There are some disagreeable reader comments about the author's excessiveness in this book, but I applaud its combination of memoir and literary commentary about the women writers who are psychologized and pathologized by their creative male partners, i.e. [a:Zelda Fitzgerald|28243|Zelda Fitzgerald|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1427041106p2/28243.jpg], Vivien Eliot ([b:Painted Shadow: The Life of Vivienne Eliot, First Wife of T. S. Eliot|387266|Painted Shadow The Life of Vivienne Eliot, First Wife of T. S. Eliot|Carole Seymour-Jones|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1320451660l/387266._SY75_.jpg|376903]), [a:Jane Bowles|100439|Jane Bowles|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1188820906p2/100439.jpg], [a:Jean Rhys|25022|Jean Rhys|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1240501946p2/25022.jpg], June Miller ([b:Henry and June|11068671|Henry and June|Frederic P. Miller|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348797248l/11068671._SX50_.jpg|15989973]), [a:Sylvia Plath|4379|Sylvia Plath|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1613135175p2/4379.jpg], [a:Anaïs Nin|7190|Anaïs Nin|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1585811222p2/7190.jpg], as well as fictional characters in [a:Virginia Woolf|6765|Virginia Woolf|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1419596619p2/6765.jpg], [a:Kate Chopin|5132|Kate Chopin|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1224805370p2/5132.jpg], [a:Gustave Flaubert|1461|Gustave Flaubert|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1651461896p2/1461.jpg], [a:Anna Kavan|119148|Anna Kavan|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1229532760p2/119148.jpg], [a:H.D.|26807|H.D.|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1477748341p2/26807.jpg], [a:Elizabeth Hardwick|5268|Elizabeth Hardwick|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1260770659p2/5268.jpg]'s[b:The Ghostly Lover|432714|The Ghostly Lover|Elizabeth Hardwick|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1488394349l/432714._SY75_.jpg|421672], etc. In [a:Charlotte Perkins Gilman|29527|Charlotte Perkins Gilman|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1238281005p2/29527.jpg]'s [b:The Yellow Wallpaper|8217236|The Yellow Wallpaper|Charlotte Perkins Gilman|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1276430319l/8217236._SX50_.jpg|17352354], the doctor tells the woman writer "to never touch pen, brush, or pencil as long as you live." [a:Kate Zambreno|3501330|Kate Zambreno|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1544727000p2/3501330.jpg]'s "mean reds," fears of abandonment, her IBS and endometriosis, obsessive shopping, and her history of depression and sleeplessness hence shrinks, pills, hospitalization as one of the "slit-your-wrist girls" is accused of writing which is too personal, too emotional, too excessive. As [a:F Scott Fitzgerald|35843930|F Scott Fitzgerald|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] said to [a:Zelda Fitzgerald|28243|Zelda Fitzgerald|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1427041106p2/28243.jpg], "you were going crazy and calling it genius." While some of the stories were familiar, I was sorry to finish this amazing and enlightening book and I was grateful for the extensive bibliography of over 150 books and articles about these women's lives. My TBR quakes under the strain. ( )

Review published in 3:AM Magazine, "Breakdown, not Breakthrough": http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/breakdown-not-breakthrough/ ( )

Pushed past the first few pages where the author decries Akron, OH as a wasteland and regales the reader with "strange sights" like a woman eating a hot dog in a Radio Shack (what's wrong with eating a hot dog in a Radio Shack?) only to find the book over-serious and problematic. This is autobiography by example; less than an attempt to redeem her sisters from the shadows as much as it is to share the spotlight, to align herself with the maligned and marginalized women of literary history. But definitely no love here for the woman in the Radio Shack, the hardbodies in her yoga class, her friend who subscribes to Martha Stewart magazine, or the "girl-student with her Marilyn Monroe purse." A big part of my own coming-of-age has been to reconcile the differences between me (hairy, bookish, etc.) and other women (nice shoes, new purse, etc.) and realize it's no big fucking deal and learn to love everybody! There's so little love here, no tenderness even for her "sisters", her "my women writers, my compatriots", that the perfunctory bit at the end about writing without self-censorship seems exactly that, perfunctory, insincere.

"A new ritual I practice, as I get ready to write, I put on my new 4-inch platforms and stand in front of my floorlength mirror, sometimes as I'm eating chocolate almond-milk ice cream, and I intone to the mirror to myself: You're a fucking genius.

Now you try it."

Ok! You're a fucking genius! I feel better already.







( )

Full review here ( )

It's rare I'll dish out a five-star rating, but this stunning memoir/biography of the silenced (abused, institutionalized, marginalized) modernist literary wives was such an eye-opener, and so honestly written, I can't give it fewer. Zambreno's raw delivery begins boldly and builds and builds. Thorough historical research and anecdotal asides about the experiences of Zelda Fitzgerald, Vivienne Eliot, Sylvia Plath, Virginia Woolf (and many more) substantiate Zambreno's angry style as their stories unfold. The lack of a falsely imposed structure (chronological, say, or "one wife at a time")strengthens the conversational effect of the whole work. Certain lines repeat beautifully -- "Ring Lardner's quip: Mr. Fitzgerald is a novelist and Mrs. Fitzgerald is a novelty" -- for instance. Every page delivers an intense experience, and encouragement to writers to brave writing their own intensity of experience. By the end, Zambreno herself seems to have become an intelligent, impassioned and inspirational friend. Big impact. I'm thrilled it found its way to publication -- exactly as it reads. Big respect for Semiotext(e) and for this remarkable writer. I can't wait to check out her fiction. ( )