Ornament and Silence: Essays on Women's Lives Book

Ornament and Silence is a highly personal and exquisitely well-written collection of essays that address the relationships between women and the creative process. The subjects of Fraser's essays are mostly writers and artists, mostly famous, and mostly dead. Fraser's engagement with them, however, is immediate, and her interests are timely and self-revealing. This collection considers how women's artistic accomplishments are bundled up with their relations toward men. This theme is explored in particular in an essay on Russian writer Nina Berberova, whose literary career did not take off until she left her male lover, as well as an essay concerning the impact of sexual abuse on the life and work of Virginia Woolf. These essays are exceptional in their vibrancy and lack of didacticism. The very personal element of Fraser's theme comes through in her poignant essay entitled "Meat," in which Fraser describes her own failed marriage, her artistic struggles, and her writing career at The New Yorker under William Shawn.Read More