American women take the essay form and make it their own in this excellent collection edited by Martin (English/Claremont Graduate School). She divides these pieces by well-known writers into categories that themselves reflect important truths about women's priorities and experiences: ``Generations: Essays on the Family,'' ``Breaking the Silence: Women Confront Oppression and Violence,'' ``Women's Bodies, Women's Choices,'' and so on. The individual essays deal with issues that touch many women— relationships, identity, and abuse—personal stories told with often startling candor. Nancy K. Miller's ``My Father's Penis'' breaks that holiest of taboos against women acknowledging their fathers' sexuality. Shana Penn, in ``Death of Popeye,'' tells of her sexual abuse by a male babysitter and the resulting loss of both innocence and her sense of control over her environment. And there is an anonymous first-person account, reprinted from Harper's, of a 20-year-old woman's rape. The authors do not pontificate, they share. The results are often more nonfiction short stories than what we generally think of as essays, and in this way American women writers have adapted the form to suit their own methods of exposition. There are examples of more traditional essay writing: Mary Gordon's ``A Moral Choice,'' for one, which dispassionately discusses the abortion issue. And Martin also stretches her definition of essay to include what is certainly the least traditional piece, ``I Just Came Out Pregnant''—the oral history of Felicita Garcia, a Puerto Rican woman who became pregnant at the age of 16. With hardly a discordant note in the group, beautifully wrought pieces from some of our finest contemporary American authors.
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-8070-6346-0
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Beacon Press
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 1995
BOOK REVIEW
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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