This wise and wonderful compilation, containing 21 essays from Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Lurie (Foreign Affairs), begins by describing the author's years as a young mother and writer: "I had published two children, but my two novels were born dead." Lurie goes on to recall her interest in theater, "a world apart with its own language, history, and culture," and explore the contributions of her contemporaries who are "deliberately producing work that is intended to be taken apart and studied rather than read and enjoyed." Lurie then critically examines original fairy tales in comparison to their Disney versions. The piece "Witches Old and New" provides a compact history of "worshipers of a female deity." Children's literature also falls under Lurie's deft eye with interpretations of the tales of Babar the elephant, Narnia, and Harry Potter. The collection concludes with a look at fashion and the joy of wearing whatever we like best. VERDICT Highly recommended for Lurie's fans and admirers of the essay genre.-Joyce Sparrow, Kenneth City, FL © Copyright 2019. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

From people, including the often unsettling Edward Gorey, to places, such as the sexually constricted Radcliffe College of the 1950s, to seminal works of children's literature, like Babar, to the vagaries of attire, from aprons to zippers, Pulitzer Prize-winner Lurie turns her shrewd and appraising eye on all manner of modern life. Hers is a discerning and vigorous intellect, one that can muse about the etymology of the word text and summon the same careful consideration in a scholarly critique of the Harry Potter canon. Lurie is also a wry and perceptive observer, quick to find the endearing traits of people she admires and equally adept at identifying the ironies intrinsic to contemporary circumstances. In this far-reaching compilation of nearly two dozen essays, Lurie displays her deep appreciation for the career she was destined to pursue since her first novel, Love and Friendship (1962), despite false starts and the social constraints of the time. Each entry delights as much as it edifies, revealing endearing and illuminating sides to this prolific and popular author.--Carol Haggas Copyright 2019 Booklist

The 21 essays assembled here range in length from several paragraphs to a score of pages, but all are stimulating and entertaining in equal measure. After two personal and candid short memoirs about her life as a writer, wife, and mother, novelist Lurie (Familiar Spirits) follows her fancy in selections that touch on a broad range of subjects: a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at Jonathan Miller's celebrated 1974 staging of Hamlet in "What Happened in Hamlet"; an affectionate tribute to Ted (Edward) Gorey, her best friend for decades, in "Edward Gorey"; astute evaluations of Pinocchio, Babar the Elephant, Harry Potter, and other characters from children's literature; and appraisals of knitting, aprons, zippers, and aspects of fashion that extend her 1981 study The Language of Clothes. Lurie approaches all of her subjects with the acumen of a seasoned critic but frequently draws on her skills as a Pulitzer Prize-winning fiction writer to give shape to her thoughts, as when she wryly describes the circumlocutions in critical papers written by deconstructionists as giving "the impression that their authors are flies struggling in the sticky verbal strands of theoretical discourse." Lovers of literature and the arts will find this a delightful and rewarding volume. Agent: Melanie Jackson, Melanie Jackson Agency. (May) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.