Learning to Drive: And Other Life Stories
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.37 (693 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0812973542 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 224 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2014-12-16 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Brave, honest essays from a wise soul sciwriter Katha Pollitt has long been revered for her sharp feminist writings, but in "Learning to Drive" she shows her more vulnerable side. Her skills as a poet carry these lovely musings about her parents, her daughter, her own fragile aging self, and the various boyfriends and husbands who have puzzled and amazed her thr. Elaine Edelman said Five Stars. surprising, very personal and educated and witty look at items all contemporaries who think must confront. "Ignore the Freaking Times Book Review and Read This Book!" according to Judith Long. Gentle Reader, ignore the natterings of the insipid NY Times reviewer and run, do not walk, to read Katha Pollitt's latest. It is pure pleasure. Witty, erudite, wise, poignant, insightful, and sometimes hilarious. I started to browse in it and came up for air two hours later to find I'd missed my favorite NPR Satur
Familiarity seems to breed weariness, however, and her essays about motherhood (Beautiful Screamer) and women's tenacious collusion in men's superiority (Sisterhood) have the feel of oft-tread ground. 4)Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. From Publishers Weekly This collection of reflections by the Nation essayist and poet Pollitt (Reasonable Creatures) ranges in subject from her philandering boyfriend to a general late-midlife sense of loss. (Sept. Pollitt plays the conflicted modern woman par excellence, both feminist and feminine; she writes of unabashedly joining a Marxist study group at the behest of her guru-like boyfriend, who padded the meetings with past and present lovers (In the Study Group), then wonders with wistful anticipation what kind of life it will be when she has outlived all the men who find her desirable (After the Men Are Dead). The title essay is the zip
She has won many prizes and awards for her work, including the National Book Critics Circle Award for her first collection of poems, Antarctic Traveller, and two National Magazine Awards for essays and criticism. Katha Pollitt is the author of the essay collections Learning to Drive, Virginity or Death!, Subject to Debate, and Reasonable Creatures and is a poet, essayist, and columnist for The Nation. She lives in New York City.From the Hardcover edition.<
Her observations are acute and her confessions tonic. Learning to Drive is a surprising, revealing, and entertaining collection of essays drawn from the author’s own life. Other topics include the differences between women and men—“More than half the male members of the Donner party died of cold and starvation, but three quarters of the females survived, saved by that extra layer of fat we spend our lives trying to get rid of”—and the practical implications of political theory: “What if socialism—all that warmhearted folderol about community and solidarity and sharing was just an elaborate con job, a way for men to avoid supporting their kids?”Learning to Drive demonstrates that while Katha Pollitt is undeniably one of our era’s most profound observers of culture, society, and politics, she is just as impressively a wise, graceful, and honest observer of her own and others’ human nature.Praise for Learning to Drive “The kind of book you want to look up from at points so you can read aloud certain passages to a friend or lover.”—Chicago Tribune “A powerful personal narrative full of insight and charm Pollitt is her own Jane Austen character haughty and modest, moral and irresponsible, sensible and, happily for us, lost in sensibility.”—The New York Review of Books “With bracing s