"A brave and fair-minded job of traversing the thicket of -isms surrounding Hellman (Stalinism and Trotskyism, Zionism and anti-Semitism, communism, McCarthyism, cold war liberalism)…For the reasons made clear in this valuable book, when the dust settles, this difficult woman’s reputation will fare better than it did when Kessler-Harris began her Hellman journey."—Victor Navasky, The Nation
"Instead of probing inside Hellman’s character for answers, Kessler-Harris searches outside…the tension between author and subject makes for some interesting reading."—New York Times Book Review
"Kessler-Harris meticulously recreates the atmosphere and opinions of the left-leaning intelligentsia in the late ‘30s… Kessler-Harris's tone is consistently even-handed and nonjudgmental; Hellman is never excused for her conduct, for ‘clinging to a false god,’ or her inability to ‘get her facts straight’ but her actions are always painstakingly contextualized…Hellman's life provides Kessler-Harris with a fascinating, idiosyncratic viewpoint from which to dissect the intellectual currents of the 20th century. Kessler-Harris's previous books have been broad studies of women in the industrial age, and here she demonstrates the historian's skill with scope, but also compellingly threads in the minutiae of one woman's attempts to negotiate the ‘sharp turns’ of U.S. culture and politics."—Daily Beast
"Substantive … here’s one good reason why young women especially should care about the lessons offered by Hellman’s life: Hellman, Kessler-Harris emphasizes, continued to be a bold creature of the 1920s long after Betty Boop became domesticated into June Cleaver. She paid dearly for that ‘disorderly conduct.’ Kessler-Harris does a superb job of showing how gendered — even misogynist— the criticisms of Hellman's art and politics were."—Maureen Corrigan on "Fresh Air" and NPR.org
"A Difficult Woman (…) would be worth reading just for its portrait of the mid-20th century politico-cultural cauldron. It would be worth reading for its presentation of Hellman, ‘a juicy character’ and ‘a difficult woman, impassioned, tempestuous, transgressive with regard to gender roles." It would be worth reading, too, for the historical light it sheds on the divisive ferocity of today’s political discussion. That this book combines so many elements reflects its breadth and strength as history, biography, and cultural criticism.—Boston Globe
"[A] thoughtful book assuring readers that ‘it would be folly to try to capture the ‘real’ Lillian, whoever that is’. Hellman is too slippery a subject and too uncooperative a source for that. Rather, this biography works to answer the question of why Hellman remains such a divisive figure, ‘a lightning rod for the anger, fear and passion’ that divided Americans during an especially fraught ideological time."—The Economist
"The author does an admirable job."—Jewish Book World
"Alice Kessler-Harris’s nuanced biography (…) acknowledges the elusiveness of her subject while arguing that Hellman’s complexity gets straight to the heart of many of the twentieth century’s ideological battles… Wisely, Kessler-Harris, a Columbia historian, emphasizes Hellman’s social and political contexts, rather than speculating overly much about her personal motivations—contexts that are crucial to understanding Hellman’s seemingly contradictory character, and the point of view of a woman who was simultaneously sidelined and center stage. A historical perspective is the very thing that may redeem Hellman from charges of naïveté, self-aggrandizement (perhaps least forgivable in a woman), and hypocrisy."—Vogue.com
"I don’t know that I have ever read this good a rescue job. Columbia historian Alice Kessler-Harris’s biography of dramatist and screenwriter Lillian Hellman made me feel like a stupid cliché: just another American who knows little of Hellman’s life, and even less of her work, but feels totally comfortably judging her as an unrepentant Stalinist and a compulsive liar… Kessler-Harris has persuaded me that Hellman, for all her lies, was brilliant, courageous and, above all,
interesting…a biographer’s job is to understand, not bury, her subject. Alice Kessler-Harris has succeeded."
—Mark Oppenheimer, The Forward "Superb … Kessler-Harris provides in-depth analyses and objective commentary in a seamless, comprehensive biographical portrait … this thoughtfully crafted work of scholarship, supported by extensive research and interviews, illuminates the life and output of a major literary figure as well as the times in which she lived. It will appeal to a wide readership."—Library Journal (starred)
"Kessler-Harris offers a nuanced, fair-minded, and engrossing portrait of a controversial but indelible 20th-century personality."—Publishers Weekly
"Kessler-Harris does not present, as she notes in the brilliant introduction, a ‘cradle to grave’ biography. Rather, A Difficult Woman is a series of essays on each part of Hellman’s life—as a playwright ... as a woman ... as a woman considered both ugly and sexy ... as a Jew ... as a sometimes naïve and overly idealistic political firebrand ... and on her generosity and her fabled penny-pinching. And Kessler-Harris places all of her qualities, both fine and infuriating, in the context of the century in which she lived — the momentous changes wrought in an astonishingly short amount of time. This book is not a defense, an apologia. Rather, it is an un-retouched, balanced look at cause and effect…Written by a woman, about a woman, this book is required reading for women…Along with better understanding Miss Hellman, perhaps this new book will revive interest in her great plays, often dismissed as "melodramas," or seen only as politically-themed…Clearly, I recommend A Difficult Woman."—Liz Smith
"Alice Kessler-Harris makes an excellent case that Hellman represents the complexities and changing mores of the 20th century … The concepts of truth and deception, or betrayal and loyalty, play large roles in her work and this insightful biography, rich with context, shows how they were also themes that defined her life. Not an apologia, but an exploration of nuances, A Difficult Woman gives us an infinitely more complex Hellman than the popular image that has survived her."—Shelf Awareness
"Lillian's Hellman's body may have been in her grave,’ writes biographer Alice Kessler-Harris of her subject's funeral in 1984, long after Hellman's rise to fame—and then infamy –as, among other things, a playwright, a would-be patriot who refused to name names during the fever of McCarthyism, a defender of the USSR, a bestselling memoirist, a mink coat model, and Dashiell Hammett's longtime lover. ‘But quickly it became apparent that she would find no rest there.’ Of the many, many words written about Hellman both during and after her lifetime, truer ones may never have been printed. Truth, as A Difficult Woman (...) demonstrates, is a tricky business where Hellman is concerned."—Barnes & Noble Review
"Kessler-Harris is both a scrupulous historian and a sympathetic interpreter, and her even-handed, clear-eyed approach helps make ceding respect to Hellman a possibility even as her subject threatens to wear out her welcome—high-handedly trumpeting political bromides here, obstreperously haggling with her literary agents there, repeatedly declaring herself affronted by whatever injustice she thought was being visited on her … Kessler-Harris would never say that her subject was a self-aggrandizing blowhard who bulldozed her way through any obstacle that displeased her, but neither does she tamper with the copious evidence that such was often the case. Or shy away from rebuking Hellman for her silence on Stalin, or questioning her refusal to admit that the ‘Julia’ of her memoir Pentimento was a fictional creation based on the life of a woman she had never met … Still, Kessler-Harris succeeds at exonerating her subject. The time may be right. Contemplating Hellman's uncompromised freedom in a moment when blogs written by college-educated mothers read like reruns of the fifties' retreat to domesticity, one is tempted to forgive this difficult woman just about everything."—Capital New York
“An outstanding historical biography… [Hellman’s story] has already been told in several previous biographies, as Alice Kessler-Harris generously acknowledges. So what can she possibly add? Kessler-Harris has plenty to add. While her work does not supersede what has gone before, it deeply enriches the work of others and brings our understanding of Hellman to a much higher level…Written with grace and impeccable scholarship, this is a stirring and enriching performance. Bravo!”—
“A deft and vivid new biography of Hellman… Alice Kessler-Harris is an excellent guide to this fascinating life.”
