WINNER OF THE 2023 PEN/DIAMONSTEIN-SPIELVOGEL AWARD FOR THE ART OF THE ESSAY
"Judith Thurman notices everything. Meticulous observation has been a hallmark of her 50-year career as a writer whose laser-sharp gaze traverses millenniums, countries and genres . . . A strong through-line that distinguishes Ms. Thurman’s multifarious work is her determination to bring light to the hidden corners of culture, particularly those occupied by brilliant women." —Rhonda Garelick, The New York Times
"[Thurman] taught me things I never knew about writing and the world we live in." —Ann Patchett, The Wall Street Journal
"Thurman has now collected fifteen years of New Yorker pieces . . . To it she brings the same carbon- into- diamonds trick she performed with her full lives, offering—in what she termed in a 2020 lecture 'haiku biographies'—something closer to stills than film . . . [Thurman] pulverizes clods of research. She is wildly, often thrillingly allusive . . . [Her] voice is so exact it can pinch. Her prose has high cheekbones." —Stacy Schiff, New York Review of Books
"The biographer and essayist Judith Thurman is known in part for her exquisitely crafted profiles. In this collection — largely composed of New Yorker portraits of notable women — Thurman indulges her love of all things aesthetic with characteristic skill and occasional piquancy. Definitions of beauty may differ; Thurman’s style is unquestionable." —The New York Times Book Review (Editors' Choice)
"Judith Thurman can get me to read pretty much anything she writes... you can rest assured that there’s a point to whatever Ms. Thurman weighs in on—be it Emily Dickinson, Helen Gurley Brown, Charles James, Rachel Cusk, Simone de Beauvoir or Dante." —Heller McAlpin, Wall Street Journal
"Extraordinary and unconventional women have long been the object of [Judith] Thurman's forensic gaze . . . Like many writers with whom she bears comparison—Joan Didion, Janet Malcolm, Susan Sontag—Thurman is often a character in her own work: cruising through Bergdorf’s, pedaling through France, motionless in the perfect darkness of a cave. She is a polyglot and a chameleon, precise, erudite, forthright." —Charles Arrowsmith, Los Angeles Times
"The collected essays of Judith Thurman, best known for her magnificent biographies of Colette and Isak Dinesen. These New Yorker pieces by an exemplary cultural journalist largely focus on the achievements of women in multiple fields . . . In an introduction, Thurman notes that 'the writers I most admire never use a careless word.' Neither does she." —Michael Dirda, The Washington Post
"If a thoughtful essay holds a world, Judith Thurman's A Left-Handed Woman is a solar system." —Christopher Borrelli, Chicago Tribune
"In this rewarding collection, Thurman brings together a remarkably varied collection of her New Yorker essays . . . The author approaches each topic with a fresh eye. [A Left-Handed Woman] solidifies Thurman as a master of the form." —Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
"Thurman shows herself as the best kind of journalist: one singularly focused on the humanity of her subjects . . . a book that should be savored, not devoured." —Mara Sandoff, New City Lit
"A Left-Handed Woman by New Yorker staff writer Judith Thurman deserves the top spot on anyone's bedside book stack." —Patricia Schultheis, Washington Independent Review of Books
"A Left-Handed Woman is a treasure trove of brilliant essays about smart and compelling women written by the smart and compelling Judith Thurman. Buy this for anyone you admire (including yourself)." —Musing
"[An] exceptional collection of zestful essays and profiles . . . ardent, shrewd, and stylistically exhilarating . . . As one of our finest cultural critics, Thurman is always exciting company." —Donna Seaman, Booklist
"A collection of essays from an incisive cultural observer . . . Thurman’s interests are capacious: lost language speakers, hyperpolyglots, Cleopatra, and, not least, art and artists . . . Finely crafted, graceful, captivating pieces." —Kirkus Reviews
★ 08/29/2022
In this rewarding collection, Thurman (Cleopatra’s Nose) brings together a remarkably varied collection of her New Yorker essays. She tackles the politics of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s daughter, Rose, in “O Pioneers!”; Rachel Cusk’s “power to dazzle and to condemn” in “World of Interiors”; and reading Dante during the pandemic in “Asylum Seeker.” There’s a wealth of her fashion coverage—“Darkness Wearable” covers the life and career of Alexander McQueen, known for his breakthrough, 1995 “Highland Rape” collection, while “Radical Chic” is a look at Miuccia Prada’s designs, which feature her “heroines” “fastidious from the waist up but wanton from the waist down.” Thurman’s longer essays are often her strongest, as her knack for incisive summary allows her to sweep authoritatively across broad subjects, as in “Maltese for Beginners,” a look at the world’s hyperpolyglots, a handful of language savants who speak at least 11 tongues fluently and are often left-handed. But small gems jump out, too, such as Thurman’s piece on Betty Halbreich, a personal shopper at Bergdorf Goodman: “Mothers send Halbreich their teenage daughters, often for the same reason that my mother enrolled me in driving school.” Masterfully avoiding solipsism and repetition, the author approaches each topic with a fresh eye. This solidifies Thurman as a master of the form. (Dec.)
09/01/2022
A collection of essays on literature, history, politics, gender, fashion, and art by National Book Award winner and left-handed writer (hence the title) Thurman (Cleopatra's Nose: 39 Varieties of Desire), who has written for the New Yorker since 1987. All but two of the 39 essays in this collection were originally published in that magazine between 2007 and 2021, often to complement a book release or a retrospective. Organized in this collection by nine broad themes (e.g., marriage, maternal relations, love), Thurman's essays explore a variety of subjects: the Chauvet Cave paintings; Dante; disappearing languages; a Bergdorf's personal shopper. She also writes about the work of artists like Marina Abramović, Balthus, Grete Stern, and Eva Zeisel. Many essays focus on noteworthy historical women, including Helen Gurley Brown, Cleopatra, Simone de Beauvoir, Emily Dickinson, Amelia Earhart, Margaret Fuller, Vera Nabokov, and Laura Ingalls Wilder. The section devoted to fashion designers (Charles James, Ann Lowe, Guo Pei, Miuccia Prada, Elsa Schiaparelli) is especially well-researched and engaging and makes the art of couture more accessible to neophytes. VERDICT Because of the breadth of their topics, Thurman's well-written culture essays in this collection will appeal to many readers, particularly those interested in fashion. Highly recommended.—Erica Swenson Danowitz
2022-09-27
A collection of essays from an incisive cultural observer.
National Book Award winner Thurman, a biographer and essayist who has been a staff writer at the New Yorker for more than two decades, assembles 40 pieces, published from 2007 to 2021, on art, culture, books, and fashion, many focused on the “lost women who have been my specialty as a writer.” The title comes from her own experience growing up left-handed, which taught her that somehow she wasn’t “right,” a feeling echoed by other women she profiles. While not all have been lost to history—Margaret Fuller, Emily Dickinson, Alison Bechdel, Helen Gurley Brown, for example—each of them defied the image of how a “right” woman could and should behave. Thurman’s discoveries include ceramicist and industrial designer Eva Zeisel, a “maverick modernist”; avant-garde photographer Grete Stern; Black fashion designer Ann Lowe, who created Jacqueline Kennedy’s wedding dress; and outspoken Betty Halbreich, a personal shopper at Bergdorf’s, who gives Thurman a tour of her own cavernous closets. Thurman’s fascination with fashion—as culture, craft, and art—informs pieces about Charles James, Alexander McQueen, Paul Poiret, and Miuccia Prada, occasioned by museum retrospectives. Thurman’s interests are capacious: lost language speakers, hyperpolygots, Cleopatra, and, not least, art and artists. When she was in her early 20s, living abroad, she met Balthus and posed for his wife, also a painter. She recounts a visit to performance artist Marina Abramović at her Hudson Valley home as well as her visits to sites of prehistoric cave paintings. She also chronicles her discussions with actors Charlotte Rampling (about sex) and Liv Ullmann (about Ingmar Bergman). In her introduction and in a few other essays, Thurman drops a few tantalizing personal details, but memoir is not her aim: “I write about the lives and work of other people in part to understand my own, while avoiding what I feel obliged to do here: talk about myself.”
Finely crafted, graceful, captivating pieces.
