This work is the winner of the South American literary Prize, Casa de Las Americas. Very little is known about the life of poet Emily Dickinson. As a woman, she is most known as a recluse; as a poet, she is known for producing some of the most daring and original verse of the nineteenth century. This verse is often said to be her only contact with the outside world, but not much is understood about the inner world which gave rise to it. "My Sister Emily" probes into this world, revealing her tense relationship with her parents, her hidden passions and aspirations, and her secret views on religion and love, all seen through the eyes of one of those closest to her, her younger sister Lavinia. Based on authentic journals, documents and letters from the Dickinson family, "My Sister Emily" is a tribute to the struggle of a woman to vindicate the memory and perpetuate the legacy of her beloved sister. An intimate portrait of an extraordinary woman, it brings the 'mad woman' out of the attic and reveals her as the living, breathing human being she was, filling in a vital missing piece of the jigsaw, the enigma that is Emily Dickinson.
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
This engaging novel from Argentinian Kaufmann (1969–2006) traces the life and times of the Belle of Amherst through the eyes of her mostly forgotten younger sister, Lavinia Dickinson, or Vinnie. It opens with Vinnie contemplating the 10-year anniversary of her sister's death, then leads us into a reminiscence of the unusual childhoods of the three Dickinson children (including the eldest, brother Austin), marked by the rigidities and detachment of both parents. As for the agoraphobia and eccentricities that marked Dickinson's later years, including her insistence on wearing only white clothes and refusing to see anyone outside of family or close friends, Kaufmann's Vinnie suggests that some of Dickinson's oddities may have been purposely adopted. The final third is devoted to an examination of Vinnie's legal entanglements with her brother's mistress, Mabel Loomis Todd, who famously co-edited the first collection of the poems. Although Kaufmann's prose does not rise to the magnificence of Dickinson's poetry—what could?—she writes lovingly about the poetry itself, describing the poems as wild children raised in a wild garden. Her book is a must-read for Dickinson fans, exploring the motives and secret desires of one of our most mysterious literary artists.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.
From Booklist
Emily Dickinson is equally well known for the verse she rendered and the reclusive life she led. More than 120 years after her death, scholars continue to speculate about just what made the withdrawn New Englander tick. This latest offering, historical fiction culled from journals, documents and correspondence, recounts Dickinson's life through the eyes of her younger sister, Lavinia, who first discovered Emily's letters and helped put her poems into print. Here readers learn about Emily's loves (she was engaged, for a time, to a judge) and her views on religion (she was the only member of the Dickinson clan not to pledge herself to Christ). Light is also shed on Lavinia, her fanciful dreams of fame and broken heart. Looming large over the Dickinson family is its moody patriarch, Edward, a one-time treasurer of Amherst College who went on to become a member of the U.S. Congress. Though her account is less engaging than Rose MacMurray's historical novel Afternoons with Emily (2007), Kaufmann, who died in 2006, does an admirable job of re-creating Dickinson's dark, eccentric world. Allison Block
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The magical world of Emily,
This review is from: Sister (Hardcover)
Sometimes I imagine the life of Emily. Her home, her family.
With this book, I can live that world, I can see Emily, Vinnie, Austin, Sue... For me, this is so special because Emily is my favorite writer. Now, I am reading the book in Spanish. Paola Kaufmann was a great writer. I am enjoying her book.
0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
"Tell all the truth...",
By
This review is from: The Sister (Paperback)
Lavinia's actual voice comes to us in a very few fragments, but the attentive reader of Emily's poems has many questions for the almost-mute sister to genius. What of the awesome moment in that Amherst bedroom when she discovered the extent of her siters writings, for example; how thrilling to have this premier event of American literature imaginatively explored. Kaufmann's boldness in choosing to write of Dickinson's sister is admirable, of course, and any attempt to enter into the life of the Dickinson Homestead presents alluring possiblities. Unfortuantely Kaufmann's attempt rings false from start to finish. There are some glaring anachronsims, such as Emily's mother serving a "casserole" in the 1850's, which lends a Brady Bunch touch to an otherwise dramatically rich moment early on in the narrative. Another such moment occurs when Emily asks her apparently more experienced siste whether "intercourse...hurts?" Emily's sexuality is of course the subject of intense academic speculation, but the baldness of this awkwardly rendered scene reads like something out of a Judy Bloom novel. If somehow the author had managed to answer the reader's ultimate question for Lavinia:"What was Emily like?" Kaufmann's attempt, though bold, leaves us with grotesque caricatures of the poet and her sister. As is so often the case with Dickinson, she leaves us behind baffled,her monumental poetry her sole and fitting life commentary.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product).
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
