Woman: An Affirmation

by Alice Fannin

Book by Fannin, Alice

439 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1979

Reviews

[Mom · Rating 4 out of 5]

An unexpected gem. Published in 1979, Woman: an affirmation is a collection of folk tales, short stories, poems, and excerpts from novels & autobiographies --all portraying women in their fullness throughout the stages of a woman's life from adolescence through the end of life.

The best thing about this book was the large number of authors to whom I was introduced or reintroduced. Here are some of my favorites:

Lucille Clifton's poem "the thirty eighth year of my life": (excerpt)

the thirty eighth year
of my life,
plain as bread
round as a cake

an ordinary woman.

i had expected to be
smaller than this,
more beautiful,
wiser in Afrikan ways,
more confident,
i had expected
more than this....

i had not expected to be
an ordinary woman.

Joanne Greenberg with her magnificent short story "And Sarah Laughed" about a hearing woman whose husband and sons are all deaf -- her loneliness and anger, and then her eventual understanding.

This from Colette's 77 year old mother in Colette's autobiography "Break of Day":

"You ask me to come and spend a week with you, which means I would be near my daughter, whom I adore.... All the same, I am not going to accept your kind invitation, for the time being at any rate. The reason is that my pink cactus is probably going to flower. It's a very rare flower (that) only flowers once every four years. Now, I am already a very old woman, and if I went away when my pink cactus is about to flower, I am certain I shouldn't see it flower again. So I beg you, Sir, to accept my sincere thanks and my regrets."

And "A New England Nun" - an affecting and heart-felt short story by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman.

This book was found in a Little Free Library. I am delighted that I picked it up, and will be sure to pass it on.