Longtime Baltimore Sun columnist and Pulitzer Prize winner Alice Steinbach's first book is a collection of essays and columns. Divided thematically by subjects such as "Women and Men," "Raising Children," and "Growing Up," the divorced, working mother of two sons displays a gentle wit and an open mind. As with any collection of newspaper columns, this is better sampled than read straight through. Since Steinbach is more concerned with life's milestones and vagaries than with current affairs, topicality is not a problem, but readers are sure to become familiar with her favorite themes--her worldly aunt Claire, who lived in hotels; her admiration for the great writer E. B. White; her spiritual connection to gardening; and how much she loved and misses her mother. Like any skillful writer, she can make you laugh, and she can make you cry, and she sometimes does both, all within the limitations of a column format. Certain to be requested wherever the columnist is popular. Joanne Wilkinson
From Kirkus Reviews
Journalist Steinbach is a Pulitzer Prize winner, but the award was given for feature articles written for the Baltimore Sun, not for this motley assortment of reflections on ``the small events that make up a life.'' In the footsteps of other essayists and columnists--Erma Bombeck and Steinbach's hero E.B. White among them--Steinbach digs for the universal in the personal, and from time to time, she strikes pay dirt. Among her favorite, and more successful, subjects are her sons, her cats (in particular the charismatic Max), and her late mother. Tired and dated are observations on Gloria Steinem, Martha Stewart, and dieting. The essays are corraled into the usual categories, including relationships, raising children, childhood memories, work and growing older, with each section introduced by a brief commentary. The Miss Dennis of the title was the author's ninth-grade creative-writing teacher, who loved Emily Dickinson and directed her students to ``pay attention'' and to ``find [a] unique voice.'' Steinbach clearly learned how to pay attention--she is, after all, an award-winning reporter--but she is still tuning her rather self- conscious voice. Nevertheless, there are some memorable turns of phrase here. Regarding wishing for the ``world on a string'' vs. small satisfactions like an uninterrupted supper hour, she says: ``Small hopes . . . are a lot like dogs: They tend to come when they're called.'' There are also tender memories of her mother in the garden and her father on vacation. Steinbach's eye for eloquent detail is conveyed in only a few pieces here, among them ``Pioneer Women.'' Overall, Miss Dennis would not be happy. Resurrected from the newspaper morgue, these pieces tend to lose whatever punch they may have initially had. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
From the Back Cover
This first book by Pulitzer Prize Winner Alice Steinbach is an intimate, personal collection of essays, remembrances, and columns that follows in the creative non-fiction tradition of Anna Quindlen and May Sarton. While it recounts the experiences and observations of a divorced, working mother, it expresses hopes and fears universal to all women. Steinbach focuses on the big and small things of life: the bond between lifelong friends; coming to grips with loss; the quiet, everyday moments between parents and child; the spiritual connection to nature; the realities of being a single parent. She writes of the people who've touched her own life; the influential teacher; the worldly aunt; the writer hero; the woman sees regularly at a bus stop as both head to work. She offers us beautifully written lessons she's learned during a lifetime of changes and challenges.
