Page 79 - Publishers_Weekly

Review_NONFICTION

Nonfiction short-story author Naimon conducted
with SF stalwart Le Guin (The Found and
the Lost) for the radio show Between the
Jell-O Girls: A Family History Covers, this book is an enlightening con-
Allie Rowbottom. Little, Brown, $28 (288p) versation about the writing process. Both
ISBN 978-0-316-51061-5 authors adopt the tone of artisans dis-
In this intimate and intriguing debut cussing their craft, and each’s delight at
memoir, Rowbottom explores the lives of debating with a like-minded professional
the women in her family, specifically her is evident throughout. Le Guin stresses
mother and grandmother, members of the importance of knowing grammatical
the family that once owned the Jell-O rules, arguing that to write “anything,
company. She evaluates 100-plus years you’ve got to have the tools to make it.”
of Jell-O’s marketing campaigns through Naimon, clearly well versed in Le Guin’s
a feminist lens, exploring how Jell-O work, connects their discussion of lan-
presented itself as a quick and easy des- guage to her novels The Dispossessed, about
sert solution for white, middle-class an “anarchist utopia” with no possessive
women who, at the turn of the century, pronouns, and The Left Hand of Darkness,
found themselves alone in the kitchen about an alien race without any fixed
without “maids and nannies and cooks.” gender. Le Guin picks her words and
Rowbottom describes Jell-O’s early cam- subjects carefully, expositing boldly on
In Milk, Mark Kurlansky offers a cultural
paigns (“Teaching women, it turns out, writing as an inherently political act (an
history of the ubiquitous beverage (reviewed on
was a tenet of Jell-O’s marketing... Jell-O, insight she traces back to George Orwell)
p.72).
so pliable, so good, teaching them how to and on Margaret Atwood’s discomfort
mold themselves to match it, pliable and larger cultural context, Mendelssohn with labeling her work science fiction, while
good”) and provides a history of food’s emphasizes how the author was caught up shutting down conversations on subjects
role in the American imagination— in the racial, ethnic, and class anxieties she feels less able to speak to, such as self-
including the low-calorie-food trend roiling a post–Civil War America full of publishing. Her expansive knowledge of
and later ad campaigns that sold Jell-O newly arrived immigrants, many from the SF genre provides, most strikingly, a
based on nostalgia. At the same time, Wilde’s native Ireland. After describing sharp perspective on how its female prac-
Rowbottom explores how the women in Wilde’s early life and university career, titioners have too often been forgotten
her own family negotiated the social con- the book shifts focus to the then-little- in favor of their male contemporaries.
structs of the times and within the family known 27-year-old Wilde’s time criss- Her rapport with Naimon results in an
business: her grandmother Midge gave crossing the U.S. talking about the exchange that is both informative and
up her own aspirations to write when she Aesthetic art movement that he so flam- charming. (July)
had children; later, her mother Mary’s boyantly represented. Though Wilde
health complaints were ignored and dis- would paint the tour as a success, in fact Because I Come from a Crazy
missed as “hysterical” by doctors, resulting he often found himself the subject of Family: The Making of a Psychiatrist
in a late cancer diagnosis. Throughout, mockery and hostile scrutiny. Mendelssohn Edward M. Hallowell. Bloomsbury, $28
Rowbottom asserts that a curse afflicted argues that Wilde nevertheless learned (416p) ISBN 978-1-63286-858-9
her family: “The curse was patriarchy.” twin lessons in perseverance and show- Psychiatrist Hallowell (Driven to
Though Rowbottom’s focus on the “curse” manship that served him in good stead in Distraction) handily illustrates in this
sometimes distracts from the narrative, writing the plays that would subsequently entertaining memoir the adage that
her memoir offers a fascinating feminist secure his fame. Mendelssohn’s study people go into psychiatry because they
history of both a company and a family. never quite settles, as it tries to meld biog- want to understand themselves and their
(July) raphy with an expansive cultural history families. Hallowell grew up in the Boston
filtered through the lens of Wilde’s visit area in a family afflicted by the “triad of
Making Oscar Wilde and interactions. Nonetheless, there is alcoholism, politesse, and mental illness.”
Michèle Mendelssohn. Oxford Univ., $24.95 much to ponder in Mendelssohn’s anal- His father, who was later diagnosed as
(304p) ISBN 978-0-198-80236-5 ysis, whether one agrees with it or not, bipolar, wasn’t the same after he returned
Mendelssohn (Henry James), a professor and it will hopefully inform future dis- from WWII with PTSD, his mother was
of English at Oxford, peripatetically, and cussions of Wilde. (July) an alcoholic, and his brother suffered
not quite satisfyingly, reexamines Oscar from bipolar disorder and alcoholism.
Wilde’s self-mythologization, reinven- Ursula K. Le Guin: Hallowell fondly recalls studying at
tion, and rise to celebrity, mostly in Conversations on Writing Exeter, where he embraced creative writing
terms of Wilde’s 1882 speaking tour of David Naimon. Tin House, $14.95 trade paper and developed a love of literature; his
the United States. Straining to broaden (150p) ISBN 978-1-941040-99-7 heady days at Harvard; and his years in
the focus from Wilde’s own career to a Originating in three interviews that medical school at Tulane. After he decided

WWW .PUBLISHERSWEEKLY.COM 71