First Love & Look for My Obituary: Two Novellas

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Fun reading, important literature.

Two very intriguing stories of love and loss

First Love & Look for My Obituary: Two Novellas
Elena Garro
Manufacturer: Curbstone Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

20th Century | British | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Spanish | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Literary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 1880684519

Book Description

'the best writer in Mexico today' (E Caballo)

Customer Reviews:

Fun reading, important literature........2000-11-21

Two Novellas is a small book with big ideas. Garro addresses very similar ideas in the two novellas, which is why they are published together. In the first novella, First Love, a young girl and her mother, both named Barbara, while on vacation in Paris befriend against everyone's advice a group of German soldiers who are working on a railroad just after World War II. Both mother and daughter are attracted to one of them men named Sigfried, for different reasons. Everyone tells them not to go around these German scoundrels, and the reader knows there will be trouble coming, although exactly what kind of trouble comes is very surprising. In First Love Garro primarily explores the perceptions and stereotypes held by society, and the way these intercept individual freedom. In the second novella, Look For My Obituary, an unhappily married Mexican man named Miguel enconters a frail and lovely girl named Irene, who appears to him out of nowhere and makes his life seem so much better. Miguel wants to run away with Irene because he is desperately in love with her, but she keeps warning him there is danger to come. In Look for My Obituary, Garro explores the theme of marriage as a prison which takes away from the individual's desires and freedoms.

Although the plots are quite different, many of themes in the two novellas are similar. Both novellas deal with the themes of love and death, which are two cornerstone themes of all literature. Both could have technically been titled "First Love": Irene and Miguel discovered love for the first time as did the two Barbaras and Sigfried. Also, both deal with the prohibition of love as well as the constraints of marriage, and the freedom that this social institution takes away from individuals, in terms of their own desire and love. Both novellas are written in a mysterious ways and turn out different than the reader expects them to.

Garro has been called the "Greatest writer in Mexico", and this description suits her perfectly. Her style is very beautiful and moving, and her metaphors have a deep impact. There is a line in Look for My Obituary where Irene tell Miguel, "We are both dead already", meaning that she is destined to get married to someone she doesn't love and he is trapped in a stale marriage with a woman he no longer loves and who no longer loves him. In this novella, marriage equals burial and love equals death, but these metaphors only merge at the end. It is there that the reader realizes the true implications of the story and of the fates of the two main characters. There is also a great exploration of Magic Realism in the story. It challenges Western limits of rationality and deals with the limits of language and thoughts and the levels of cognition that we have to perceive and explain our world. In Look for My Obituary, Miguel always cried as a child and young man for what was going to be missing in his life because he knew he would someday meet Irene and he was waiting for that day but knowing that even when he met her he would have to keep waiting, and he would never get to have her. This is the essence of Magical Realism and it does not hold up under Western rationalist standards. Western philosophy separates body and mind, reality and imagination. However, in this novella, a very emotional scene is depicted and it is better explained through Magical Realism than through Western attempts at rationalization. Everyone has experienced unfulfilled longings and desires that cannot be reasonably explained, and these things are beautifully depicted in this story.

Two Novellas is a fast and fun read, but it has deep impact and great meaning. It provides a good starting point into Elena Garro's work, as well as other great works in Latin American Literature.

Two very intriguing stories of love and loss.......2000-03-01

The late Elena Garro, whose reputation in her native Mexico was nothing short of brilliant, presents in this brief collection (both novellas are translated by David Unger) two very unconventional love stories. In First Love, the love in question is a German prisoner of war in post-WWII France, who befriends mother and daughter tourists amid the disapproval of the local folk. Trapped in an unhappy marriage and thankful for the break from domestic life, mother Barbara soon cannot deny her attraction to the soldier while her daughter (also named Barbara) feels an infatuation for the same man which is the catalyst for her growth into a mature young woman.

Look For My Obituary is not as straightforward a tale as its predecessor. This story tells of a young husband and father, unhappy in an arranged marriage, whose passion is awakened by a beautiful, mysterious stranger. With relentless determination he pursues this woman, though is careful not to cause scandal within his own loveless union, until his clandestine meetings with his love end with her "death"--her printed obituary is really an announcement of her own arranged marriage.

Though a brief look into one aspect of Latin American life, First Love & Look for My Obituary offers powerful sociological commentary and is evidence of Garro's own concern for the mistreatment of women in her culture. Garro writes with an eloquence accented with her Mexican heritage, yet both stories are not too immersed as to be confusing to those unfamiliar with the culture. Those with an interest in multicultural literature will find this volume to be a good primer.

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Super Reader

Why can't the Avengers have their own trilogy?

The Action Novel of the Year!

CLASSIC

The super skrull is wicked
X-Men: The Avengers : Friend or Foe? (Gamma Quest Trilogy, 3)
Greg Cox
Manufacturer: Berkley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

X-Men | Characters | Comics & Graphic Novels | Subjects | Books
Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Cox, Greg | ( C ) | Authors, A-Z | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
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Spiderman and the Incredible Hulk: Rampage (Doom's Day, Book One)

ASIN: 0425170381
Release Date: 2000-06-11

Book Description

The X-Men--mutant protectors of a world that fears and hates them. The Avengers--Earth's mightiest heroes, the greatest super-team ever assembled. Now they must put aside their differences and join forces against the Leader, the gamma-powered evil genius who has already abducted one Avenger and two X-Men as part of his latest plan--with the fate of the entire globe at stake!

* Illustrations by George Perez and cover art by Julie Bell

Customer Reviews:

Super Reader.......2007-08-07

If the Leader and friends and Gamma Sentinels weren't enough of a problem, how about some teammates being take over and used against you. Wolverine you wouldn't expect, and wouldn't want to face, the Scarlet Witch is scary, and Rogue's mind is a little fragile to start with. Then there is still the Hulk to worry about, speaking of unstable.

Why can't the Avengers have their own trilogy?.......2003-01-05

After all, the X-Men have several. This is a review of book#1 (the data base tends to mix them all together.) Greg Cox reminds me of Roy Thomas writing Marvel comics in the 60's and 70's. He can take the Marvel characters and advance them a step further while maintaining their original essence and actually improve on them. I never really liked the Hulk and Iron Man that much until I read this book. I also liked his approach to the relationship between the post-divorce Vision and Scarlet Witch. The climax battle at Niagra Falls is awesome; it is as vivid as an actual comic book while supplying details that could only be described in prose. It takes a good writer to do that.

The Action Novel of the Year!.......2002-06-14

I absolutely loved this book and I will recomend this book series to anyone who reads X-men books. This is pure action with The Hulk and Captain America kickin some real butt. The first book is just as good even though it has a slow start but read it cause this 2nd book is the best. But MY GOD you just have to read this! Thanx for readin!

CLASSIC.......2002-04-19

I have witnessed some great battles. Like the battle of five armies in the hobbit. The battle at Helms Deep in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. The battle between Luke and Darth Vader. The countless battle that took place during the Age of Apocolypse storyline. The battle between the X-men, The Avengers and The Hulk definetly rates among these great battles.

The super skrull is wicked.......2002-02-03

I was very impressed with the super skrull. Along with having shape shifting abilities, he has the power of all four members of the fantastic four. Those powers coupled with the x-men, avengers, and hulk's powers. There was nothing else to call him but ultimate skrull.

I also really enjoyed in the end how Scarlet Witch and Rogue put aside there differences after all they had been through. Especially since Wanda also remembered that she to had a checkered past.

Book Description

Capt. James T. Kirk's historic voyages have seldom been recorded fro, the vantage point of those who served "below deck" on the Starship Enterprise™ NCC-1701. This new trilogy reveals the courage and dedication of the men and women who constitute Kirk's crew, as well as the unearthly dangers faced by any who dare to explore the final frontier!

THE JANUS GATE

book two of three

FUTURE IMPERFECT

On a desperate rescue mission to recover their missing captain, the shuttle Copernicus and its crew have become lost in time and space, transported by a powerful subspace vortex to a hellish future time line where the brutal Gorn Hegemony has all but conquered the United Federation of Planets. Stranded on a transformed Federation colony, now a Gorn mining world worked by oppressed human slaves, Helmsman Hikaru Sulu meets an older version of a man he barely knows, Pavel Chekov, who now leads a ragtag band of freedom fighters against the Gorns.

Teamed together for the first time, Sulu and Chekov must struggle to survive in a future that should never have happened!

Customer Reviews:

Better tahn book one, but still a bit of a letdown.......2004-05-12

Well, here we are with book 2 of the Janus Gate trilogy. As has been previously mentioned, this is by no means a stand-alone. I have no problem with that; if I'm reading a trilogy and I start with book 2, I deserve any headaches I get while trying to glean what happened in book 1.

This book is better than "Present Tense" in that things get moving story-wise, and especially toward the end, I really got into the story. I will definitely be reading book 3, if only to find out how this whole mess gets resolved. Having said all that, I still feel like this series overall would've been much better as either two books or one big book. It feels padded, and although the writing is excellent, there were moments when I couldn't wait to be done with the book to move on to something more intresting. The characters kept examining their situation, trying to figure it out ... but seeming to get nowhere. It seemed more about trying to solve te puzzle than about the characters involved.

I really had a hard time rating this book. The writing is excellent; the handling of the characters is dead-on as far as I'm concerned, and when the story's moving it's great. It just seems like it moves in jolots, rather than a smoothe--or even exhillaratingly bumpy--ride. I definitely get the feeling the story as a whole was padded to fit a certain length. I think Pocket Books would do well to focs less on quantity and more on quality. This should've been a two-parter. Or a "Giant" Trek novel. As it stands, to coin a Tolkien phrase, it feels like butter that's been scraped over too much bread.

Even better, in most ways, than book one........2002-11-16

For instance, the back cover blurb, while still clearly inaccurate, isn't quite as blatently inaccurate as was the blurb on the back of "Past Tense", the first book of the series. For another thing, while still ending on a cliffhanger, this book at least does us the courtesy of doing so AFTER resolving a major plot point. And the writing is just as good as it was in the first book of the series, which is saying quite a bit.

Unfortunately, while this book comes closer than book one did to having an actual ending, it has no beginning; one could not reasonably expect to enjoy this book if one hadn't read book one of the series, so it still can't stand alone. So while the series is well worth reading, I cannot recommend this book by itself. It is a story fragment, and can only be read as part of a trilogy.

Here Today, Gorn Tomorrow !!!.......2002-09-11

The second book in L.A.Graf's "Janus Gate" trilogy is an exciting adventure which builds on the ground work laid in book one. This time there is more of a science fiction edge, as the true nature of the Janus gate mechanism is revealed, and just how out-of-sync the time stream now is becomes apparent. The future adventure with Sulu and an older Chekov fighting the Gorn is an excellent idea, and the fact that the author found a new and interesting way to use established characters and aliens from the original series speaks volumes of her ability as a writer. The ending too manages to throw in another curve to the story with the arrival of the mysterious "Shechenag", and the reader can't help but be drawn in to the next book. For any other fans who liked this story I would also like to recommend "Killing Time" by Della Van Hise published in July 1985 (Star Trek collection #24), which features an excellent story where Romulans have altered time creating a distorted future in which Spock is an embattled starship captain, and Kirk is a bitter ensign. As for this book, it is another enjoyable effort from Graf, even better than the first one.

Good book-sort of a let down.......2002-07-11

This book was still very good, and is a good timeline novel, but it is not the best of the three in the series. The book makes a good effort with the Scheenag, but the end falls apart in a strange cliffhanger.

An Improvement on Book 1.......2002-07-06

Book one was basically the setup for the story that finally gets moving in this book. Having the alternate Sulu and Chekov interacting with each others counterparts is interesting but not. The young Kirk comes across as a typical teenager. The L. A. Graf writing team have written Uhura Chekov and Sulu stories before and are once again on the mark.

Average customer rating:

Good Buy

Gorgeous and elegant

amuse or not amused

Rick Tramonto has a true sense of current trends

Amuse-Bouche

Amuse-Bouche: Little Bites That Delight Before the Meal Begins
Rick Tramonto , and Mary Goodbody
Manufacturer: Random House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Baking | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0375507604
Release Date: 2002-10-22

Amazon.com

Many of the best restaurants tantalize diners' palates with charming, intensely flavored tastes that tickle the tongue and delight the eye. A tiny serving to whet the palate, an amuse-bouche (literally, "mouth amusement") sets diners up for what is to come. Rick Tramonto, executive chef of Chicago's widely acclaimed Tru restaurant, is well known for his passion for and commitment to these bite-size treats. In Amuse-Bouche: Little Bites That Delight Before the Meal Begins, he shares the art of creating these miniature delights. While most people won't find many occasions to serve amuse-bouche at home, the recipes are easily adapted to become passed hors d'oeuvres, first courses, or even main courses. From Chilled Fava Bean Soup with Seared Scallops, to Blue Cheese Foam with Port Wine Reduction, to Charred Lamb with Truffled Vinaigrette and Oven-Dried Tomatoes, this book offers something for every taste. Surprisingly, most of the dishes are exceedingly simple to prepare, often consisting of just four or five ingredients. As might be expected, the success of the recipes is dependent not so much on involved cooking techniques or complicated combinations of flavors but rather on the selection of a few high-quality ingredients. Creamy Corn Grits with Butternut Squash and Sweet Corn, for instance, starts with ever-so-humble beginnings to ultimately showcase the bright flavor of corn and the hearty sweetness of butternut squash. With more than a hundred clever and inspiring recipes, Amuse-Bouche will surely not fail to amuse. --Robin Donovan

Book Description

Amuse-bouche (pronounced ah-myuz boosh) are today what hors d'oeuvres were to America in the 1950s: a relatively unknown feature of French culinary tradition that, once introduced, immediately became standard fare. Chefs at many fine restaurants offer guests an amuse-bouche, a bite-sized treat that excites the tongue and delights the eye, before the meal is served. Nobody does it better than the celebrated executive chef/partner of Chicago’s Tru, Rick Tramonto. Amuse-bouche are a fa-vorite of diners at Tru, many of whom come expressly to enjoy the “grand amuse"--an assortment of four different taste sensations.

Amuse-Bouche offers an array of recipes, from elegant and sophisticated to casual and surprising—but always exquisite—that will inspire home cooks to share these culinary jewels with their guests. From Black Mission Figs with Mascarpone Foam and Prosciutto di Parma to Curried Three-Bean Salad, from Soft Polenta with Forest Mushrooms to Blue Cheese Foam with Port Wine Reduction, Tramonto’s creations will embolden the novice and the experienced cook alike to experiment with unfamiliar ingredients and techniques.

Organized by type of amuse and season of the year, the book also includes a directory of sources for specialty products. With more than a hundred recipes and with fifty-two full-page color photographs by James Beard Award--winning photographer Tim Turner, Amuse-Bouche enchants the eyes as much as an amuse pleases the palate.

Customer Reviews:

Good Buy.......2007-09-21

This is a very well thought out and put together book. I was very happy with it and recommend it to everyone interested in elegant amuse bouches.

Gorgeous and elegant.......2007-08-07

This is a wonderful cookbook with beautiful ideas. It has sensational taste combinations, is very classy and is beautfully arranged by season.
The recipes are simple, but mind blowing in their presentation and appeal.
This is one of my favorite cookbooks, and many of the dishes can be made in larger portions as elegant entrees. These dishes will impress any dinner guest, and add that wow factor to any meal. Some of the reipes include Mission Bay Figs with proscuito and mascarpone foam, mushroom terrine, and baby onion tarts - all little bursts of flavor that hit the spot.
You will not be disappointed with this purchase - satisfaction guaranteed

amuse or not amused.......2007-06-13

If a book can give inpiration, then this is it. For those who want to move up a step with their amuse then you can`t go wrong with this book.Although i hate to copy another chefs accomplishments,I was tempted. Like any good chef you need to make it yours. I have to say some of rick`s presentation is outstanding.There are few books i have seen to give the inspiration to move the goal posts that bit wider.A must buy.

Rick Tramonto has a true sense of current trends.......2007-03-26

From a professional point of view, I found Rick Tramonto's ideas and presentations for much up to date. I was most impressed with his culinary skills.

Amuse-Bouche.......2007-01-26

Great concept. Some very interesting recipes but needs more photoes to really hit the mark. It is hard to visulize these unusual recipies without some sort of graphics. The ones that are in the book are very good.

Book Description

In A Simple Celebration, Ginna Bell Bragg, chef at the Chopra Center for Well Being in La Jolla, California, and Dr. David Simon, director of clinical programs for the Center, explore the spiritual and mindful aspects of cooking and offer a practical, easy-to-use vegetarian cookbook that incorporates Ayurvedic health care principles into more than 140 delicious recipes.

While many recipes in A Simple Celebration have a subtle Indian influence, Bragg and Simon include a variety of other cuisines as well, resulting in a balanced, health-enhancing diet. With recipes such as Warm Wild Rice Salad, Pasta with Madeira Mushroom Sauce, Ginger-Molasses Muffins, and French Apple Cake, it is clear that the ancient mind-body principles of Ayurveda can be readily applied to dishes from every culture.

Supporters of Ayurvedic health care, Bragg and Simon emphasize in A Simple Celebration the importance of understanding one's dosha, or body type. Dosha recommendations are given for each recipe in the book, and a chart is provided that describes the taste quality of common vegetables, fruits, herbs, spices, dairy products, and other foods.

From the Hardcover edition.

Customer Reviews:

A great book !.......2003-04-14

I was excited when I got my book in the mail. I esp. like the desserts and am looking forward to trying the other interest recipies.

Ayurveda? Not!.......2000-07-13

Cooked Honey! Anyone who has studied Ayurveda in the least knows that cooked honey is one of the most toxic things you can eat. Hardboiled eggs that are then fried! Ayurvedic? Gimme a break. To call this book ayurvedic is misleading. Try "Heaven's Banquet" if you want real ayurveda. If you're just looking for vegetarian recipes and will be satisfied with fifty (count 'em!), stick around.

Spiritual Food for your Body & Soul.......1999-05-25

This book is about love. As you read the descriptions of Aruvedic personality & body types, you find your perfect reflection personified. The reverence for food preparation, choice, and content provides food for thought as well as a balance for one's body. Simple dishes nourish the spirit, as do the recipes contained therein. Grace, quality, and charm are the components of a lifestyle resulting in this type of holistic cuisine. Permission to slow down, observe and savor life are granted as you experience the pages of this memorable cookbook.

GREAT and easy receipes.......1999-01-19

A book that has opened my awareness to consciously tune into not only the energy of food but to also be ever aware of the consciousness that I bring to food preparation. Great vegetarian recipes, easy to follow and so far always delicious!

Average customer rating:

Once you have one of these books you will want the whole set

Wow! I Love This Book!

More Sewing Machine Fun (I'll Teach Myself)
Nancy J. Smith , and Lynda Milligan
Manufacturer: Possibilities
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Crafts & Hobbies | Arts & Music | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
General | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
Sewing | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 1880972050

Book Description

Our kid expers requested more! This 2nd book of the series has over 23 more projects and games that perfect and expand the skills learned in Sewing Machine Fun.

Customer Reviews:

Once you have one of these books you will want the whole set.......2004-01-14

Excellent!

Very helpful, kid friendly, lots of fun packed in the book. Easy to read for school age children.

Really helped make learning a great experience. Kids just love looking at this book and all the others in the series and so do I. Half the battle is keeping interested and the book really makes that possible.

Wouldn't live without it! Helped take the fear of of learning to sew for me with my new machine after very little sewing experience - and for the kids who were interested in my new sewing machine. I recommend it for anyone three and up!

Once I bought one I had to have the set (two sets actually- one for me and one for them...)- a lot of fun.

Wow! I Love This Book!.......2000-03-26

Of this entire 4 book series, this one is the best. There are so many useful and fun things for children, and even begining adults to make. I have found that my children always want to come with me to th fabric stores now so they can get fabric for their next project. There are so many easy and fun things to do in this book that children will be able to apprecate all the time such as th book covers and the lunch bag.

Average customer rating:

More Sewing Machine Fun
Nancy Smith
Manufacturer: POSSIBILITIES
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000UDLY20

More Sewing Machine Fun Activity Kit (I'll Teach Myself Series)

Average customer rating:

More Sewing Machine Fun Activity Kit (I'll Teach Myself Series)
Nancy J. Smith , and Lynda S. Milligan
Manufacturer: Possibilities
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

Sewing | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1880972115

Book Description

This groundbreaking book, which builds on the author's earlier work in On Gendering Texts, studies how, by what means and to what extent human love, desire and sex, and possibly even 'sexuality', are gendered in the Hebrew Bible. Following a classification and gendering of the linguistic and semantic data, the investigation looks into the construction of male and female bodies in language and ideologies; the praxis and ideology of sex, procreation and contraception; deviation from socio-sexual boundaries (e.g. incest, rape, adultery, homosexuality, prostitution); eroticism and "pornoprophetics". Finally, the work discusses some of the wider sociological and theological implications of the findings.

Book Description

During her lifetime, playwright and novelist Susan Glaspell (1876-1948) was regarded as highly as Eugene O'Neill and Edith Wharton. Winner of the 1931 Pulitzer Prize for drama (for Alison's House), she was cofounder of the Provincetown Players, the little theater that "discovered" O'Neill. Later, Glaspell was instrumental in introducing American drama to English audiences when her play The Verge was produced in London. Yet despite her many accomplishments, Glaspell is often overlooked in the standard histories of American theater. Now, Barbara Ozieblo returns this intriguing and important figure to the spotlight.

Ozieblo combines an engaging narrative of Glaspell's life with insightful analysis of her creative works. Rebelling early against the expectations imposed on women of her era, Glaspell grappled with the conflict between Victorian mores and feminist aspirations throughout her life. In Trifles, now recognized as a groundbreaking feminist drama, she explored the reasons for a woman's extreme response to her husband's demanding, authoritarian stance. Ozieblo also investigates Glaspell's relationship with dramatist George Cram Cook, exploring the scandal that surrounded their courtship and marriage as well as the life they led among the bohemians of Greenwich Village.

Customer Reviews:

A Necessary Voice in American Theatre.......2001-04-10

This book is especially recommended for theatre lovers and constitutes an essential contribution to the history of women in the US during the twentieth-century. Following Virginia Woolf, Barbara Ozieblo has as her goal to "capture" Glaspell's personality, but the results go far beyond this original purpose. Seduced by a brilliantly polished, engaging narrative, the reader is presented with a new perspective on the development of American theatre in the first half of the twentieth century by means of a smooth movement between identification with Glaspell and a fine and suggestive analysis of her writings.

For the theatre critic / lover, the most relevant dimension of Susan Glaspell's life is her involvement in the creation of the Provincetown Players, either as promoter, actress or playwright. In this regard, a new focus on her standpoint is worth considering, being both protagonist and witness in the development of George Cram Cook's visionary efforts. No doubt, her point of view enables a more accurate, fresher account of the true nature and evolution of Cook's relationship with Eugene O'Neill.

The reader becomes Glaspell herself while witnessing this crucial part in twentieth-century American drama. The implication is that, from her position between external spectator and measured participant, we can reach a more suitable evaluation of the Provincetown Players' contribution to US theatre. This fact is accounted for by the author's decisiveness at drawing consistent conclusions at the right time within the narrative.

An outstanding student and vocational writer, Glaspell also offers an invaluable personal story of abnegation and endurance. The chapter devoted to Cook's final days in Greece does justice to her position as committed wife and sacrificed woman. Here we have an example of a woman's ambivalent role regarding the rules imposed by the society of the time. The main question is whether Glaspell would have utilized her talents in a better way without the burdens imposed by marriage. However, the narrative efficiently locates us within Glaspell's persona, and her constant sufferings caused by her true love for Cook, indeed a demanding and dependent dreamer.

Finally, Glaspell's life as a widow back in the US becomes an example of the unrewarding, sometimes miserable life of twentieth-century women involved in the artistic sphere. Recognized writer, Pulitzer-prize winner and generous mentor, Glaspell keeps on being "too" generous, especially in her relationships with men, and for most of her life remains a solitary individual whose loneliness is only alleviated by the company of her friends and animals and, ultimately, her love for the theatre.

It is precisely this love for the theatre that this excellent biography transfers to the reader, no matter what background, interests or motivations he or she have. Bored with annoying biographies trying to make up silly stories about the hollow lives of any writer or celebrity, this book becomes a fresh, invigorating breeze for both the critic and the general reader.

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