|
All reviews here are the opinion of the author of the review.
We welcome rebuttals to all interviews as we are always open to a different perspective.
Title: Canterbury
Tales
Author:
Geoffrey Chaucer
Date of Writing: 1380s (left unfinished and
published posthumously)
Reviewer: Marjorie Montenegro
Response: "The
Canterbury Tales" shovels opinions and morals down the throats of its readers through its coarse, yet entertaining, style. Written in a language which could be appreciated by the common folk, The Canterbury Tales are truly the tales of the people. Chaucer looks
at his characters in the harsh light of reality insinuating their character through their physical descriptions and likes
and dislikes. He does not sermonize on their characters, yet manages to expose
some as the hypocrites they are. The prioress, although portrayed as a compassionate
woman, is also portrayed as a hypocrite in her position by her love of the courtly virtues.
Through the Prioress tale we see her as an anti-Semite, which is in contrast with the portrayal of her as a woman of
compassion. Perhaps her only feelings of compassion are toward animals and small
children. To understand Chaucer's time is made much easier through the reading of these tales.
Title: "Aint I a Woman?"
Author:
Sojourner Truth
Date of Publication: 19th C.
Reviewer:
Marjorie Montenegro
Response:
Sojourner Truth puts a nation on her knee and tells them a story,
the story of being a woman. Ms. Truth's no nonsense, down home wisdom speaks
volumes more than the most over analyzed, over educated tomes of wisdom collecting dust on bookshelves all across academic
America. Sometimes, there is no room for grammar and syntax, only room for truth. I was moved by Ms. Truth's eloquent and heartwarming speech and only wish to aspire
to one day move others as she moved me.
Title: "What Time Of Night It Is"
Author:
Sojourner Truth
Date of Publication: 19th C.
Reviewer: Marjorie Montenegro
Response: I was puzzled by this speech by Sojourner Truth. Somehow there seems to be no coherence and Ms. Truth appears to get lost on a tangent. I am not a literary critic; however, unlike two of her previous writings, I was not impressed by the speech
despite its making a few good points. Although a cynic by nature, I found myself
wondering if Ms. Truth's age might have caught up with her.
Title: "Keeping the Things Going While Things Are Stirring"
Author:
Sojourner Truth
Date of Publication: 1867
Reviewer:
Marjorie Montenegro
Response: Sojourner
Truth, speaking out against the emancipation of only one half of the black people in America, delivers common sense points
that, unfortunately, for the most part, landed on deaf ears. Ms. Truth's style
of speaking does not attack, nor does it humble itself to the audience, it merely explains what should be obvious - women
are people too. I enjoyed looking at this speech and am charmed with Ms. Truth's
style.
Title: "Intelligent Wickedness"
Author:
William Lloyd Garrison
Date of Publication: 19th C.
Reviewer:
Marjorie Montenegro
Response: The writing of William Lloyd Garrison is a hornet sting to the sensitive flesh of the 19th
Century male. His argument is sound, his wording concise, and his message clear. This is an author after my own heart. "Intelligent
Wickedness" points the finger of blame and shakes it furiously in the face of ignorance.
Clearly, any class studying the womans movement should be familiarized with this writing.
Title: "Editorial from The North Star"
Author:
Frederick Douglass
Date of Publication: 1848
Reviewer:
Marjorie Montenegro
Response:
Frederick Douglass uses biting sarcasm to force women's rights out of the dark and into the light. He speaks not only with authority on the subject of oppression, but with an impassioned zeal that is impossible
to ignore. There are moments in his editorial that remind me of "Letter from
Birmingham Jail" such as "A discussion of the rights of animals would be regarded with far more complacency by many of what
are called the wise and the good of
our land, than would be a discussion of the rights of women."
I
also find that Douglass posits King's philosophy on what is a just government when he says, "government only is just which
governs by the free consent of the governed, there can be no reason in the world for denying to woman, the exercise of the
elective franchise, or a hand in making and administering the laws of the land." Clearly
Martin Luther King, Jr. was well versed in the writings of Frederick Douglass.
Title: "The Bedquilt"
Author:
Dorothy Canfield Fisher
Date of Publication: 20 C.
Reviewer:
Marjorie Montenegro Response:
"The Bedquilt" is a charming story of finding self-appreciation in the unlikeliest places. Sometimes, those things which we are most afraid of are the things which can bring us the greatest success. Aunt Mehetabel lived a long life of planning, but never executing, a dream. The bedquilt was more than just patchwork, it was the culmination of a lifetime of hope daintily held together
with the invisible stitches of fear, disappointment, martyrdom, and pain. This
was more than just a story of self discovery, it was a story of success. Forget
"the Gipper" and let' give a big hand to Aunt Meheabel.
Title: Anonymous
Was A Woman
Author:
Mirra Bank
Date of Publication: 20 C.
Reviewer:
Marjorie Montenegro
Response:
Quilted together with common thread, the lives of the women glimpsed at in Anonymous
Was A Woman scream of creation; however, not creation of life but creation of freedom using the few avenues of expression
available. The women themselves were the art which they sought so earnestly to
produce, and this is evidenced in their pastel speech and charcoal lives. When
told to choose what piece within the book most interested me, I thought, "an easy task to undertake." I planned to find a colorful character that would most attract a reader's attention and paint a portrait
of her. Now I find that task not so simple.
To take away from this book a single characterization, whether glossy or matte, would be to deconstruct the perfect
quilt. I do not choose to unravel what these women created; therefore, all I
can say is that what I enjoy most about Anonymous Was A Woman is the ability that
the chosen women have to blanket us with their lives and keep us warm even today.
Title: Excerpts from The Woman Warrior
Author:
Maxine Hong Kingston
Date of Publication: 20th C.
Reviewer:
Marjorie Montenegro Response:
I have always been enamored of Chinese folklore, and this was no exception. I found the excerpts from The Woman Warrior
charming and haunting. Although charming is easy to come by, haunting is a much
rarer commodity; therefore, I appreciate these excerpts and anticipate buying the book.
Title: "Why I Write"
Author: Pearl
Cleage
Date of Publication: 20th C.
Publisher:
Unknown
Genre: Essay
Response:
I sincerely hope that Ms. Cleage has gotten the help she so
desperately needs. This is not said in the spirit of sarcasm, such as anyone
reading my writing might be accustomed to, but in the spirit of concern. Ms.
Cleage, a black female, apparently has been kept so busy "being black" that at 30+ years of age, she is only now coming to
terms with being female. This form of suppression, which may have occurred as
a result of racial prejudice, has cause a delay in self-awareness; therefore, Ms. Cleage might benefit from joining a woman's
group or engaging in group therapy. As for the writing itself, of course a writer
should use the word "I" but enough already.
Title: "The Yellow Wallpaper"
Author:
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Date of Publication: 1892
Reviewer:
Marjorie Montenegro Response:
Like the women in the garden, and the shadows on the wall, slowly
our narrator's empty world is filled with insanity. Where the dark corners of
her mind gather dust, the narrator seeks to fill them with all that is available, the yellow wallpaper. What kind of world exists within the faded colors on the walls? That
is the question that envelops the once active mind of an isolated, dependant woman shut away from the light of day. Proof positive of the expression, "A mind is a terrible thing to waste."
Title: "Woman's Space"
Author:
November Belford
Date of Publication: 20 C.
Reviewer:
Marjorie Montenegro Response:
Who on earth hasn't experienced constant interruption syndrome? I am personally plagued with recurring outbreaks of "can you" "do you know where"
and the ever popular "I don't want to bother you but" yet look what we have here - my writing.
If the desire reins supreme, the interruptions will fall into line. This
poem says nothing new and has only interrupted me from reading something more worthwhile.
Title: A Room
of Ones Own
Author:
Virginia Woolf
Date of Publication: 20 C.
Reviewer:
Marjorie Montenegro Response:
Although this critique might be viewed as academic suicide, I shall
plunge headfirst and hope that the branches of tolerance break my fall. I do
not like A Room of Ones Own. I understand
the concept of stylized writing, but the content of the book does nothing to draw in the reader. Certainly, Woolf's mastery in writing should be applauded on its merit; however, I am not progressed far
enough in my education to fully appreciate Woolf's subtleties. There is nothing
in A Room of One's Own that remains once the book is closed, although the pages
are full of wonderful ideas. The presentation of these ideas; however, are uninteresting
and handled in a very preachy manner. It is my opinion that such revolutionary
ideas should have been shot forth from a canon rather than whispered in a library.
Title: The Diary
of a Young Girl
Author:
Anne Frank
Date of Publication: 1947
Reviewer:
Marjorie Montenegro
Response: The Diary
of a Young Girl is like a thief which sneaks into your heart and steals the last morsel of indifference. The reader is lured through the window of her heart into the world of an optimistic young girl who could
easily have been a daughter, niece or next-door neighbor. Who among us has not
at one time desired to know the secret thoughts of another? It is that curiosity
which compels the reader to turn the first few pages; however, it is the voice of Anne Frank that keeps the reader turning. Through the author's conversations with her diary we can imagine what life was like
during that turbulent period. We are not assaulted with the brutal details which
history books often graphically describe, but instead read the soft spoken sentiments of the human heart. In many of the issues which touch her we see in the author a parallel to our own lives. Speaking historically of an event, although providing information, does little to give us the same empathy
as sharing secrets with just one person with whom we share a rapport. To understand
the Holocaust we need to understand the people who fell victim to it and The Diary
of a Young Girl provides us with a clear, human understanding of the people who suffered, rather than the statistics.
|
