Reinventing Eve: Modern Woman in Search of Herself [Paperback]

Kim Chernin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 3, 1994

An original reinterpretation of Eve and the Garden of Eden that offers women a new sense of feminine power and opportunity.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Last in a trilogy on the cultural implications of women's preoccupation with food (The Obsession, The Hungry Self), this radical, visionary work also follows The Flame Bearers, a novel on a sect of Jewish women that secretly worshipped the Mother Goddess. Though it is loosely structured and bogs down in psychoanalytic jargon and the author's murky, mystical personal quest, this is, nonetheless, an intriguing study of an issue of ascending import: how women can recreate a female psyche that will effectively challenge and transform traditional patriarchal culture. From Chernin's keen perspective, women, if they are to tap their authentic potential, must reclaim forgotten forms of female knowledge and power, often repressed because they are associated with oppressive mothers or religious taboos. Her discussion of the dilemma of Eve in the Garden of Edenwhether to eat or not to eat a forbidden foodexplores the meaning of food vis-a-vis female creativity and its prohibition in a father-dominated culture. Eve, "a heroine of disobedience," discovers she has been made in the image of the Mother Goddess and possesses her capacity for self-assertion, sovereignty and sensuality. Chernin also proffers a provocative "breast" theory to replace the traditional penis-envy explanation of why a girl turns from the mother and chooses the father in the course of normal development.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Kim Chernin is a guest instructor at the San Francisco Psychoanalytic Institute, where she teaches a course in psychoanalytic models with Elizabeth Lloyd Mayer. She is the author of two books about eros and memory, Crossing the Border  and Sex and other Sacred Games  (with Renee Stendhal); a trilogy of books on hunger, The Obsession, The Hungry Self,  and Reinventing Eve;  a novel, The Flame Bearers;  a memoir, In My Mother's House;  a collection of poetry, The Hunger Song;  a book about psychoanalysis, A Different Kind of Listening;  and a spiritual memoir, In My Father's Garden.  She has studed music on her own since the age of seven, when she first began to play the piano.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial (May 3, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060925035
• ISBN-13: 978-0060925031
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,085,859 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars inspiring and relevant, March 17, 2004

By 

Cara Stoneham (TX) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Reinventing Eve: Modern Woman in Search of Herself (Paperback)

While I largely agree with the Publisher's Weekly review, I did not find Chernin's writings loosley structured. This book moved logically through the author's journey to find the missing links that connect women to the diety in whose image they are created. She kept her explorations balanced with the solid theories of Freud and Jung while delving into areas many traditionalists might shudder to think of. (And as a long-time frowner upon p...-envy theories, I am happy to see a legitimate alternative appear.) If nothing else, this book inspires the reader to question the traditional creation stories and lays the foundation for women to reclaim their power in the world.