Body [Paperback]

Sharon S. Fiffer (Author), Steve Fiffer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 30, 2000

Portions of the proceeds from Body will be donated to Charity

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

The skilled anthologist team of Fiffer and Fiffer covers the essentials. They began with Home (1995), moved to Family (1996), and now focus on the body. The essays and memoirs gathered here are expectedly personal and yet unexpectedly and quite wonderfully expansive. Francine Prose cannot write of the nose without considering famous literary organs, such as Gogol's rogue schnozzle or the mighty proboscis of Cyrano de Bergerac. Rosario Ferrewrites with earthy candor about the butt, and Veronica Chambers reports on life lived in dreadlocks. Lynda Barry offers a startling tale about her cousin's lousy teeth and his curiosity about the teeth of Jesus. Esmeralda Santiago tells the story of her scars, Mona Simpson praises hands, Richard McCann writes about his liver transplant, and Thomas Lynch considers the womb, pregnancy, and the father's perspective on the question of choice and abortion rights. Thylias Moss, Chris Offutt, and Kyoto Mori also contribute fresh and magnetic musings to this provocative and top-tier anthology about the body as experienced from within and seen from without. Donna Seaman --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews

Let us now celebrate body parts, in this collection of generally fine essays from talented writers. Some of the 18 authors, like Jane Smiley, Mona Simpson, and Esmeralda Santiago, have contributed to the Fiffers' earlier collections (Home, 1995; Family, 1996). Here both writers and editors seem to be hitting their stride with this format, with commentaries diverse in both tone and subject. Eyes, brain, hair, nose, teeth, scar tissueliterally head to toeare themes of the individual sketches that the Fiffers have coaxed into this anthology. Smiley delights in her belly, whether flat or protruding with child; cartoonist Lynda Barry believes teeth are the music [of] the face.'' There is a challenging reflection on death, rebirth, and transformation from Richard McCann, who received a liver transplant (how would Lazarus, raised from the dead, be feeling?, he wonders). Thomas Lynch takes on the womb, beginning with his Roman Catholic rosaries (``blessed is the fruit of thy womb''), although he gets it seriously wrong in equating the Immaculate Conception with the Virgin Birth. Lynch does raise the question of whether men should have a choice in acknowledging paternity, as women have the choice of terminating pregnancy. Ron Carlson offers nothing new in his reflections on the penis, but Kyoko Mori runs engagingly along on the subject of her feet. Editor Sharon Fiffer discusses how she has mentally peopled the chambers of her heart with those she loves and despises (it got so crowded, she added a few rooms), and Rosario Ferr joyously celebrates ``The Butt'' both for its sexuality and its role as purifier of inner waste. Overall a winsome compendium, suitable for bedside or seaside, where body parts can be contemplated in their (relative) nakedness. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial (May 30, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0380803585
• ISBN-13: 978-0380803583
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 4.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #772,115 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Memoir led to mystery for writer Sharon Fiffer

Before finding her inner Nancy Drew,Fiffer co-edited three collections of literary memoirs: Home, Family, and Body.

Editing the memoirs of others prompted her to write about her own childhood--growing up in the EZ Way Inn, her parents' tavern in Kankakee, Illinois. When she began creating the character of antiques picker and scavenger, Jane Wheel, she decided to merge her own memories with those of her fictional heroine, giving Jane a giant helping of her Kankakee childhood.

"It's great fun to rewrite one's childhood and work out all the humor and glitches and heartbreaks of being a grown-up daughter while also struggling to be a mother, a wife, a professional, and a friend. It's also fun to shop at garage sales, rummage sales, flea markets and estate sales--all in the name of research."

Sharon Fiffer admits to having a few collections of her own, but is happy to work out any obsessions with Bakelite buttons, crocheted potholders and vintage sterling silver charm bracelets on the pages of her novels.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A lovely, funny, treasure, October 2, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Body (Hardcover)

Though I loved Home, and Family, two other collections edited by the Fiffers, BODY is by far my favorite. Gathering together another list of A group writers, this collection is distinct from those others in its freeness and imagination, its lovely lyric investment in the parts of the body (and as it happens...soul) chosen by each author. As I was reading I thought these essays would be a good rest for fact-weary medical students and an eye-opener for appearance burdened teenagers (and adults for that matter). Everything from the penis, the the heart, to the teeth, are brought forward by these gifted writers. They are celebrated, worshipped, and just plain made fun of some times. A joy. A find. A keeper. A++

PS - Since it doesn't say on the page here. Here are some of the great writers in this book. LYNDA BARRY (Cruddy), Francine Prose (Guided Tours of Hell), Mona Simpson (Anywhere But Here), Jane Smiley, Chris Offut (Kentucky Straight/The Same River Twice), Kyoko Mori (The Dream of Water), Ron Carlson, Veronica Chambers..... and MORE! It's great.