In the following positive review of Exposure, Passaro praises Harrison's prose, comparing it to the works of novelist and journalist Joan Didion.
Kathryn Harrison, on the heels of her distur...
Read more
In the following excerpt, Lieberman offers a negative assessment of The Kiss, finding Harrison's effort an unworthy contribution to the memoir genre.
In this era of “realness” ...
Read more
In the following interview, Harrison reacts to the critical controversy and personal attacks prompted by the publication of The Kiss.
When Kathryn Harrison was 20, her father kissed her. He pushed ...
Read more
In the following negative review of The Kiss, Hastings applauds Harrison's courage in publishing her controversial memoir, but argues that the work is stilted and poorly written.
The story K...
Read more
In the following negative review of The Kiss, Kaufman states that the distance and vagueness of Harrison's narrative voice weaken the memoir's hold on its readers.
There are lots of r...
Read more
In the following excerpt, Allen offers a negative assessment of The Kiss, suggesting that Harrison’s real motive behind writing the book was the author's hatred of her mother.
Just wh...
Read more
In the following essay, Alther discusses the critical reaction to The Kiss and how it has changed the perception of the memoir genre, particularly as practiced by women.
The Kiss is a disturbing an...
Read more
In the following review, Moore offers a mixed assessment of The Kiss, arguing that a memoir can only be effective if the reader is persuaded to feel a connection with the author.
The subject that o...
Read more
In the following excerpt, Halpern compares specific passages from Thicker Than Water and The Kiss, noting the similarities in the subject material.
The response to Kathryn Harrison's memoir,...
Read more
In the following review, Scurr offers a negative assessment of The Binding Chair and suggests that The Kiss was an unfortunate turning point for the worse in Harrison’s career.
Kathryn Harri...
Read more
In the following interview, O'Connell offers a positive assessment of Exposure, and Harrison states that the events dramatized in her first novel, Thicker Than Water, are entirely fictional.
...
Read more
In the following review, Smith offers a positive assessment of Exposure, but notes that the novel misses the chance to explore the larger social issues raised by its troubled heroine's life.
...
Read more
In the following excerpt, Goudie argues that narratives of childhood sexual abuse—such as Exposure—have social significance even when they do not succeed artistically.
I mentioned to ...
Read more
In the following review, Dunford offers a generally positive assessment of Poison, noting that Harrison's prose is often too stylized.
Fans of Kathryn Harrison's last novel, Exposure,...
Read more
In the following positive review, Hansen argues that Poison is an elegant example of well-written historical fiction—a genre that typically portrays the contrasts and similarities between a pas...
Read more
In the following positive review of A Thousand Orange Trees (the British title for Poison), Humble notes that the novel focuses on the connection between beauty and cruelty.
Set in seventeeth-centu...
Read more
In the following excerpt, Kaveney offers a generally positive assessment of A Thousand Orange Trees.
Kathryn Harrison's last novel dealt with kleptomania and photography in uptown New York. ...
Read more
In the following review, Taki offers a negative assessment of The Kiss, and states that he doubts the truth behind the events recounted in the memoir.
There are very few taboos left in the world...
Read more
Edwidge and the Angry inch: It’s reading season, when we try to behave like the secular urban intellectuals the red states think we are after a summer spent devouring nanny lit in sunburned s...
Read more
Envy, by Kathryn Harrison. Random House, 301
pages, $24.95.
“Can
it be true that all of Will's patients are consumed by the topic of sex?
Getting it. Not getting it. Getting it, but not en...
Read more
Envy, by Kathryn Harrison. Random House, 301 pages, $24.95. "Can it be true that all of Will's patients are consumed by the topic of sex? Getting it. Not getting it. Getting it, but not enough of i...
Read more