PositiveThe Washington Post... a dishy romp, an eavesdropper’s guilty pleasure that — perhaps not surprisingly — is already being developed as a television series with Eva Longoria and ABC ... Gottlieb can be provocative and entertaining, but her prose often descends into psychobabble; she is prone to use jargon; she overuses the f-word, along with additional expletives, as interjections and as adjectives, verbs and other parts of speech; and she quotes from a few too many psychiatrists and psychologists. Doses of Freud, Jung, Fromm and Erikson are to be expected, but James Prochaska’s transtheoretical model of behavior change and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s \'flow\' state seem superfluous for the lay reader, for whom this book is obviously intended. And yet: The excerpts from the therapy sessions keep us reading ... By tearing down boundaries, Gottlieb gives us more than a voyeuristic look at other people’s problems (including her own). She shows us, with high praise to Wendell, the value of therapy.
Donna Hylton with Kristine Gasbarre
PositiveThe Washington PostIt is the rare as-told-to book, or one created in collaboration with an author-for-hire, that is well-written, but A Piece of Light is filled with a superfluity of penny-dreadful prose. The title is fine, but after it is repeated and re-explained half a dozen times, the reader finds herself asking what editors are for ... Chapters 3 and 4 recount, in a disorderly style, the grisly crime for which Hylton was imprisoned ... Once in prison, she tells us that \'very often, when a crime is committed, it’s because a marginalized person is really just looking for an opportunity to improve his or her life.\' Really? ... Hylton has paid a high price for her role in a horrific crime. It is easier to wish her well than it is to admire her memoir.
Laura Thompson
MixedThe Washington Post...in a narrative that contains some stylish prose, Thompson dwells on their quirky charms ... includes thousands of facts about the Mitford family, but Thompson offers few clear opinions of her subjects. She ought to have done so. Never mind their popularity, most of the Mitfords were unlikable. Their politics were appalling ... The book offers so much material — too much, perhaps, and much of it redundant. The Six is fine for readers new to the Mitfords, but the definitive biography remains The Sisters.
Ian Buruma
MixedThe Washington PostBuruma ends his book with a visit to the modest graves of Win, Bernard and John Schlesinger in the United Synagogue Cemetery in Willesden, now an ethnically diverse area of northwest London. He does not expect the reader of their letters to love Bernard and Win, as he did, but he hopes to have honored their memories. Perhaps he has.
