300 Years & Counting 1H KILLS - On The Issues Magazine

movement left no room for motherhood.Faludi also thinks Carol Gilligan's emphasison the "connectedness" of womenplays into the backlash's advocacy of afamiliar supportive role for women. Buther most frightening point is powerfullymade—women have begun to see themselvesas the promoters of the backlashwould have them seen.The backlash decade punished womenfor wanting progress in an inegalitariansociety. Faludi exposes Americansas a sadly fractured people. Her Backlashunderstands well the lives ofAmericanWomen and an emotional chargeunderlies its careful arguments.In Notes of a Native Son, speakingabout the problems faced by African-Americans, James Baldwin said thereare two opposing ideas that must existtogether: Accept any of the world's injusticesfor what they are along with therequirement to never stop fighting thosesame injustices. In Backlash, SusanFaludi's prose and intellectual style reverberateswith this most human dilemma.— Maura GrotellMaura Grotell is a writer and critic,living in New York City.AFTER HENRY by Jean Didion (Simon& Schuster, NY; $21.50 hardcover)Reading Didion's non-fiction is alwaysa learning experience, especially herjournalism collections like this one. Shehas a unique way of seeing and interpretingthe world, and is a master of thetelling detail.She is a terrific writer in so manyways, but for me, a fellow journalist,Didion is the ort of food between theteeth that will neither wash away nordissolve: She is an irritant. Didion is anidiosyncratic stylist through andthrough. There is no moral heft; shetakes no side.Didion may select the usual in journalisticenterprises — the 1988 Presidentialcampaign, the "wilding" gangrape of a woman jogger in Central Park,the Reagan White House — but whenshe applies her off-beat and prodigiousperspective it can get pretty bizarre. Inthe gang-rape piece she meanders offinto another news story about the overdosingdeath of a woman who was havingan affair with a New York Citybuilding inspector. He dumped her bodyas garbage on the street the next morningand his prosecution on minor chargesfailed to make headlines. Didion says,after an elaborate digression on how thecity functions, that people like the buildinginspector don't have the right stuffto become page one news: He's whiteand married, which keeps the womanfrom being portrayed as the white, educatedprincess that the jogger was.Didion's point may be far-fetched, buther details are so marvelous that thestory itself— not where it's headed —becomes everything.Didion's other subject matter casts awider net. That's when she lets looseher eccentric, in/groupie Californiabasedimagination. For example, whilethe building inspector is dumping his"garbage," Henry Kravis, Didion tellsus, is entering his limo. To hell with youif you don't know who Henry Kravis is.(If you don't, he's a short, fat, rich guymarried to clothes designer CarolineRoehm.)Didion writes about a mock baseballgame on the tarmac of an airport whichwas set up as a photo-op by GovernorMichael Dukakis' campaign team. Itwas designed to display the stolid, longsufferingcandidate at his playful andregular-guy best. Didion's copy is loaded"Required reading...would-be candidates, consultants and political junkieswill find [it] riveting....Celia Morris's book made me feel proud."—BARBARA JORDANSTORMING THE STATEHOUSERunning for Governor with Ann Richards andDianne FeinsteinHARRIETT WOODS,President, National Women's Political Caucus:"Celia Morris understands that the realissue for any woman candidate is power —how it is used and how she is perceived usingit. That's what gives special value to thisengrossing 'as-it-happened' tale of 1990's mostsignificant gubernatorial campaigns."Congresswoman PAT SCHROEDER:"Teaches us how much brass, brains, andpatience American women must summon inorder to elect more of their own to publicoffice. It is zestful, fun, and right on target."By Celia MorrisSenator BARBARA MIKULSKI:"More and more, women are seekingpolitical empowerment and political office.Celia Morris's book is the primer on how toget them."GERALDINE FERRARO:"I learned a lot from the experiences andobservations in Storming the Statehouse.Celia Morris's book is a one-stop must readfor statewide campaigns."At all bookstores or call 1-800-323-7445to place your credit card orderCHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONSAn imprint of Macmillan Publishing CompanyON THE ISSUES SUMMER 199247