The Tea Ceremony: The Uncollected Writings of Gina Berriault [Paperback]

Gina Berriault (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 16, 2004

Gina Berriault had written critically acclaimed stories and novels for decades, but in 1996 she was in the literary spotlight as never before, winning both the PEN/Faulkner Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award for Women in Their Beds. This new collection, compiled by Berriault’s daughter and her longtime companion, Leonard Gardner, opens with five stories, including “The Figure Skater,” the final story she saw to publication before her death in 1999. Berriault’s stories have been praised for their elegance, compassion, and psychological intelligence. We are first drawn in by her deep understanding of human emotions and predicaments, and then astounded by her remarkable eye for detail. Essays on topics as diverse as topless dancers and firing squads are also included, together with three rare self-revelatory pieces on why the world needs writers, comprising a sort of ars poetica for Berriault. As a whole, this collection becomes her credo on American culture, politics, and the written word.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Berriault's fiction, particularly her pristine and surprising short stories, have been highly praised by such fellow practitioners as Andre Dubus, but it wasn't until her powerful collection Women in Their Beds garnered the 1995 PEN/Faulkner and National Book Critics Circle Awards that word of her brilliance reached a wider readership. A writer with the compassion and precision of Grace Paley and Chekhov, and a penchant for the fantastic born, in part, from her love of Gogol, Berriault envisioned the lives of all sorts of people in all sorts of unsettling predicaments. This compelling posthumous collection (Berriault died in 1999) presents five remarkable short stories, each a study in the dignity of outsiders, followed by a set of wryly understated and keenly perceptive essays from the 1960s in which Berriault profiles a student activist; topless dancers; a firing squad; and Carolyn Cassady, whose husband, Neal, had just died. Here, too, are reflections on writing and humanism, and a poignant interview, all testimony to the purity of Berriault's mission and the magnitude of her gifts. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Counterpoint (November 16, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1593760469
• ISBN-13: 978-1593760465
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,954,262 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Last collection of a truly great writer, September 25, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Tea Ceremony: The Uncollected Writings of Gina Berriault (Hardcover)

Not the place to start if your new to Berriault (if you're new, try "Women In Their Beds" or "Afterwards").

Berriault is one of the finest American writers of the last 50 years, despite the fact that her work is not well known. Perhaps no one writes better about the inner lives of women. And her sentences are always superb--lyrically honed, filled with insight.

This collection is what you get after you've read everything else and there are some nice gems here too (some nice journalism, a very thoughtful interview, some uncollected stories). Go get your hands one aforementioned books!