Women's Biography, General & Miscellaneous Biography, United States Studies, Personal Growth, Women's Biography
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Overview
Combining the insight of Anna Quindlen and the comic storytelling of Garrison Keillor with her own singularly outrageous humor, Marion Winik has captivated thousands of listeners on NPR's All Things Considered. Now, in Telling, she takes us on a journey both personal and universal, a tour of the minefield of chance and circumstance that make up a life. Along the way, she offers razor-sharp takes on everything from adolescence in suburban New Jersey ("Yes, I wanted to be a wild teenage rebel, but I wanted to do it with my parents' blessing") to hellish houseguests and bad-news boyfriends; from the joys of breastfeeding in public to the sometimes-salvation of motherhood.Candid, passionate, and breathtakingly funny, Marion Winik maintains an unshaken belief that following one's heart is more important than following the rules — and a conviction that the secrets we try to hide often contain the deepest truths.
"A born iconoclast, an aspiring artiste, a feminist vegetarian prodigal daughter, from early youth I considered myself destined to lead a startling life far outside the bounds of convention. I would be famous, dangerous, brilliant and relentlessly cool: a sort of cross between Emma Goldman, Jack Kerouac, and Georgia O'Keeffe.... So where did this station wagon come from?" — from Telling
Editorials
Publishers Weekly -
Winik, a poet, syndicated columnist for the Austin Chronicle and contributor to NPR's All Things Considered , mines her life for the material of these wry, memorable essays. A ``born iconoclast'' turned ``middle-income thirtysomething'' wife-and-mother-of-two in Texas, Winik has much to say about the sneaky, sometimes painful process of growing up. She writes in conversational style about her father, her adolescent anxieties in suburban New Jersey, meeting her husband and the vagaries of nursing children. Winik has a gift for aphorism--sleepaway camp ``was just a front for humiliation of the uncoordinated''--but other essays make clear that there is hard-won wisdom behind her wit, especially those heartfelt writings on the friends damaged by the reckless past they all shared: a sister finally recovering from drug addiction, a friend dying of AIDS. First serial to Utne Reader; author tour. (Feb.)Library Journal
Beginning with an opening essay in which she confesses that for her the act of revelation is like a hit of cocaine, Winik, a nationally syndicated columnist with the Austin Chronicle and commentator for National Public Radio's ``All Things Considered,'' indulges in one confession after another. Practicing a very personal journalism, she draws the reader into her life with pieces that range from the mundane experience of adjusting to the demands of domestic life and motherhood to more shocking stories of her ``bad girl'' suburban New Jersey past. These essays are frank, wonderfully written, and often entertaining glimpses of one woman's experience of the world. This highly readable collection should be popular in public libraries and is a worthwhile addition for journalism collections.-- Judy Solberg, Univ. of Maryland Libs., College ParkBook Details
Published
February 1, 1994
Publisher
New York : Villard Books, c1994.
Pages
213
Format
Hardcover
ISBN
9780679428596