celebrities such as Freddie Prinze and Chita Rivera. Colón engagingly describes dancing at lunch time in high school (as in the movie Fame) and auditioning for Bob Fosse (“He stared up at the balcony, arms crossed, cigarette still in his right hand, as he said, ‘Would you ask her to do a double pirouette, please?’ ”); she also nicely conveys how she acquired a strong sense of self-preservation as well as a Latine identity (while dancing with The Latins). Each hardship brought a new realization that propelled her on to success—she describes her heartbreaking mistakes and inspiring developments honestly and movingly.
A thoughtful account of personal discovery and the pursuit of dancing dreams in ’70s and ’80s America.
Lilly is a book by Richard North Patterson that follows the story of a young lawyer, Lilly McIntyre, who is trying to achieve success in a male-dominated legal world.
In Chapter One we meet Lilly as she is taking on a case for a friend who has been wrongfully accused of murder. She visits the scene of the crime and begins her investigation with many avenues to explore. She conducts interviews with key witnesses and begins to piece together the story of the murder, eventually exonerating her client from the crime.
In Chapter Two, Lilly is presented with a job offer to work as a junior associate for a prominent law firm. Though it is an opportunity that could be the stepping stone for Lilly's career, she is hesitant when she realizes that the job is essentially working as the assistant for the man who got her friend wrongly accused of murder. She eventually takes the job and learns the hard way that it is sometimes necessary to make ethical compromises for the greater good.
In Chapter Three, Lilly is assigned a case where she must defend a large corporation accused of environmental negligence. Here she gains experience in the complex world of corporate law by representing the company in court. She quickly learns that the people who have the most power are usually the ones to get what they want.
In Chapter Four, Lilly's hard work does not go unnoticed and she is eventually promoted to senior associate. She now finds herself in the position to take on more challenging cases, such as when she has to defend a major oil company accused of a chemical spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
In Chapter Five, Lilly's successes come to a head when she is asked to join the prestigious law firm of McLellan & Associates. Here, she takes on increasingly difficult cases which all help her to grow as a lawyer.
In the last chapter, we find out that Lilly has been offered a partnership at McLellan & Associates, Bryson and Abernathy, which is an unprecedented opportunity for a young woman in the legal world. It is here where her tenacity and hard work have paid off and where she can continue to make strides for women's rights in the labor force.
Through the story of Lilly, Richard North Patterson has crafted a book that speaks to the struggles of a woman attempting to make her mark in the male-dominated legal world. It's an inspiring tale that shows that with hard work and resilience, anything is possible.
