Refreshing & direct, August 2, 2009

This is a memoir of a woman's life in the creative literary artistic and literary circles in New York from the Swinging Sixties to the present. The writing is animated and very personal and self-reflective, particularly in the earlier parts, where she just comes right out and says what she is seeing and feeling, giving us a refreshingly open and impartial "you were there"

To me the most interesting parts of the book are those about the art world. One person who threads all through the later narrative is Clement Greenberg. She was very close to him, and though not uncritical, she gives us a more intimate, more insightful and much truer picture of this great and complicated art critic than all three of the recent books on him put together. She also espouses - and charts her own evolution of - a non-establishment point of view about contemporary art which is far more sophisticated and grounded in actual worth than that of most art writers

Things bog down a bit in later chapters when she gets into theory and politics but I know of nothing else that gives a better "feel" of what it was like to be part of the art world whirlwind of the last four decades in New York.

A Timely and Valuable Book, August 2, 2009

This book brings alive a most fascinating period - late twentieth century - in the art and media worlds, in the form of a trenchant and insightful memoir. The author's evolution as a journalist and critic mirrors the development of thinking shared by many in these worlds, at a time of amazing and powerful changes in society.
Definitely recommended for any student of the period, and invaluable to any analysis of the times.
George Hofmann
artist

original thought-provoking memoir, July 31, 2009

this is a fascinating read - a mixture of sometimes painfully truthful personal revelations over a lifetime of relentless pursuit of truth and of the essence of art and creativity. It particularly enriched my understanding of abstract expressionism - the author's theory of meaning within the art apparently does not conform to that of most critics, but made good common sense to me, and enabled me to see and enjoy the art with new eyes. It is a scholarly work, beautifully researched and annotated. A very long book, not an 'easy read', but stimulating and worth the effort.