Starred review from November 27, 2017
Few readers could fail to be impressed by both the research behind and readability of this first book by Dean, a journalist and critic. In it, she explores the lives and work of women writers of the 20th century, including Hannah Arendt, Janet Malcolm, Dorothy Parker, and Susan Sontag. She covers a dozen women, all considered “sharp” for their intelligence and insight, but also in that they were considered—particularly by male counterparts—cutting and threatening. Dean, fortunately, doesn’t keep these talented women in their own boxes, but shows many of them intersecting in the same intellectual circles, interacting and commenting—sometimes bitingly, sometimes supportingly—on each other’s work. Dean provides concise synopses and comparisons of their ideas and has an eye for similarities: both Mary McCarthy and Joan Didion, for example, objected to what they saw as J.D. Salinger’s triviality. The book has a few glitches—a short section on Zora Neale Hurston, for example, doesn’t quite mesh with the rest. Taken as a whole, however, this is a stunning and highly accessible introduction to a group of important writers. Agent: Gary Morris, David Black Agency.
January 15, 2018
A debut book about the works of 20th-century women whose lives had a deep impact on culture."I gathered the women in this book under the sign of a compliment that every one of them received in their lives: they were called sharp," writes New Republic contributing editor Dean. At first glance, the premise seems rather elementary. Such a qualifier can't possibly carry with it the heft of a book's premise. However, by exploring the different roles that women such as Joan Didion, Hannah Arendt, Renata Adler, Susan Sontag, and Dorothy Parker occupied in the writing world, Dean makes it clear that to be called "sharp" was a steppingstone for their respective careers. All of the women are obviously extremely different: Dorothy Parker was hardly a contemporary of Susan Sontag, nor did they function within the same society. Hannah Arendt was not as progressively irreverent as Renata Adler. However, Dean reveals intriguing connections that link most, if not all, of them together. Each one of these women was involved in one way or another with Conde Nast, an extremely influential publishing group that could make or break writers' careers. In writing for the New York Review of Books or Vogue, among other publications, they were able to test out their ideas on a captive audience of fiery New Yorkers and sophisticated, fashionable women. As is often the case with geniuses, their writings were not received with open arms; there was push back from an audience used to a male authorial power. Interestingly, however different these women may have been from each other, the author ably explains the ways in which their lives intersected, the conversations they had, and the goals they shared. Unfortunately, Dean often discusses these female authors' writerly independence in relation to the men that occupied important places in their lives, an odd choice in a book of this nature. Still, the author presents engaging portraits of brilliant minds.A useful take on significant writers "in a world that was not eager to hear women's opinions about anything."
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February 15, 2018
Journalist and critic Dean offers a look at the lives and careers of ten women she describes as sharp, including Dorothy Parker, Rebecca West, Hannah Arendt, Mary McCarthy, Susan Sontag, Pauline Kael, Joan Didion, Nora Ephron, Renata Adler, and Janet Malcolm. These women are bound by exceptional talent and helped forward American literature in the 20th century. Each chapter is part biography and part literary criticism, chronicling the personal and professional highs and lows of the women's lives and how they overlapped or intertwined. One glaring exception to this organization is the chapter "West & Zora Neale Hurston," in which Dean discusses West's veiled racism in her coverage of the Willie Earle lynching case in 1947. This sidestep highlights that all of Dean's subjects are of European descent, though from a variety of religious, political, and class backgrounds. VERDICT Dean's title is engaging and well written, but one cannot help but wish that more women of color had received attention. With that in mind, this work may be of interest to readers who enjoy biography, literary criticism, and women's or cultural history.--Crystal Goldman, Univ. of California, San Diego Lib.
Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
March 15, 2018
By portraying intrepidly and eloquently opinionated and highly influential women writers, journalist and critic Dean brings a uniquely intellectual slant to the current renaissance in women's history via group biographies, such as Andrea Barnet's Visionary Women (2018). Beginning with Dorothy Parker, who was putting people on notice before American women had the right to vote, these sharp literary warriors refused to conform to gender expectations and got their start by writing daringly frank and acerbic book, theater, or film reviews; taking on established, mostly male, figures; and presenting new and challenging perspectives. As Dean chronicles the complexly difficult, provoking, and triumphant writing lives of Rebecca West, Hannah Arendt, Mary McCarthy, Susan Sontag, Pauline Kael, Joan Didion, Nora Ephron, Renata Adler, and Janet Malcolm, she tracks their supportive and vituperative interactions and reveals the vibrant matrix of culturally defining ideas generated by these bold critics of society, the arts, and politics. With the word ferocity appearing with satisfying frequency, Dean presents shrewd, discerning, fresh, and crisply composed interpretations of the temperaments, experiences, and sophisticated trailblazing works of these gutsy and transformative thinkers.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)