Anna Quindlen Critical Essay | Critical Review by Marilyn Fenichel

Critical Review by Marilyn Fenichel

SOURCE: Fenichel, Marilyn. “Spokeswoman for Our Time.” Psychology Today 23, no. 4 (April 1989): 71.

In the following review, Fenichel asserts that Quindlen's personal essays about being female work more effectively than her political ones in Living Out Loud.

While reading Living Out Loud, I came across a section I found particularly pithy. Eager to share my find, I read it to my significant other. He listened closely, but when I read the punch line, I could tell by looking at his face that he just didn't get it.

The reason for his puzzlement is simple. Living Out Loud is really about being female, with its ambiguities and uncertainties as well as its joys and rewards. Adopted from Anna Quindlen's “Life in the Thirties” column in The New York Times, the book covers it all: mothering and the deaths of mothers, relationships with men and relating to women, religion, politics...
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