PositiveLIBER... a somewhat conventional women’s history survey from the sixteenth century to the present, and I mean that in a nice way. It is written with grace and style, reintroducing characters long familiar to devotees of women’s history ... Instead of telling us what or who a woman is, Faderman shows us how different Americans have inhabited that position and sought to define themselves. By doing this, she offers the possibility of reconciling the competing interests of queer, trans, and “gender-critical” feminists by positioning woman as an idea that can be debated but not fully articulated or attained ... A historian to the core, Faderman consistently urges the reader to navigate these stories with questions: What is at stake here? And for whom? Some readers will surely object to Faderman’s notion that woman is just an idea, although a powerful one. But this formulation may be the only way forward, not just for women’s history but for the many, sometimes antagonistic bodies making claims on the category of woman and using those claims to restrict the full humanity of those who identify with it.
Patricia Highsmith, Ed. by Anna von Planta
PositiveThe Liber ReviewThe mere 15 percent represented in the volume is astonishing, not only because of its value as literary history but also as an account of a woman exploring the complexities of her queerness in Manhattan’s midcentury bohemia ... Much as her editor lets the evidence about drinking speak for itself but never uses the word alcoholism, von Planta has little to say about trans identity ... Anna von Planta is very careful to say that this edited collection should not be read as an autobiography—but it makes this Highsmith fan eager to see a talented biographer dig into this rich and compelling archive.
