LETTERS OF INTENT: WOMEN CROSS THE GENERATIONS TO TALK ABOUT FAMILY, WORK, SEX, LOVE AND THE FUTURE OF FEMINISM [ハードカバー]

Letters of Intent pairs young feminists with their more seasoned counterparts in a series of epistolary Q&As designed to remind readers that despite the occasional internal struggles within the women's movement, there is a continuity between old and new. The older women include Gloria Steinem on abortion rights, Susan Faludi on the tradition of feminist writing, Angela Davis on the African American struggle, Dr. Phyllis Chesler on workplace relations, and Judy Blume on being a mother. But the basic misjudgment of the book is captured early on by Katha Pollitt: "This whole notion that writing is all about mentoring and networking and each generation smoothing the way for the next like party hacks down at the clubhouse is the wrong idea. Writing is about writing."

While a few of the dialogues do take off--most notably the lyrical, poetic exchange between young actress Eisa Dais and playwright Ntozake Shange--for the most part the pieces in Letters of Intent never exceed escape velocity. Part of the problem is structural: written letters, in this age of instantaneous e-mail, telephones, and frequent-flier miles, are highly personal declarations, and we read them with the expectation of eavesdropping on a developing relationship; but the missives here betray little sense of their writers' personalities. There's something contrived about bringing these authors together in this way that is at odds with the honesty of the women's movement. Still, the book is a useful compendium of feminist voices old and new that might not otherwise have been collected in the same volume. --Patrizia DiLucchio

This collection of 21 pairs of letters seeks to bridge what the editors perceive as a feminist generation gap through exchanges about abortion rights, mentoring, mothering, racism in women's rights groups, the role of lesbian activists, health and spirituality. Bondoc, a Filipina-American chef who has written about food and health, and Daly, who has edited an anthology about the politics between lesbians and straight women, solicited letters from young women, which were answered by feminists from the previous generation (or beyond). While some questions and responses are well articulated, the book is disappointing structurally. For example, it's not always clear how topics were selected or why there are two or three sets of letters on one subject and none on others, such as the status of African-American feminism. In a few cases, the letters are stiff, as in Amy Richards and Gloria Steinem's correspondence about their personal experiences with abortion. Among the most literate and unself-conscious exchanges are Marie Lee and Elaine Kim's letters on interracial marriages among Asians. While Eisa Nefertari Ulen's letter to Angela Davis is poetically phrased, her plea for Davis's active leadership rightfully elicits a lecture cautioning Ulen to avoid "a certain romantic idea of the Sixties" and to "make your own revolution." Overall, the letters convey one generation's hard-fought struggle to attain success and equality and the next generation's relative complacency. Agent, Jennie Dunham.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Frustrated by the standoff between both camps of the feminist generation gap, twenty-somethings Anna Bondoc and Meg Daly decided that it was time to bring women of all ages together. What could young women learn from their foremothers, who had fought for sexual freedom, educational opportunity, and equality in the workplace? What did older women need to hear from the young women who now struggle with the day-to-day difficulties of life after the sexual revolution and the women's liberation movement? In order to find out, Bondoc and Daly invited twenty of their "third-wave" peers to identify an admired older woman and, in the form of a letter, pose the question she has always wanted to ask. The older "second-wave" women then responded in kind. The result is a wholly original exchange and one of the most remarkable books about the experience of women to appear in years.

The forty women whose original essays appear in Letters of Intent have left labels like Do-me Feminism, Girl Power, and Conservative Feminism at the door to talk in a personal and intimate way about real life for women in the nineties. Among this book's many surprises are exchanges in which Jennifer Baumgardner asks Judy Blume about being a feminist, a mom, and a writer rolled into one, to learn that the famous children's writer felt more imprisoned by her marriage than by her kids; Eisa Davis writes to Ntozake Shange to ask, "is poetry enuf?" and receives a poem in response; Starhawk reveals the influence of her Jewish roots on her goddess worship to a young Jennifer Hunter; Amy Richards shares her complicated feelings about abortion with a sympathetic Gloria Steinem; Katha Pollitt begs Emily Gordon to show passion and rebellion, asking, "Why so wistful, pierced and tattooed ones?"; and Tayari Jones implores Pearl Cleage for advice about negotiating the tension between work and political ideals. Sports, homophobia, racism, identity, food, and cancer are among the other topics addressed in these intimate exchanges, by writers who include Angela Davis, Susan Faludi, Mariah Burton Nelson, Liza Featherstone, Christine Choy, April Martin, and many others.

Letters of Intent is a celebration of the importance of forging connections. By turns funny, angry, reflective, and passionate, each woman shares a little piece of her self through the story she tells. This inspiring and enlightening book will delight women of all ages, who will discover in it an affirmation of the strength to be found in women's sense of shared community: an idea that is as old-fashioned as a pen-and-ink letter and as new as an e-mail.

Anna Bondoc is a first-generation Filipina American who has worked as an advocate for young women's reproductive health, a chef, and a food writer. Her writing has appeared in A. Magazine: Inside Asian America, the Asian/Pacific Journal, and the anthology To Be Real: Telling the Truth and Changing the Face of Feminism. She lives in Los Angeles.