From Publishers Weekly
Poet and memoirist Peacock (Paradise, Piece by Piece) presents this ambitious but uneven anthology, fourth in Graywolf's Forum series. Its impressive roster includes Jonathan Franzen, Yusef Komunyakaa and Wendy Lesser. Though all 18 essays (three previously published) address the subject of privacy, they vary in approach, tone and readability some are focused and cogent, a few are disjointed, others are academic with lengthy footnotes. Dorothy Allison, Vivian Gornick and Kathleen Norris probe the topic most successfully. Allison tells of retreating to the "sanctuary of my own mind" to survive childhood abuse, while Norris good-naturedly recounts advantages and disadvantages of living privacy-free in the South Dakota boondocks, and Gornick succinctly weighs in "On the Question of Invaded Privacy in Memoir Writing," arguing that writers must tell the truth rather than worry about "what to reveal or conceal." Lesser-known contributors range from Josip Novakovich, who recounts his boyhood search for private spaces in repressive Croatia, to legal philosopher Anita Allen, who compares Bill Clinton's and Oscar Wilde's untruths about scandalous sexual relationships. Peacock and her husband, Joyce scholar Michael Groden, present back-to-back essays: Peacock reflects on "privacy and creativity," her mother and poets Anne Sexton and Elizabeth Bishop, mentioning Groden only briefly, while he considers his role as a "secondary character" in Peacock's memoir. Though not a wholly satisfying excursion into a hot issue, the volume contains challenging ideas and questions for those who want to pursue the topic in depth.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Award-winning poet and cofounder of the Poetry in Motion project, Peacock (How To Read a Poem) has compiled a series of essays about privacy and the modern world from literary figures such as Jonathan Franzen, Dorothy Allison, and Kathleen Norris, as well as from Barbara Feldon (Get Smart's Agent 99) and former prison inmate Evans D. Hopkins. Written in a literary, narrative style, these essays offer several insights into the state of privacy today. However, they offer little real sociological substance and consequently are of little research value to academic library audiences. While the essays are in general well written, the book's lack of concrete information decreases its value to public library audiences as well, although it might have a place in academic collections as a literary exploration of the meaning of the self in society. Mark Bay, Indiana Univ.
Purdue Univ. Lib., Indianapolis Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
