A collection of eloquent essays solicited from high-powered writers that nevertheless smacks a bit of ``What I Did on My Summer Vacation,'' except that the subject is family. The Fiffers (editors of last year's anthology Home) have convinced some substantial talent to choose a pivotal moment or person in the circle they consider family and write about it. Except for Bob Shacochis, who writes about the torture of overcoming infertility, the contributors to this volume accentuate the positive. When nothing else will serve, Whitney Otto, the author of the novel How to Make an American Quilt, chooses her cat Kali to exemplify family bonds. But it may be that these writers have voiced their various family-oriented rages and confusion in earlier works and can now discuss the idea of family from a more benevolent perspective. Elizabeth McCracken's charming essay is a celebration of her first cousin twice removed, also an Elizabeth, who was a dancer and a single mother long before it was fashionable. Alice Hoffman writes about advice from her grandmother; Deborah Tannen about missing her father; Beverly Donofrio about a dynamic neighbor. Other contributors include Brent Staples on his Chicago boyhood, Edwidge Danticat on her father's life as a cabdriver, and bell hooks on her wonderfully eccentric grandparents, who were together for more than 70 years. Geoffrey Wolff's lively entry on his father, Duke, nicely captures the ambivalence of family relationships: ``always fluid . . . to be emotionally exact is to be inconsistent.'' A reassuring read, these skillfully crafted pieces plumb the nurturing aspect of family as opposed to the dark side (neglect, abuse, abandonment) that frequently fuels contemporary writers.
Pub Date: Nov. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-679-44247-2
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Pantheon
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1996
Perceptive but unnecessarily dense and turgid psycho- sociological examination of the intricacies of prejudice. Like intelligence, prejudice is often misunderstood to be a largely undifferentiated trait: All its guises, whether anti- Semitism, sexism, or homophobia, are seen as only minor variations on the same theme. But as biographer/psychotherapist Young-Bruehl (Creative Characters, 1991; Anna Freud, 1988; etc.) convincingly argues, each of these ``ideologies of desire'' can have a variety of significantly different psychological origins. Drawing heavily on Freud's theories on neurosis, she categorizes prejudices as either obsessional, hysterical, or narcissistic. Homophobia, then, may stem from narcissistic roots, or it may be hysterical; thus, psychological underpinnings become the true basis for any similarities between prejudices. While this approach may work on an individual level, it runs into some difficulties when applied to large groups. Despite some clever wiggles and waggles, Young-Bruehl comes perilously close to putting whole nations on the psychiatrist's couch. While her evidence throughout is admittedly unscientific, it certainly is massively deployed. Her erudition is particularly impressive as she ranges across almost everything written about prejudice in the last two centuries, from Hannah Arendt's meditations on the banality of evil to Malcolm X`s evolving conception of racism to the pernicious tsarist forgery, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. In fact, her meandering from digression to extended aside is a little like driving down an interstate and pulling off at every exit. The only things she leaves out are the latest scientific (namely ethno-biological and socio-biological) findings. Unpleasant as it is, prejudice has its evolutionary reasons, and it seems disingenuous to try and fob it off as mere neurosis. Trimmed of its fat and obfuscations, there is a lean and challenging book here, but Young-Bruehl has so buried her argument that few readers will have the time or stamina to persevere in the necessary excavations.
Pub Date: April 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-674-03190-3
Page Count: 640
Publisher: Harvard Univ.
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
A significant and unabashedly optimistic assessment of two- income families, expressed in lively, straightforward prose. The stressed-out, harried working wife and mother so often reported in the media is a myth, according to Harvard psychologist Barnett and journalist Rivers, who have written several books on women and society. Based on the findings of a study of 600 working- and middle-class subjects in the Boston area, Barnett and Rivers (coauthors of Beyond Sugar and Spice: How Woman Grow, Learn, and Thrive, 1979, etc.) contend that husbands, wives, and children in two-income families are doing just fine. Unlike 40 years ago when the male breadwinner and the female homemaker were the ``natural order of things,'' today 60 percent of all couples are two-earner couples, and traditional roles have relaxed. Men today are contributing more to housework and are more involved in day-to-day child-rearing tasks; the result is happier fathers. As for working mothers, they are for the most part less stressed than stay-at-home mothers and don't spend any less ``quality'' time with their children. Instead of two separate halves with distinct roles, today's dual-earner marriage is a partnership wherein husband and wife ``enrich their respective lives.'' And, of course, the increased income that a two-earner family provides is often a necessity in today's shaky economy. Given this reality, the authors further explore what steps may be taken to help dual-earner couples deal with the pressures that inevitably arise. Their proposals include encouraging parental leave; developing a sick-leave policy that includes fatherhood in the equation; providing extended vacation time; and creating workplaces free of sexual harassment. With striking statistics and engrossing case studies, Barnett and Rivers deliver a timely and lucid exposition of the contemporary American family.
Pub Date: May 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-06-251080-0
Page Count: 272
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1996
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