Review by Choice Review
Well researched and entertaining, this brief study does not make as original a contribution to the field as some of the books it cites--e.g., Mary Ellen Brown's Soap Opera and Women's Talk: The Pleasure of Resistance (1994), Charlotte Brunsden's The Feminist, The Housewife, and the Soap Opera (CH, Nov'00, 38-1377), and Ellen Seiter's Television and New Media Audiences (CH, Oct'99, 37-0745)--but it usefully combines and elaborates on their insights. Spence relies strongly on Robert Allen's Speaking of Soap Operas (CH, Sep'85), but she efficiently summarizes that book's main points and contributes insights she gained from interviews with soap opera viewers. As she acknowledges, her approach is neither ethnographic nor scientific, but what she learned from her interviewees adds complexity, contradiction, and a generally positive spin to what scholars have said. A flaw in the introduction is its elaborate representation of an outdated scholarly position on soaps as "what the critics say," but the rest of the book reflects a comprehensive, up-to-date knowledge of what critics have actually been saying about soaps much more recently. This book will be an excellent resource for coursework on soap operas. ^BSumming Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers. R. R. Warhol University of Vermont
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
