emergence balancing middlemarch disturbances

books:

1 review
Lynne Sharon Schwartz

Trafalgar Square, 1982

To be who I am
I wish Lynne Sharon Schwartz was better known because once a reader discovers her writing, there is a treasure of stories waiting. Schwartz excels at beautifully describing thoughts often unstated in every day situations. The complexities of aging, family life and adolescence are the theme of this book with characters you will remember for a long time. Combine an aging circus performer and a ...

Face to Face: A Reader in the World

3 reviews
Lynne Sharon Schwartz

Beacon Press, 2001

The Pros and Cons of Being Present and Absent
Ms. Schwartz is an essayist of astonishing perception, skill, and power. She has taken the simple notions of being face to face (and its opposite) and explored them with a thoroughness and thoughtfulness that will probably guide you in all your relationships to make them ever richer. I like books of essays because they provide more diversity of perspective than a nonfiction book or a ...

Disturbances in the Field

12 reviews
Lynne Sharon Schwartz

Harpercollins, 1983

Writing that carves out the sharp edges of life
I have never read a book that better describes the fullness of life and emotions and the grace of acceptance. The weaving of philosophy throughout the book provides a handle for the characters to check and compare the lives they thought they would lead and the ones they are living and how to help each other along in that journey. The many sides of friendship shine brightly. The perils and joys ...

A Little Princess (Signet Classics)

136 reviews
Frances Hodgson Burnett

Signet Classics, 1990

One of my favorite stories! (submitted by [EoN] FrenchFryMayo)
When I was in third grade, I longed for a story that I could actually enjoy and remember nearly everything that goes on. You see, I couldn't find ANYTHING interesting until I found Secret Garden, Black Beauty, and A Little Princess, all of which I literally COULDN'T PUT DOWN. Now in fifth grade, I continue to read these books again and again and again and again and again and again and again ...

The Four Questions

2 reviews
Lynne Sharon Schwartz

Demco Media, 1994

Wonderful book!
This book has wonderful illustrations and a beautiful explanation of the four questions. It is a perfect gift book for Passover -- especially for friends with children or grandchildren.

The Writing On The Wall

8 reviews
Lynne Sharon Schwartz, 2005

Jack's tower of love
Another powerful book by Lynne Sharon Schwartz. Reading this book helped me move the events of 9/11 away from the still unthinkable horror to the effect that day had on the lives of real people as they first made their way through the ash and dust on the street and through the days beyond that. I loved the strength of Jack's love for Renata. I liked that he fell for her before he learned her ...

Referred Pain: And Other Stories

2 reviews
Lynne Sharon Schwartz

Counterpoint Press, 2004

Secrets, games, conversations in our heads
The stories in this book open the window to the characters' minds. They live their public lives but we are allowed to share the private lives and their attempts to live with and avoid pain. As always Lynne Sharon Schwartz's writing shines. Not a word is wasted. My favorite story was Deadly Nightshade. It is about a woman who breaks with the grandparents' warnings and dares to eat a ...

Smoke over Birkenau

3 reviews
Liana Millu, Lynne Sharon Schwartz

Jewish Publication Society of America, 1991

shocking memory of holocost survivor.
i guess i'm confused. i am sitting here with a copy of "smoke over birkenau" by seweryna szmaglewska, translated from the polish by jadwiga rynas. henry holt and company n.y. copyright 1947. first printing. Did she change her name?

Middlemarch (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) (Barnes & Noble Classics)

3 reviews
George Eliot

Barnes & Noble Classics, 2003

Probably The Best Novel On 19th Century England & The Industrial Revolution
George Eliot, (nom de plume of Mary Ann Evans), wrote a literary masterpiece with "Middlemarch." I was forced to read this novel in school at an age when term papers and grades meant more than absorbing the riches this book contains. I reread it recently, after thirty years, and it was/is so worth the revisit! The Barnes and Noble Classic Series Edition of "Middlemarch" contains an excellent ...

Leaving Brooklyn

2 reviews
Lynne Sharon Schwartz

Houghton Mifflin (T), 1989

We're all still leaving Brooklyn
I loved Leaving Brooklyn, and I think I, like the main character Audrey, am still trying to get free even though I have never been there. Brooklyn is that safe and settled fantasy we were taught to believe in as children and cling to, beyond reason, as adults. Audrey is an outrageous character--ambitious and calculated--fully believable as a fifteen year old. I relate to her and the ...

Emergence of Memory: Conversations With W.G. Sebald

1 review

Seven Stories Press, 2007

Read Sebald First, of Course!
This is NOT a stand-alone introduction. If you have not read at least two of W.G. Sebald's books, either in German or in English translation, STOP! Don't read this review and certainly don't read Lynne Sharon Scwartz's thin compendium of magazine pieces about Sebald before encountering the man himself! The first Sebald publication in English was The Emigrants, and I'd strongly recommend it as ...

The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Writings

3 reviews
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Lynne Sharon Schwartz

Bantam Classics, 1989

Post Partum Madness?
Gilman was a feminist, a radical suffragist and a woman who was told that all of her thoughts and energies ought to be solely focused on something that she wasn't really interested in being: a mother. She suffered from post-partum depression and severe anxiety later in life. The title story, "the Yellow Wallpaper" is a semi-autobiographical account of what happened when she had to go through a ...

Ruined by Reading: A Life in Books

13 reviews
Lynne Sharon Schwartz

Beacon Press, 1997

What a delightful book
Schwartz' style is clear and satisfying. After spending an afternoon consuming this essay, I checked the frontispiece to see if it had originally appeared in "The New Yorker" or "The New York Review of Books" or some similar publication. Imagine my surprise to find instead that it was published by a press run by the Unitarians. But then, the book starts by quoting a Buddhist scholar, goes through ...

Fatigue Artist

8 reviews
Lynne sharon Schwartz

Scribner, 1995

Beloved book
This brilliant book is one of my favorite novels of all time. Illness, grief, growth, recovery, not to mention Tai Chi, photographs, performance art, the most intimate appreciation for Manhattan, and meditations on the act of writing itself...no one but Schwartz could craft this combination of wisdom, knowledge, experiments in form, gorgeous language, and thoroughly engaging characters and ...

In the Family Way

7 reviews
Lynne Sharon Schwartz, 2000

No quotes needed around "family values."
In the Family Way is above all a novel of family values. Family values without the quotation marks that make that description sarcastic or ironic. True, Bea is divorced from Roy, who is divorced from Serena, who is now in a relationship with Bea's sister, but calling on Roy to "supply" her with sperm so that she and May can have a child together. And so on and so forth. But this is a family ...

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