Red Comet: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath by Heather Clark
“I hope to free Plath, from the cultural baggage of the past 50 years,” Heather Clark writes in her new biography, “and reposition her as one of the most important American writers of the 20th century.” Heather Clark’s 937 page doorstopping biography of Sylvia Plath is a joy from beginning to end. Well, no. […]
When Books Save your Life
You certainly did not have to be a poet or an intellectual to be suppressed, threatened or murdered by fascism or communism – but it helped. Dressed for a Dance in the Snow by Monika Zgustova is the somewhat euphemistic title describing the lives of nine female survivors of the gulag; stories of those who […]
‘Like a Ghostly Roll of Drums’: Four Inspirational Women Writers Beat the Measure of Life
I’ve been posting about people who have changed or are changing the way we see the world as part of my inspiration for Spring series. Last week was the turn of the guys . Here are my four inspirational women writers. Virginia Woolf In Hermione Lee’s 800 page biography of Virginia Woolf (Chatto & Windus, […]
Non-Existence is a Skill Learned Early: Review of ‘Recollections of My Non-Existence’ by Rebecca Solnit
Recollections of my Non-Existence, Rebecca Solnit
In the place where I grew up, and in the time that I grew up I never felt safe on the streets.
This is not because I grew up in a particularly violent place – not at all. I never felt safe on the streets because I was an object. An object about which or to which people could say or do more or less as they chose, and with impunity. I did not understand this at […]
