Adele Bertei On Entering The Battle Zones Of Her Youth

Adele Bertei is perhaps best known for her work with the Bloods, the first out, queer, all-women-rock band, and her collaborations with artists like Matthew Sweet, Culture Club, and Sandra Bernhard. With her new memoir Twist: An American Girl, Bertei adopts the persona of young Maddie Twist and guides the reader through the turbulent events of her adolescence in Cleveland, Ohio in the late 60s and early 70s. Bertei depicts her relationship with her brilliant mother, who was schizophrenic, with uncommon empathy and grace. When social services intervene and place Maddie in foster care, Maddie must develop a newfound resilience and belief in herself, due in large part to the transformative power literature and music play in her life. Equally parts raucous and harrowing, Twist gives the reader a glimpse of the formation of a singular, uncompromising artist. In its starred review, Kirkus called Twist “a powerful look at survival and redemption despite extremely challenging obstacles,” while Mary Gaitskill called it ”strong and strange poetry; while reading it you may hear music in your head—I did.”