Overview

"Thomas Hardy wrote: ""Some women only need an emergency to make them fit for one."" In Crack in the Door, her tough but tender memoir, Roberta Swann manifests just that, from the details of her mother's long decline to the horrors of a night in jail. Past meets present. Summers at a nudist colony are recalled as well as the co-founding on the American Jazz Orchestra. Phillip Lopate calls this collection ""smart, sassy, self-aware, and funny as all get-out,"" while Maura Stanton says that Roberta Swann's ""limpid prose"" about her mother's death is ""as stunning as Roland Barthes' Journal de Deuil."""

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9781941196540

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Reviews

Smart, sassy, self-aware and funny as all get-out, Roberta Swann charms us with her laughter-through-tears narratives. She is a Survivor, Brooklyn's Ancient Mariner, and we are grateful for her lively testimonies.--Phillip LopateLife tosses down windfalls that we don't always recognize at first. In her beautiful and witty Crack in the Door, Roberta Swann conjures both the moments that sting and the moments that cheer. Whether she's writing about her mother's death in limpid prose as stunning as Roland Barthes' in his Journal de Deuil, recreating the nightmarish horror of a night in jail, visiting a nudist colony, greeting a bear, co-founding the American Jazz Orchestra, or suffering an outpatient mastectomy, her precision as well as her tender humor creates unforgettable pictures. She gathers the rich fruit of her life and makes us feel what a life really is-something whole, brilliant, shining.--Maura StantonIn Crack in the Door, Roberta Swann writes with sensitivity and candor about a sometimes unwilling attachment to her mother, a strong-willed, courageous, difficult woman. What emerges from this compelling study is a struggle to define the self, which Roberta Swann does with rigor and style.--Grace Schulman

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