Regression and Apocalypse: Studies in North American Literary Expressionism, and: In a Dark Time: The Apocalyptic Temper in the American Novel of the Nuclear Age (review)
to mention frequent references to clothing and personal appearance) raises serious questions of audience and intent. I would have preferred to see more of the minds of these twenty-eight interesting and accomplished women and less of their kitchens (or offices). The book is haunted by the Angel of the House. All of which is not to say that there is not some good reading in Inter/View. The recurrent discussions of the uses of memory were often provocative and enlightening, especially the insights of Gail Godwin, Joyce Carol Thomas, and Susan Fromberg Schaeffer. Other highlights of the book include Alison Lurie on feminist separatism and Godwin, Marge Piercy, and Fromberg Schaeffer on book reviewers. There were also a number of near misses, moments the interviews seemed about to take off but did not. Henderson, for example, reported that Piercy "became excited when discussing the fundamental nature of fiction," which Piercy sees "as being about time and choice." But only a single paragraph of the interview was allotted to Piercy's elaboration of this statement. Pearlman's failure to encourage Fromberg Schaeffer to develop her assertion that "at this point in history, 'it seems as if there are only approved forms of suffering' " was also a keen disappointment. Interesting as some of the interviews are, some of the time, Inter/View is finally only partially successful as a testament to "the numbers of women writing firstrate fiction in America today."