Off Center: Barbara Grizzuti Harrison

Barbara Grizzuti Harrison (1934 – 2002) was an American journalist, essayist and memoirist. In this collection of twenty essays she continues to display the same vigor and sensitivity of her earlier writings. She attacks her subjects head-on: flaying Joan Didion as 'a neurasthenic Cher' for the vacuity and moral frigidity of her art; the boring dogmatism of Adrienne Rich; she describes, with generosity and humor, her own adventures as a camp follower of the Beat generation. She shows warm appreciations for Louise Bogan and Dorothy Sayers, and a scathing denunciation of est. She captured nuances in her deft portrait of Jane Fonda playing suburban housewife and in her amiable but probing interview with Dick Cavett. Chapters include Oh, How We Worshipped The Gods Of The Fifties; Growing Up Apocalyptic; Consciousness-Raising - Truth and Consequence; The Profound Hypochondriac and more.