Review by Choice Review
The rather overcrowded literature on Beat writers must make room for this lively collection. Women Beat writers have received too little attention, and this collection can take its place alongside the critical anthology Girls Who Wore Black: Women Writing the Beat Generation, which Grace and Johnson edited (CH, Jan'03). The present title comprises interviews of exactly the women any fan or scholar of Beat would want to read about: Ruth Weiss, Diane di Prima (indispensable), Brenda Frazer, Hettie Jones, Joyce Johnson, Ann Charters, Janine Pommie Vega, and Anne Waldman. The interviews refute F. Scott Fitzgerald's saying that "there are no second acts in American lives." Frazer's life is especially poignant. Ann Charters explains her crucial involvement with the dissemination of Beat writing through her scholarly writing and bibliographical work. Johnson's introductory "map" of the writers is very helpful, and Grace contributes an intelligent essay on the interviewing process. The works cited is useful, but a fuller bibliography would have been even better. The index is extensive. ^BSumming Up: Essential. All collections; all levels. B. Almon University of Alberta
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
