- Sylvia Plath, 1958
Review submitted by: Rachel
Title: Between the sheets : the literary liaisons of nine 20th-century women writers
Author: Lesley McDowell
ISBN: 9781590202388
Publisher: Overlook Press
Published: 2010
Genre: Non-fiction
Age group: Adult
Rating: 4 out of 5
Synopsis: Why did a gifted writer like Sylvia Plath stumble into a marriage that drove her to suicide? Why did Hilda Doolittle want to marry Ezra Pound when she was attracted to women? Why did Simone DeBeauvoir pimp for Jean-Paul Sartre? The author examines the extent to which each woman was prepared to put artistic ambition before personal happiness, and how dependent on their male writing partners these women felt themselves to be. She probes the consequences of the women's codependence and reveals how in many instances, their partnerships liberated unspoken desires, encouraged artistic innovations, and even shored up literary reputations. Fascinating and innovative, this book is an invaluable addition to libraries of literary criticism and feminism.
I found this book both challenging and nauseating to read at times...not going to lie. A stimulating nausea, if you will. Literary genius obviously does not equate to relationship genius. The author manages to examine 9 pairings which ended in one or some of the above: tears, neglected offspring, suicide, STDs, converted sexuality, a phobia to any kind of commitment whatsoever, years in therapy...and of course, volumes of wonderful literature. This was agonizingly thought-provoking stuff; well-researched with a hint of imagination.
Who will like this? Anyone who loves a good book on critical theory (and I know there are some of you fellow nerds out there...), or, rather inversely, if you're after a collection of some of the most passionate love stories around - give this a go and then decide if you're really lusting after that would-be poet down at the pub, yes, the one with smouldering eyes who drunkenly rattles off bawdy rhymes in your direction...
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