November NF Selection: SHARP: The WOMEN WHO MADE AN ART OF HAVING AN OPINION, by Michelle Dean

[Anita]

This is the discussion thread for our final non fiction read will be Sharp: The Women Who Made an Art of Having an Opinion by Michelle Dean.

Sharp:

The ten brilliant women who are the focus of Sharp came from different backgrounds and had vastly divergent political and artistic opinions. But they all made a significant contribution to the cultural and intellectual history of America and ultimately changed the course of the twentieth century, in spite of the men who often undervalued or dismissed their work.
These ten women—Dorothy Parker, Rebecca West, Hannah Arendt, Mary McCarthy, Susan Sontag, Pauline Kael, Joan Didion, Nora Ephron, Renata Adler, and Janet Malcolm—are united by what Dean calls “sharpness,” the ability to cut to the quick with precision of thought and wit. Sharp is a vibrant depiction of the intellectual beau monde of twentieth-century New York, where gossip-filled parties at night gave out to literary slugging-matches in the pages of the Partisan Review or the New York Review of Books. It is also a passionate portrayal of how these women asserted themselves through their writing in a climate where women were treated with extreme condescension by the male-dominated cultural establishment.

Mixing biography, literary criticism, and cultural history, Sharp is a celebration of this group of extraordinary women, an engaging introduction to their works, and a testament to how anyone who feels powerless can claim the mantle of writer, and, perhaps, change the world. (Goodreads)

who will be reading or has read this? Come share your thoughts as you go along. Did you have a favorite essay?

[Lo]

Was an interesting and enjoyable read. I felt the writer made excuses for positions against the civil rights movement some of these authors seemed to take. Much better was her analysis of their positions on feminism. And their relation to and interactions with one another. I particularly enjoyed the Sontag essay but I am a fan of her work. I really enjoyed the Janet Malcolm essay - the only author I wasn’t familiar with (this helped me pick my next read). There was something kind of old fashioned in the style and language but that seemed fitting considering the subjects.

[Anita]

Lo wrote: "Was an interesting and enjoyable read. I felt the writer made excuses for positions against the civil rights movement some of these authors seemed to take. Much better was her analysis of their pos..."

I was wondering if the book would seem dated or not, thank you for sharing your thoughts, Lo. Glad to see you gave it a decent 4 star rating. I'm really hoping to get to this one myself soon

[Breanna]

Even though I knew the book would be about specific individuals it felt almost as if several of the chapters were repetitive due to the limited and acutely specific demographic of those subjects included. admittedly, I didn't know much about any one of the subjects but I found myself getting them mixed up from mini biography to biography. From more of a overview perspective I greatly appreciate the trials and challenges through which these women persevered. I just felt that the point was lost, ebbing and flowing throughout the text.