Words and Worlds: From Autobiography to Zippers
Alison Lurie
Rave
Positive
Mixed
Pan
Words and Worlds: From Autobiography to Zippers
Alison Lurie
Rave
Positive
Mixed
Pan
Rave
Positive
Mixed
Pan
Now, 57 years into her publishing career, Lurie brings us this eclectic collection of essays that runs the gamut of subjects, as the book’s subtitle suggests. (And, just as an aside, the preface is as much an essay as any of the other pieces in the book; don’t skip it.).
Although a few of the essays—e.g., on women’s decisions to change their surnames after marriage, the meaning of aprons, or fashion’s arcane rules—seem dated and others rather slight, most are engaging.
Lurie approaches all of her subjects with the acumen of a seasoned critic but frequently draws on her skills as a Pulitzer Prize–winning fiction writer to give shape to her thoughts, as when she wryly describes the circumlocutions in critical papers written by deconstructionists as giving 'the impression that their authors are flies struggling in the sticky verbal strands of theoretical discourse.' Lovers of literature and the arts will find this a delightful and rewarding volume..