American Diva: Extraordinary, Unruly, Fabulous

by Deborah Paredez

An impassioned homage to the divas who shook up our world and transformed American culture with their bold, dazzling artistry. What does it mean to be a “diva”? The term has been used both to deride and celebrate charismatic and unapologetically fierce performers like Aretha Franklin and the women of Labelle. In this brilliant and powerful blend of incisive criticism and electric memoir, Deborah Paredez―scholar, cultural critic, and lifelong diva devotee―unravels our enduring fascination with these icons.  American Diva journeys into Tina Turner’s scintillating performances, Celia Cruz’s command of the male-dominated salsa world, and the unparalleled excellence of Venus and Serena Williams. Exploring her childhood immersion in Rita Moreno’s powerhouse portrayal of  West Side Story’s Anita and her admiration of her fabulous Tía Lucia, Paredez chronicles these celebrated and skilled performers who boldly expressed American aspirations for freedom among Brown, Black, and gay communities. Filled with sharp insights and great heart,  American Diva is a spirited tribute to the power of performance and the joys of fandom. 15 illustrations

Genres: Nonfiction, Music, History

256 pages, Hardcover

First published May 21, 2024

About the author

Deborah Paredez is the author of the poetry collection, This Side of Skin (Wings Press 2002), and the critical study, Selenidad: Selena, Latinos, and the Performance of Memory (Duke 2009), winner of the 2011 Chicana/o Studies Association Book Award Honorable Mention and the 2010 Latin American Studies Association Latino Studies Book Award Honorable Mention. Her poetry and essays have appeared in The New York Times, Los Angeles Review of Books, Poetry, Callaloo, Latino Studies Journal, and elsewhere. She is the co-founder and director of CantoMundo, a national organization dedicated to Latina/o poets and poetry. She lives in New York City where she teaches poetry and ethnic studies at Columbia University.

Reviews

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book 30 of 2024. 4/5 stars.

American Diva is a collection of personal essays about divas and how those divas shaped the author as a person. From Celia to Patti, those divas were Black and Brown women in which the author could relate to. She connected those divas to her personal life; how learning about those women moved her to be a connoisseur of the subject about being a diva.

My overall thoughts: I liked reading the personal essays on divas that I was familiar with like LaBelle, Aretha, and Tina Turner, to people I was not familiar with like Celia Cruz and La India. Reading this book was informing, as the word diva can be applied in many ways of every day life. Being a diva can be how one presents themselves, the clothes they wear, or their timeliness. The word diva is a broad term, and can be interpret in more ways than one. I would recommend this book for people who are into pop culture, music, and the appreciation of art and music.

[Arielle · Rating 5 out of 5]

2024 Reading Challenge - A book about a writer

[Lindsey · Rating 3 out of 5]

✨ Review ✨ American Diva: Extraordinary, Unruly, Fabulous by Deborah Paredez

Thanks to W. W. Norton & Company and #netgalley for the gifted advanced copy/ies of this book!

This is a hard one for me to review because there are things I absolutely adored about this book and things I really struggled with. Overall, like it's title, I found it to be "extraordinary, unruly, fabulous."

Things I loved:
⭕️ the discussions about what a diva was and how it changed over time
⭕️ some of the chapter focuses - her aunt, Tina Turner, the Williams sisters, Rita Moreno - were so much fun to read + the personal memoir pieces made it clear the weight these women had in her life
⭕️ historic contextualization of divadom
⭕️ The San Antonio theater references, especially in her first chapter about her aunt
⭕️ memoir tidbits were a lot of fun - e.g. around her salsa dancing, which helped connect her life to the larger story

Things I struggled with:
⭕️ the narrative structure was unusual and it all felt a little too unruly to follow along at times -- sometimes I could embrace this as diva style at its best, but sometimes it felt a little overwhelming. I think it wasn't always accessible and some of this is me as an outsider looking in.
⭕️ along with that, I struggled sometimes juggling the multiple through lines of a chapter (especially the Aretha Franklin chapter) where there was a biographical narrative, personal narrative, cultural critique, and more running through it all.

Overall I love that this made me think and better appreciate divas!

[Julie Trapp · Rating 1 out of 5]

An impassioned homage to the divas who shake up our world and transform it with their bold, dazzling artistry. What does it mean to be a “diva”? A shifting, increasingly loaded term, it has been used to both deride and celebrate charismatic and unapologetically fierce performers like Aretha Franklin, Divine, and the women of Labelle. In this brilliant, powerful blend of incisive criticism and electric memoir, Deborah Paredez―scholar, cultural critic, and lifelong diva devotee―unravels our enduring fascination with these icons and explores how divas have challenged American ideas about feminism, performance, and freedom. [amazon synopsis]

Not sure what I thought this was going to be, but this book was boring. I only knew who 3 of these women were - and I only cared about Tina Turner.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wanted to love this book. The author clearly is passionate about this subject, and I wanted to be infected with just a small amount of that passion.

Sadly, so far, the book just cannot hold my attention. The extraordinary stories in this book, should make it difficult for me to put the book down, but I'm afraid that wasn't the case.

I do hope to pick it up again in the future and to find it more gripping. I look forward to sharing and update in that regard some time down the road.

[Katie Belitz · Rating 4 out of 5]

American Divas takes you down the history of Divas in America and the personal narrative of the author as she relates to the Divas in her own life. The author weaves a tale where she invites you into her world of being a brown woman growing up in an era of change. American Divas invites the reader to not only revel in the glitz and glamour of the diva but to learn what it means to take strength from the diva.

[Renata]

DNF - I was excited about the concept of this but it was a struggle to get through the first chapter. Which I think is more about my current reading mood/vibe--it's more academic than I expected and I'm in the middle of a Silly Girl Summer, don't have the focus for this, so I'm returning it to the library from whence it came. I might try again later though.

[Jeffrey · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is Deborah Paredez’s memoir told through the American diva figures that have shaped her life — not at all the cultural commentary on divas and their worlds that the synopsis promises. No disrespect intended to the author, but the publisher completely misrepresented this book and that’s very bothersome to me as a reader.

[Lauren J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Deborah Paredez does a nice job of sharing the stories of many American Diva's. The stories are interesting and compelling. I loved the depth about the Williams sisters, and Whitney Houston. Worth the time for sure!

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

From one diva to another, I loved this. Ursula from The Little Mermaid IS the diva for the ages

Aretha famously declining the invitation to sing at the inauguration of Dope…true diva behavior. Mother of all divas.

[Barbara Reynolds · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m giving this 3 stars because it didn’t hold my interest except for a few chapters. The first few chapters were the most interesting to me.

[Beth]

DNF. Really couldn’t get into it or the writing style

[Lisa Mcbroom · Rating 2 out of 5]

Paradez delves into the meaning of the word Diva and how it coincides with feminism.

[josh x · Rating 5 out of 5]

i felt separate from a lot of this but i could appreciate from afar. really beautiful writing too! oh divas