OFF CENTER

by Barbara Grizzuti Harrison ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 30, 1980

Twenty essays and reviews by one of the liveliest new talents on the literary-journalistic scene. Harrison's Visions of Glory (1978) was a vivid, sprawling, intensely personal account of the Jehovah's Witnesses. This further sample of her work displays the same vigor and sensitivity, betrays some of the same disjointedness, and promises more good things for the fugure. Harrison attacks her subjects head-on. She flays Joan Didion (""a neurasthenic Cher"") for the vacuity and moral frigidity of her art; she exposes the boring dogmatism of Adrienne Rich (""Must I, in order to understand the 'tangle of race and sex,' go to bed with a black lesbian?""); she describes, with generosity and humor, her own adventures as a camp follower of the Beat generation. She does warm appreciations of Louise Bogan and Dorothy Sayers, and a scathing denunciation of est. She can capture nuances too, as in her deft portrait of Jane Fonda playing suburban housewife, or in her amiable but probing interview with Dick Cavett. Still, Harrison is at her best when She's loving or hating something outright. The only clinker in this collection is a long article on the Moonies, published in McCall's, where she tried (or more likely was forced) to produce a ""neutral"" report and exchanged her passionate, wide-open style for flat Time-ese. If there is any unity in these pieces, it comes from Harrison's sensibility, from her combination of critical acumen, affective power, and earthy spontaneity. She is certainly one of the sanest, most convincing voices in American feminism. The only question now is, can she go from bursts of brilliance to a sustained performance?

Pub Date: May 30, 1980

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Dial

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1980

Categories: NONFICTION