I seriously disliked this book. It is so naive, so guilt-ridden and yet disinterested and insincere that I don't believe it would have been published if the writer hadn't previously made her reputation writing truly interesting and valuable essays, such as "Time and Distance Overcome," about telephone poles and their role in technological progress and the spread of lynching.
The author apparently wanted to contemplate the significance and existential import of her entry into comfortable middle-class life. But her musings are for the most part off the cuff and trivial. The tone offers no more than the equivalent of "I wonder this, I wonder that."
The chapters, if you could call them that, wander without making any coherent argument. Occasionally Biss cites some interesting sources of information, such as a book about Virginia Woolf's servants. But the author has no expertise of her own, does not develop any real knowledge or wisdom in the course of the book or put together a point of view from those who do know of which they speak.
The author apparently wanted to contemplate the significance and existential import of her entry into comfortable middle-class life. But her musings are for the most part off the cuff and trivial. The tone offers no more than the equivalent of "I wonder this, I wonder that."
The chapters, if you could call them that, wander without making any coherent argument. Occasionally Biss cites some interesting sources of information, such as a book about Virginia Woolf's servants. But the author has no expertise of her own, does not develop any real knowledge or wisdom in the course of the book or put together a point of view from those who do know of which they speak.
