Book
Violation : collected essays
Publication Information
Portland, Oregon : Hawthorne Books & Literary Arts, MMXVI.
Physical Description
xiii, 358 pages ; 23 cm
Uniform Title
Summary
"Sallie Tisdale is the author of seven books on such varied subjects as medical technology, her pioneer ancestors and Buddhist women teachers. Her many essays have appeared in Harper's, Conjunctions, The New Yorker, Antioch Review, Threepenny Review and many other journals. This first collection of work spans thirty years, and includes an introduction and brief epilogues to each essay. Tisdale's questing curiosity pursues subjects from the biology of flies to the experience of working in an abortion clinic, why it is so difficult to play sports with men, and whether it's possible for writers to tell the truth. She restlessly returns to themes of the body, the family, and how we try to explain ourselves to each other. She is unwilling to settle for easy answers, and finds the ambiguity and wonder underneath ordinary events. The collection includes a recent essay never before published, about the mystery of how we present ourselves to each other and whether it is possible to know even our own inner lives"--
Contents
- Orphans
- Fetus dreams
- The only harmless great thing
- Burning for Daddy
- Gentleman caller
- The weight
- The happiest place on Earth
- Meat
- The basement
- The world made whole and full of flesh
- Big ideas
- The hounds of spring
- Temporary God
- Crossing to safety
- Recording
- Violation
- Second chair
- The birth
- Scars
- On being text
- Balls
- Chemo world
- Twitchy
- The sutra of maggots and blowflies
- Falling
- Here be monsters
- The indigo city
- So long as I am with others.