5 comments about Among the White Moon Faces: An Asian-American Memoir of Homelands (The Cross-Cultural Memoir Series).

1. This autobiography tracks the trajectory of a self that becomes Chinese, American, Jewish, feminist, separately and in the process all at once. It is written with clarity and a sense of quest, embodying a trans-Pacific quality of risk and self-invention, becoming diasporic and full of poetic longings among the moon faces of which I am one. I enjoyed it, and am grateful for this Chinese American scholar's auto/bio/graphic quest into poetry and belonging, creating a family and home across the waters and on the Rim. Read it and enjoy.



2. Knowing the "aunt" ( who worked in the local hospital) personally in Shirley Lim's White Moon Faces and lived in Malacca for the 1st 17 years of my life this book has brought back nostalgic memories of this period in time. I live in Melbourne - Australia now. "Aunt" read the book too. She is pleased to know you are doing fine in the US.



3. Shirley Geok-Lin Lim's memoir AMONG THE WHITE MOON FACES begins with her girlhood in 1940s Malaysia. From te beginning, her identity is complex and ambivalent: the daughter of a Chinese-speaking father and a Malay-speaking mother who separate when she is young, she is educated in an English-language school in a nation torn over whether to discard English as a remnant of colonialism. Lim's life falls apart when she is six years old. The family loses its money, her mother abandons her abusive husband, and little Shirley is forced on the charity of disdainful relatives. In the years that follow, even as Malaysia gains its independence from Great Britain and careens between multiethnic democracy and Malay nationalism, Shirley tries to make a life for herself. She struggles to attend college and to build a career as a student of literature, despite the potent obstacles she faces in the form of chauvinist male colleagues and boyfriends. Ultimately, she moves to the United States to attend graduate school, just in time to avoid the explosive anti-Chinese riots which put a crushing end to the dream of a nonracial society. Thus marooned in the United States, Lim must struggle once again to make a place for herself, as an Asian-American woman. She earns a doctorate, marries, has a son, becomes a professor (first at an urban community college with a largely Latino student population, later in the suburbs) and discovers feminism. AMONG THE WHITE MOON FACES is an unforgettable experience. It is simultaneously a picaresque tale made up of ironic and often hilarious incidents, an incisive account of post-colonial Malaysia, an inspiring tale of a modern immigrant "making good," and a readable case study of the experience of a thoughtful women in modern society. Perhaps most importantly, the work is a model exposition of the complexities of identity. Lim constantly tries to discover who she is, and where there is a "homeland" for her, where she can be safe and accepted. After taking us through that quest with her, Lim the mature woman makes us understand that we must build our own individual "homes" while working to construct a larger home for society. Lim is unsparing about the limitations of most people's vision, but she does not hector, and she is no more sparing of herself for being unsure about her own views (one classic anecdote recounts her ambivalent relations with the Latino apartment dwellers who take over the front stoop of her house). Fortunately, the little girl who was once constantly punished for telling the truth has not learned her lesson. She continues to enlighten us and remind us of our national purpose as Americans to forge an inclusive and varied society.



4. Shirley Lim's book, Among the White Moon Faces, takes the reader through her life, starting from when she was a young girl in Malaysia, through all of her schooling, and through her move to the United States. Throughout the book she describes her thoughts and her feelings on her various hardships, and really tries to communicate with the reader.

   Personally, I felt very ambivalent about the book. I didn't particularly like, nor dislike it. The writing is advanced, and complex, so it's really not for younger readers. If you've read a lot of other works by Asian American writers, you'll notice a lot of similar themes. I didn't feel as if Shirley Lim said anything new, or different with this book. Also, I felt like the second half of the book went very slowly. However, if you enjoy a lot of descriptive writing, or autobiographies, you'll like this book.




5. This book is a distinct contribution to the genre of cross-cultural literature which deal with themes of identity and displacement. Although many American reviewers describe her as an Asian-American writer, this description fails to capture the unique perspective she brings from her origins from one of the smaller Asian countries (Malaysia) which has contributed relatively fewer immigrants to the United States than have other sources of Asian-America writers - Korea, Japan, Vietnam, or China. Sharing some of the author's background in having also grown up in Malaysia and studied in the United States as a student, I was personally attracted to this book. In this autobiography, Shirley Lim explores identity and adaptation in multiple settings, from growing up in a Chinese community in multi-racial Malaysia before and after independence from British colonial rule, through her student experiences in the United States which finally becomes the adopted home where is teaches college students and is a writer. Her style is witty, direct, and intensely personal, and powerfully conveys the sense of otherness and acute observation which comes with being caught in cultural cross-currents. I recommend this highly.

No comments about Growing Pains: The Autobiography of Emily Carr.

5 comments about Wuhu Diary: On Taking My Adopted Daughter Back to Her Hometown in China.

1. I loved this book not only because of the wonderful author, but also because LuLu is simply a delightful child. There were many passages in the book that touched me. I didn't read the book because I wanted facts. Instead, I wished to learn more about the interactions between a mother and a child who are not of the same race. I was far from disappointed.
   This mother loved her child so much that she wanted to return to the country where LuLu was born so that LuLu could better understand her origins and why she doesn't look like her adoptive mother. Some readers were troubled that LuLu might have been too young, but they are underestimating a child's capacity and resilience. I find LuLu fascinating. I wish her mom (the author) would write more about her adopted daughter and their life together.



2. The book is well written and is fun to read. But as a parent in the process of adopting from China, and a reader with internationally adopted siblings, I agree with some of reviewers that the story tends to gloss over tough issues. Taking a 5-yr old child back to where they were is not a model for curing their problems.



3. My husband and I both found this book to be ridiculous. The writer is naive as to what really went on/goes on in a communist country. Did she not do her homework before she adopted? She couldn't believe people actually knew her every move ... what world does she live in? We feel she saw things as she wanted to see things, not as they really are. We also don't find her point of view to be of any help. Let's face it ... the average person does not have the means to spend that kind of money to live in China for 2 months after having spent $20,000 to $30,000 to adopt. We're looking for something more realistic on teaching our daughter's heritage.



4. The previous reviews show a wide range of reactions to this book. As someone who is about to take her 8 and 4 year old adopted daughters on a homeland tour that will include a brief stay in each of their home towns, I obviously see nothing wrong with taking a child Lulu's age back to China. I didn't agree with everything the author said and did, but the book gave me a lot to think about before we go on our trip. Many of the negative reviews were written in the days when homeland tours were fairly rare. Emily Prager was a pioneer! Many people have taken their adopted children back to China since then and I think we know by now that these trips are generally positive experiences for the children. There are a variety of opinions on the age at which children should return. I think that it really depends on the child and the financial resources of the parent (i.e., how often they can afford to go back).



5. Emily Prager wrote this book about her 5-year-old adopted daughter, Lulu, and their trip back to Wuhu (Anhui province), China. Ostensibly this mother/writer wanted Lulu to get to her "roots", however, since the girl had been, like most of the 40,000-plus such babies in USA now, abandoned on the road, picked up by the police, and then put in the "Welfare" (an orphanage), in fact, what both the mother and poor young daughter must learn are tearful things. One, that the Chinese tradition has made such baby-abandonment commonplace for centuries, as old photos of Wuhu show; and secondly, that the one-child-only policy of modern China forces such a Chinese mentality-family to try for a boy again and again, abandoning the "bad luck" (girl) each time. This is a very sad reality that goes very far back, and is well known in the modern Western world through the world press, in spite of our glorious Beijing Olympics opening ceremony and its army of pretty young women and below-age female gymnasts.
   
   What amused me about Emily as a writer was her naivity, her shining eagerness to embrace all things Chinese, her wish to see everything rosy-pink - in spite of the brutal realities that she does not omit in this travel journal. I admire Emily and her writing, and her obvious infatuation with her adopted Chinese daughter, but objectivity she does not seem to have. From an educated, well-traveled and well-read writer like Emily, one expects a far deeper understanding of China, its traditions both beautiful and reprehensible. Her ignorance comes through all too often - ignorance of Communist dictatorships' absolute control; of Asian male-dominance; of China's long-standing and desperate poverty. How can she not realize that she must read, read and read some more? Where is her preparation in understanding the motivations of the people?
   
   Another interesting omission: in the 1999 bombings of the Chinese Embassy in Beograde, our author is in Wuhu, and the Chinese TV news saturates the country, its 1.2 billion, with anti-American propaganda. Emily feels afraid to walk in the streets or go to the markets, rightly so. She gets into several discussions with the local adults about how America and NATO, and our lovely Clinton, could not possibly have done this.
   
   At the very least, a roving world traveller/writer like Emily should have known that it MUST have been purposeful. It was discovered and revealed very quickly, back in 1999, that the Chinese Embassy there was a rebroadcast point for the Yugoslavs; the Chinese were hoping to make some kind of trade on weapons and did this "favor" for them. Meanwhile, our intelligence sources had three verifiable readings on these transmissions. The bombings were planned for nighttime, when the Embassy employees would be all gone. The three in the building - two were intelligence agents that night. Emily could have included this later in the book.
   
   However, aside from these criticisms, let us say that this book is a good read for those interested in the everyday details of a Chinese trip - how is the food, the train, the road system, the bureaucracy, the Internet connections, the access to American food products, and of course, how are the Chinese children treated. She must perforce focus on this latter, because the book is about her daughter Lulu (LU= street; Lulu was found in the street, hence the poetic name given by the orphanage!) Lulu is described as an adorable, outspoken, charming, captivating, heart-winning, bilingual and identity-confused Chinese girl. She has confidence and curiousity oozing out of her, making her run with eagerness to every activity, toy, food, child or adult available. The Chinese children, in contrast, are inhibited and well-controlled. The reader slowly realizes that aside from the yellow skin or epicanthic folds, clearly this girl is more American than Chinese, or Welsh, or any other nationality, in her sheer openness of personality. If she had been stuck in Wuhu - let's say the American mother found her a family to stay with, paid them well, put her in a good school, etc. - Emily would have returned to have found a completely different child than her "daughter".
   
   I look forward to more articles or books from Emily Prager about China and Lulu, simply to see if she has matured in her attitude about China's deplorable view of women. Yes, Emily's mother was writer, and provided the wisest statement in the book: the one-child-only policy and the cultural "need" for male heirs will be the only way the Chinese ever value their girls and women. Meanwhile, about 4000 Chinese women a day commit suicide, usually self-poisoning, as we sit here reading and writing about them. Emily saved this girl from a backward cultural curse.
   
   Finally, a note about Emily's daughter's face - see the front cover photo of the school group - the teacher is right in noting that Lulu does NOT resemble the other children there, with their more rounded eyes, less stocky builds, shortness and oval faces. Anyone can see that Lulu comes from a different part of China that those children. Adoption agencies in China are moving the she-babies around for many financial reasons. My guess is that Lulu is from the Northern parts, even Manchuria or Mongolia, or let us say, her sperm donor was, and the local woman had to abandon the girl because her facial features would reveal the affair she had with a "foreigner". That's my theory after knowing their internal racism.

3 comments about Retarded Isn't Stupid, Mom!, Revised Edition.

1. One of the funniest books I've read in a while-- reading of Nicole's wacky exploits is sure to tickle your funny bone!



2. I found this book very encouraging. The book covers the emotional roller coaster of dealing with a mentally challenged child but also offers hope. I felt encouraged that my child might have a fulfilling life but discouraged by all the challenges that the future might bring. This book gives a look at the life and successes of a mentally retarded young women.



3. and she said, "Yes, it is!"
   
   We had a pretty great laugh thinking about our lives and everything in regards to this book. Great read!!!

No comments about Pan Chao: Foremost Woman Scholar of China (Michigan Classics in Chinese Studies).

4 comments about Born on the Wrong Planet.

1. This is a quick read, and a fascinating book. It's a look at the world from the inside of a person with Asperger's Syndrome, Tourette's, and OCD. I found the book to be a real eye-opener, as I have a child who has PDD and may experience some of the same things as the author.



2. After reading the book,I recommended it to everyone I know and don't know. It is a book you can't put down once you start. Erika has done a great job giving her life experiences that have helped me understand my son a little bit better. I have also seen her and her husband John speak in person and wow are they good. Any chance anybody gets to read the book and/or see them speak, you won't regret it. When's the next book coming out?



3. Erika Hammerschmidt provides a wonderful autobiography which enables us to journey onto her "planet of Asperger Syndrome" to better understand what it feels like to live on the autism spectrum. This unique and wonderful insight about Asperger Syndrome is priceless. I would highly recommend this book for parents and educators of individuals (of all ages) on the autism spectrum especially those with Asperger Syndrome. I also think that the book provides a wonderful journey for others on the spectrum to read to see that they are not alone on this journey. By offering us this insight, Erika has opened doors of understanding for all of us as we interact together on this planet.
   
   Thank you Erika!
   
   Joanna L. Keating-Velasco, Author, A Is for Autism F Is for Friend: A Kid's Book for Making Friends with a Child Who Has Autism



4. Aspergers Syndrome can drive a wedge between one and society... "Born on the Wrong Planet" thinks it can be enough that it may seem that the sufferer is not of this world and it's strange ways and customs. Author Erika Hammerschmidt speaks of her difficulties overcoming what many people find so easily overcome in their lives, but is an uphill battle due to her Aspergers and Tourettes syndromes. An inspirational tale, "Born on the Wrong Planet" is the perfect gift for any intermediate reader of a young age trying to cope with their own Aspergers.

5 comments about How I Became Hettie Jones.

1. Hettie Jones' work is an important contribution to the Beat era. The Beats were avant-garde in many ways, but they remained entrenched in sexism. Sexual liberation is here frought with masculine privilege, as is drug-taking and the creation of art--men get to create, while the mothers cook, clean, and change diapers.

   However, I found the book a bit dull and unreflective. Jones seems not to have been very excited by the Beat scene or the people whom she knew. Nor does she emote a real feminist consciousness. Instead, she seems to sense that something was wrong, and hope that things will change.




2. Great books - stayed up until 3 am to finish. paid the price this morning but it was worth it.



3. I had the honor of taking both a poetry and personal essay class taught by Hettie Jones, and all I have to say, is she is just about the coolest lady I know, and since I met her before reading this memoir, it was absolutely amazing to think of all she has been through, she is wonderful and this book reflects just that.



4. 
   
   This book has it all. It's half novel, half history lesson, half
   feminist screed, and half bittersweet love story. And somehow it all
   works.
   
   
   In my first novel I wrote, "Behind every great man is a good woman he
   steals all of his ideas from". But in this case the man had his own
   great ideas, and the woman proved later with this book that she is the
   equal to the great man.
   
   
   love, Michael W. Dean



5. I am an avid reader, and I read an assortment of books, but I have never come across a book like this! Miraculously, I picked it up at a used bookshop and bought it after quickly scanning the description on the back flap. It seemed interesting, but was thrown in a corner with a bunch of other books that I promised myself I would read when I caught up on mounds of other books which seemed more important. Fast forward a few years and imagine someone literally nose in book, reading while walking, not able to put it down! This is a woman's fascinating account of life in the '50s and '60s, but that's not all. Hettie's writing style is so unique, beautiful and inspired it's a shame she hasn't written a dozen books with the same freeflowing gorgeous poetry of this one. This book actually made me laugh out loud, sob, smile, feel anger, and shame. It also made me frustrated by the injustices of the world. How can one attend school everyday from the age of five and not learn a tenth of what is taught in this slim book? Buy this for your sons and daughters, your parents, friends, teachers. It's true that this should be required reading. I would love to have a conversation with this wise woman, but in the meantime, this book is as close to that as one can hope for.

5 comments about Saint Therese of Lisieux (Penguin Lives).

1. Unfortunately this was the only biography of Therese in my local public library. All biographies are to some extent seeing the subject thru a lens, but this lens filters out much of what is of the most value in Therese's writings in my opinion. This biographer seems unable to dive into or convey much of Therese's spirituality, due to a lack of understanding or excessive skepticism of spiritual experience. Biographer doesn't seem to be convinced that spiritual experiences are real. She continuously suggests that Therese's spirituality may be just neuroses and offers up superficial pop-psychological comments for every spiritual experience. Its like a biography of a mountaineer but the biographer is not at all sure that mountains really even exist at all, and they may be a figment of the fevered imagination. Biographer thinks this point of view is attuned to what "contemporary readers" expect but it just ends up missing most of whats there spiritually.



2. Kathryn Harrison writes triumphantly about Therese Martin the Saint of Lisieux. Her biography captures the historical character from childhood to her death at age 24 years. Harrison portrays the life of Therese amidst the context of the late 19th Century. The focus of the book is on the family life and the convent life of Therese and her seemingly constant struggle to rest in perfect devotion to God to whom she had sacrificed her life.
   
   Harrison writes exquisitely of Therese, but she writes at times from a freudian, humanistic point of view, somehow missing or misunderstanding the mysticism of Therese's life that is the one characteristic that makes her life remarkable. I think this comes from the writer discounting the reality of Therese's constant communion with God.
   
   I recommend this book because it illustrates the power of a quiet life lived in the love and service of God. Harrison successfully shows the effect of one life lived fully for God unselfishly and sacrificially. The final pages offer a brief glimpse of the enormous impact Therese has had on people since the time immediately following her death.
   
   Craig Stephans, author of Shakespeare On Spirituality: Life-Changing Wisdom from Shakespeare's Plays



3. Harrison shows us a Therese who often wept but who also had a gift for restraining her emotions; who's self-understanding was influenced by her dreams, even while she discounted the value of dreams; who had an unusual preadolescent disorder involving involuntary muscular movements which sometimes even threw her out of her bed; and who longed for purgation by spiritual fire. And Harrison did it with literary flair. I loved it. Now I'm reading The Kiss.



4. "Saint Therese of Lisieux" is a short story of a short life. Drawn largely from Therese's own writings and the recollections and testimony of acquaintances, it provides an up close view of a holy life.
   
   Therese is a saint who pursued sanctity by seeking "nothingness" within the Carmel of Lisieux and yet became the patroness of missionaries and one of the most popular saints of the past century.
   
   This book provides an introduction to the spiritual life of late 19th Century France, in which religious life was at its greatest popularity, and the particular environment of her convent. It also gives an insight into the attraction of Therese to the world since her death. I find the popularity of Therese and St. Francis of Assisi to be puzzling. Our world generally esteems those who give their lives in service to others, not in those who seek self mortification as their road to salvation, but in their cases, this is the model which the world embraces. The book alludes to Therese's writings, but really does not, in my estimation, make the case for her immense popularity. This book is a good introduction to her life, but I am left searching for her charism.



5. I read Saint Therese of Lisieux (A Penguin Lives book) this week. The style and subject are appropriate for the series, and I appreciate the author's presenting a story to a public that may not generally be interested in haggiography and knows little about St. Therese. However, the saint's brief life troubles me, as it calls into question the process of cannonization itself. Ms Harrison repeatedly turns to Therese's abandonment by mother figures as an explanation of decisions that readers of Penguin LIVES books may not understand. In the saint's illness, though, it becomes increasingly evident that the church and religious community fed the young woman's mortifications to the point of cruelty -- from which they soon profited both financially and by reputation as the convent of a saint.
   
   Therese's younger sister Celine's role especially interests me. Her photos documented not only a life, but also a way of living that was of interest, but largely unknown, to those outside. In the nineteenth century, particularly, storytelling through photos must have been a radical form of art. In truth, the photo of St. Therese on the cover of the book is what caught my attention when I was browsing the general section in a bookstore. As I understand it from Harrison's account, Celine's calling to the religious life was not a clear one from God. To be charitable, Therese "mediated" the message; "coercion" is another word that might be used.
   
   Towards the end of the book, Harrison describes the historical context of Therese's writing .. the vocation of "invalid" against a backdrop of changing roles for women. I find this "vocation" sad, today, in light of what I have seen and read. I'd either like to see additional annecdotal and statistical evidence, or I'd like to see a comparison between the process of canonization for St Therese vs. the same process in a Post-Vatican II age.
   
   It surprises me that there was such a huge showing of the faithful during the 1999 showings of St Therese's reliquary. (1.1 million people saw it in 106 cities.) I can understand a contemporary interest in the photographs, but a new justification of the process of canonization is called for, not adoration of the victim. I pity her and have sympathy for her blood sisters and the nuns of her convent who were trapped in the process.
   
   Her life is a sobering lesson.
   
   Shirley McKee +

3 comments about Afghanistan, Where God Only Comes to Weep.

1. I read this book in German before it came out here. I'm sure the English version is equally good. It provides a lot of insight on day to day challenges of life in Afganisthan (or actually the life of a refugee at times). It is easy and very pleasent to read, even though the subject matter is not pleasent at all.

   However, it is a novel after all, and in my opinion a novel should be fun to read even though the subject is rather grim. It also provides some valuable history and cultural background information. Obiously written from the view point of the protagonist and not a social study. ...But, isn't that what we read novels for? Otherwise one would choose research studies and not novels..

   To cut a long story short: this is a MUST read! It became one of my favorites. I like it much better than Tamin Ansary's book "East of New York, West of Kabul".




2. I read Siba Shakib's novel Afghanistan, Where God Only Comes to Weep in the original German, and I am excited to read the novel in its English translation. I was deeply moved by Shakib's descriptions of the fate of the strong and independent Shirin Gol, a woman, who like so many women in Afghanistan, survived the trauma of war and its harrowing consequences. Yet, unlike the many accounts of horror and victimization I have encountered when reading about the fate of Afghan women, this novel does not strip its main character of her dignity and strength. Shirin Gol is a resourceful, powerful woman who refuses to give in to despair when faced with the kinds of hardship that seem unimaginable as accounts of a lived reality. Yet, Shirin Gol's tragic story is exemplary for the way many Afghan women have had to adjust their lives to the shifty conditions of their beloved, mutilated country. As the resilient Shirin Gol struggles to come to terms with the violence of war, to see her children through the numerous agonizing journeys from Afghanistan to Pakistan's refugee camps and back, and to help her shell-shocked husband through his increasingly debilitating opium addiction, we feel Siba Shakib's deep compassion for Afghanistan and the Afghan people and her empathy for the brave women in this sad and hopeful, poetically rendered story. Mirroring Afghanistan's sparse and picturesque landscape, the novel's style is also starkly beautiful -- written with an ear for lyrical story-telling in the best of oral narrative traditions and with an open eye for the reality of the hardships of a dispossessed and dislocated people. Hence, this novel is not merely painful to read, but also gripping. If the English translation is able to grasp Shakib's bitter-sweet nomadic voice, the novel will speak to its readers about Afghanistan in an unforgetful way, and forgetting Afghanistan is something the world cannot afford.
   (December 2003)



3. 5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
   5.0 out of 5 stars Convincing account of ..., August 26, 2004
   
   ... the dismal servanthood (should we say slavery?) of women under Islamic fundamentalism. Written in the context of the life of a (girl, then) woman who has nothing, who migrates from one refugee camp to the next with her growing family. Is it pure novel or partly biography? In any case, the book is extremely well-written and is made more interesting by virtue of the fact that Siba Shakib is Iranian.
   
   What stood out most for me in the story of Shirin-Gol: 1. Being forced to go to "Russian School" to learn to read and write made all the difference for her, made her 'rebellious' and aware that she should demand and have rights. 2. The Mujahedin practice of "pulling off the shirt" from the waist upward of young Russian soldiers. 3. The sexual misuse of young boys by the Taleban (see also "The Kite Runner"). 4. The massive illiteracy of the populace, including the mullas.
   
   This book can and should be read parallel to Aasne Seierstad's "Bokhandleren i Kabul", which tells an analogous story of repressed and degraded women from the middle-upper class perspective. A list of the puritanic rules imposed by the Taleban is given in one of the chapters.
   
   This review is based on the German original, which is extremely well-written. It took several years for the bookto appeared in the US. Maybe it's one of the most informative books for our era of terrorism by religious fundamentalists against freedom-loving people.

5 comments about What Lips My Lips Have Kissed: The Loves and Love Poems of Edna St. Vincent Millay.

1. Mr. Epstein's passion for his subject was the first attractor for me upon reading this well written, intriguing biography of Edna St. Vincent Millay, specifically focusing on her very tumultuous love life and the poetry which was birthed due to her romantic and [physical relations].

   The prose reads like Mr. Epstein has fallen in love with Edna just as the many men in her path fell in love with her.

   I also found the diversions which came later (like the horse Chaladon) and her well known descent into alcoholism and drug addiction were very compelling to dive into: I would have appreciated more of these times, although the limited documentation available would explain why there isn't more information here.

   This book does its job well: makes me more curious about Edna St. Vincent Millay: from her poetry, her plays and her life outside the written word.




2. This is simply a great biography.
   
   Apparently Epstein was able to gain access to a vast Library of Congress collection of documents on Millay that won't be released to the public until 2010. And he seems to have done an unusually good job of sorting through all this information and putting it in order.
   
   Perhaps it's due to Epstein being a poet himself, but he's able to give a wonderfully sensitive and intelligent account of Millay's life. He's done lots of detective work, and it seems to all hold together.
   
   It's an unbelievable story -- so American in some ways: the gilded age to ragtime to the Jazz Age, the World Wars, anti-war and women's rights, passion, poetry, Greenwich Village and the Left Bank, genius, narcissism, money, fame, sex, alcohol, drugs, a skyrocket ride from poverty to success to destruction.
   
   And yet so un-American in its calm, well-behaved, almost English manner: no shooting, no fist-fights, no one calling the cops, a time when books of poetry sold 50,000 copies and folks jam-packed auditoriums to hear poetry readings -- think Bloomsbury secretly on meth and Virginia Woolf quietly dedicating herself to nymphomania.
   
   Really a well-written book, and surely the best biography of Millay so far.



3. It's not easy being a poet, and Daniel Mark Epstein's biography of Edna St. Vincent Millay in What Lips My Lips Have Kissed, confirms this. From love affairs with men and women to excessive drinking, this book has it all.
   However, there were some things in the book that could have been elaborated on. For example, Epstein had my attention from the very first chapters about Millay's young life as a poet. He mentions how she would conduct candlelight seances in her rooms at night, and would use them as inspiration to write her poetry. He also mentions how close she was with her mother, Cora. I think Epstein should have gone into further detail on both Millay's life as a young poet, and her relationship to her mother. Instead, the book focuses on her love affairs with many men (and a few with some of the women she met at Vassar), as well as the ups and downs she experienced within these relationships and within her life as a poet. Now granted, the book might not be successful if it tried to incorporate the points I would have liked to have seen, but I think especially concerning Millay's feelings of great love for her mother, it might make the book a stronger one.
   What I admired about the book was the feeling I got of Epstein's concern as a present-day writer looking into Millay's steady decline as poet throughout. As a reader, I sensed a certain kind of admiration and esteem for her in the tone of the book, especially at the start of her career as a writer. I was saddened at the end of the book to learn that Millay died from an intake of too much alcohol as well as a fall from her steps. Epstein's concern at the end, too, only strengthened my view that poets do not lead the kinds of high-roller lives that people would like to believe they do.
   When I finished the book, I found myself wanting to know more of the sensitive and acclaimed poet. I wanted to know what drew her so much to alcohol and morphine that she was so wont to abuse. I wanted to know why exactly her husband Eugen's reasoning was in briefly trying morphine in an attempt to make her realize that morphine was indeed not the solution to her problems. I wanted to know what Millay's reasoning was in having extra-marital affairs with other men while being married to Eugen. And I wanted to know more about Millay's sisters; why Kathleen went mad, and why she seemed to stay more in touch with her other sister, Norma, more than Kathleen. I wanted more answers than I got from reading this book.
   In short, while this book is interesting and well-organized, it does not offer a complete look into Millay's psyche and way of perceiving her world. It is most probably a book that would support research done on the poet's life, rather than being a book that can stand on its own. If you want to read a book about Millay's love affairs, read this book. If you want to read about her life as a whole, look elsewhere.



4. This is an intimate portrait of Millay that I cherish. It is also a valuble historical account of many aspects of Maine life. The location and circumstances of Millay's estranged father and the inhabitants of the small town of Kingman in Northern Penobscot County are invaluable in my research of the area. Henry Millay lived in my house in Kingman and no doubt some of Vincent's work was conceived, if not written from my house. It is this connection which has led to my current collection of Millay's work and life. Thank you for this offering on your invaluable site.



5. Catching up on my Amazon reviews (only about 300 books behind)---been a big fan of Millay since my first reading of Renascence (a favorite poem). Millay was a personality before there were magazines and 24/7 coverage of a celebrities every move---no doubt she would have been good fodder for these purveyors of the lives of others. Ms. Millay lived on the edge and her talent was equalled by a life lived large. Mr. Epstein captured this exceptionally woman beautifully in his well-written biography.
   Highly recommended.