Author: Rivka Galchen
Year: 2014
Rank:
Rating:
Original Rating:
Pop Rating:
Genres/categories:
Writing, Essays, Non Fiction, Memoirs, Parenting
Purchase/reserch links:
ISBNs:
9780811222969
9780811225588
0811222969
0811225585 |
| 
Rivka Galchen's Little Labors is a droll and dazzling compendium of observations, stories, lists, and brief essays about babies and literature
Sei Shonagon's Pillow Book―a key inspiration for Rivka Galchen's new book―contains a list of "Things That Make One Nervous." And wouldn't the blessed event top almost anyone's list?
Little Labors is a slanted, enchanted literary miscellany. Varying in length from just a sentence or paragraph to a several-page story or essay, Galchen's puzzle pieces assemble into a shining, unpredictable, mordant picture of the ordinary-extraordinary nature of babies and literature. Anecdotal or analytic, each part opens up an odd and tender world of wonder. The 47 Ronin; the black magic of maternal love; babies morphing from pumas to chickens; the quasi-repellent concept of "women writers"; origami-ophilia in Oklahoma as a gateway drug to a lifelong obsession with Japan; discussions of favorite passages from the Heian masterpieces Genji and The Pillow Book; the frightening prevalence of orange as today's new chic color for baby gifts; Frankenstein as a sort of baby; babies gold mines; babies as tiny Godzillas ...
Little Labors-atomized and exploratory, conceptually byzantine and freshly forthright-delights.
Similar books:
|
