Word: hendersons
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Pearlman and Henderson constantly underrate our imaginations in this way--they seem to think that if we are not privy to the minutest detail of the mechanics of each interview, our dull-witted curiosity will be such that we cannot concentrate on the interviews themselves...
...beauty in the places where they write, but they have done this with time and thought and taste rather than with money." What should be a series of thoughtful interviews exploring the intellectual aims and achievements of women writers degenerates into a series of gross personality caricatures. Pearlman and Henderson fall prey to the very trap of identity politics they themselves denounce in critical treatment of women writers' works. It is all very nice and good that Tan Bakes cookies for Henderson, but is it particularly germane...
...genre they call the "mini-essay." The organization is unfortunate-after authors finally set the scene, there is precious little space for the women writers to speak meaningfully of their work. The brief interviews are never long enough to answer the questions they raise. In addition, Pearlman and Henderson spend unnecessary time summarizing the writers' works, sometimes with lengthy quotes from the writer themselves...
...interviewers, Pearlman and Henderson are far too obtrusive in pursuing their own academic agenda. They rather presumptuously ask the writers to concur with their theories, theories often extraneous to the writers' works. Pearlman and Henderson also obscure the writers' views by floating quotes into the text and tagging them with "we agreed," never revealing who originally set the statement forth. Their Gilliganesque emphasis on connectedness is at best distracting, and at worst, dishonest. Pearlman dedicates sections of her mini-essays to explicating her own theories on space in women's literature. Interviewing Erdrich on her rich fictions of Native American...
...might seem petty, but they are indicative of the overall sloppiness which taints A Voice of One's Own. The book is a chatty, slipshod survey of contemporary writing women, and its academic claims are bankrupt. Failed promise makes A Voice of One's Own absolutely infuriating. Pearlman and Henderson spent precious time talking with these accomplished women and produced mostly...