henna day post

[gwynnega]

It is Henna Day, and the henna is on my head--which is a bit cold, considering we're in the midst of a massive rainstorm. Bleh.

This weekend I have been working on the Jo book and a couple of poems. I finished reading Shedding by Verena Stefan (mid-1970s German feminist manifesto/novel) and started a biography of Tillie Olsen, which is marvelously researched but marred by the author's apparent and bizarre contempt for her subject.

Comments

[usedtobeljs]

I don't understand why someone would write a biography about someone (other than, say, Hitler or Nixon) one disliked. Odd.

[hugs and tea for henna day]

[gwynnega]

I don't get it either. Possibly the author grew tired of her subject as time went on? Anyway it definitely makes the book a less enjoyable read than it would've been.

::hugs::

[sovay]

a biography of Tillie Olsen, which is marvelously researched but marred by the author's apparent and bizarre contempt for her subject.

Can you learn anything useful from it anyway?

[gwynnega]

Yes, the book is full of useful scholarship--I just wish it were possible to edit out the biographer's constant sniping about Olsen!