Compiled by Gina Berriault's daughter and by her long–time companion, Leonard Gardner, this collection opens with five stories, including, "The Figure Skater," the last story published before she died in 1999. Also here is the first section of the novel she left unfinished and her brilliant acceptance speech for the Commonwealth Club of California's Gold Medal for Literature.
As reclusive as she was meticulous, Gina Berriault did not suffer fools and sat for only a handful of interviews. She was acutely aware of nuance and tended to write and rewrite not only the answers but also the questions, making the interview printed here is as finished and beautiful as any of her writing.
Here, too, are her essays for Rolling Stone, Hungry Mind, and Esquire on subjects as diverse as the first topless dancers in San Francisco's North Beach to the last execution by firing squad. As a whole this collection becomes her credo on American culture, politics and the written word.
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.
