A Difficult Woman
by Alice Kessler-Harris
- Percentage of approved critics who have given this book a positive review.
Critic Rating
56%
Critic Reviews: 26
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- User rating from iDreamBooks & iTunes
Reader Rating
67%
Reader Ratings: 13
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Synopsis
A revelatory and provocative biography of one of the most controversial women of the twentieth century, by one of America’s most renowned historians.Lillian Hellman was a giant of twentieth-century letters and a groundbreaking figure as one of the most successful female playwrights on Broadway. Yet the author of The Little Foxes and Toys in the Attic is today remembered more as a toxic, bitter survivor and literary fabulist, the woman of whom Mary McCarthy... more
About Alice Kessler-Harris
Published: April 24, 2012 by Macmillan Publishing
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs. Non-fiction. 448 pages
- All Critics: 26
- Positive: 16
- Negative: 10
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The New York Times | 8 Jun 2012
The author is much less persuasive, though, when she tries to blend Hellman smoothly into the context of the endlessly complicated 20th century.
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Kirkus Reviews | 15 Apr 2012
A richly layered portrait of a woman whose literary might and sociopolitical daring continue to demand attention.
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The Wall Street Journal | 1 May 2012
Ms. Kessler-Harris acknowledges Hellman's prevarications only grudgingly, resorting to a tedious postmodern explanation that writers are entitled to their own version of "truth"...
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Boston.com | 22 Apr 2012
That this book combines so many elements reflects its breadth and strength as history, biography, and cultural criticism.
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History News Network | 23 Jun 2012
...she displays great courage in producing a sympathetic portrait of Hellman that will likely receive some of the condemnation and righteous indignation once leveled at the playwright.
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The Washington Post | 4 May 2012
Kessler-Harris is right to argue that the life Hellman led “illuminates the world she confronted,” most importantly the worlds of emerging women and of political fear and contention.
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The Independent | 7 Jul 2012
Kessler-Harris defends her well, but the structure of her biography, while it works hard to exonerate her subject, makes it difficult for us to get close to, and thus sympathise with, Lillian Hellman herself.
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Christian Science Monitor | 2 May 2012
...the approach could have been made sharper by more aggressive editing.
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Star Tribune | 27 May 2012
Written with grace and impeccable scholarship, this is a stirring and enriching performance.
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The Economist | 14 Apr 2012
Ms Kessler-Harris largely defends Hellman against her harshest critics by placing her and her choices... in the context of her times.
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Book Forum | 1 Apr 2012
A Difficult Woman avoids the chronological approach... As the reader struggles to match up these divergent strands, Hellman becomes even trickier to grasp
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San Francisco Chronicle | 11 May 2012
Kessler-Harris has written a biography that balances Hellman's achievements against her shortcomings.
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Washington Independent Review of Books
The strength of the historical current diminishes Hellman’s place in it.
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NPR | 26 Apr 2012
The result is a biography that's substantive, measured and a tad flat.
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Vogue | 18 Apr 2012
Wisely, Kessler-Harris, a Columbia historian, emphasizes Hellman’s social and political contexts, rather than speculating overly much about her personal motivations...
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Book Kvetch | 10 Feb 2012
A Difficult Woman by Alice Kessler-Harris is a highly worthwhile read that might draw readers to seek out copies of this storied playwright’s memoirs.
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Capital New York | 25 Apr 2012
Kessler-Harris succeeds at exonerating her subject.
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Post and Courier | 10 Jun 2012
Kessler-Harris succeeds in giving us what she promised in her introduction, “a book about a woman, about the idea of a woman, and about the world that formed and shaped her.”
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Real Clear History | 17 May 2012
"A Difficult Woman" brings nothing new to the table.
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Chicago Tribune | 6 Apr 2012
Kessler-Harris places all of her qualities, both fine and infuriating, in the context of the century in which she lived...
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Portland Book Review | 25 Jun 2012
The chapters are deeply insightful and dig deeper than most of Hellman’s other biographers.
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Macleans | 12 Jun 2012
There is no lack of drama covered in this book, yet it reads a little dull.
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Pages of Julia's Blog | 7 May 2012
A Difficult Woman gives us an infinitely more complex Hellman than the popular image that has survived her.
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Publishers Weekly | 20 Feb 2012
Although she perhaps lets Hellman off the hook too much, Kessler-Harris offers a nuanced, fair-minded, and engrossing portrait of a controversial but indelible 20th-century personality.
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NPR | 26 Apr 2012
...a biography that's substantive, measured and a tad flat.
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The New York Times | 8 Jun 2012
The tension between author and subject makes for some interesting reading...
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