... an engaging, lively biography of an accomplished and complicated woman ... McCutchan quotes generously from...correspondence, offering intimate insight into the writer’s process ... McCutchan does not delve into literary criticism of Rawlings’ works but rather gives us the contexts in which they were written and the real people and places that the author brought so beautifully to life. Rawlings’ voluminous correspondence is put to effective use throughout the book ... Rawlings’ letters range from raucous humor to thoughtful dissection of her works in progress to abject expressions of self-doubt. All of it adds up to a rich portrait of a woman who loved Florida, and of a Florida that’s now all but vanished.
... fascinating and lively ... It’s the maverick quality that makes her letters, which Ms. McCutchan quotes with astute commentary, particularly revealing ... masterly and entertaining.
... plain-spoken ... McCutchan is a sensitive observer of Rawlings’s work, and of her deeply unconventional life in general ... It’s a pleasure to meet this cursing, hard-drinking, brilliant, self-destructive, car-wrecking, fun-loving, chain-smoking, alligator-hunting, moonshine-making, food-obsessed woman again on the page ... Come to this biography for Rawlings’s outsize personality, her quest to lead a life that felt authentic to her...Stay for the portrait of a woman whose writing meant everything to her.
Ann McCutchan offers an absorbing, affectionate and long overdue portrait of Rawlings and her writings ... Drawing deeply on Rawlings’ archives, McCutchan chronicles the details of Rawlings’ life ... McCutchan looks closely at Rawlings’ letters, stories, novels and memoirs and mines the ways they reveal Rawlings’ writerly mind, her desire to probe the relationship between men and women, families and individuals, and her ability to evoke a sense of place, especially the paradise of her corner of Florida.
It's great material for a biographer, and McCutchan, author of several books and a lyricist and librettist, has a graceful style enlivened by glints of wry humor. Sections of the book of particular interest are those that trace Rawlings' gradual evolution on the issue of race, fueled in part by her friendship with Zora Neale Hurston, the Black writer whose warmth and talent helped challenge Rawlings' acceptance of segregation's status quo ... The book re-creates the lush tropicality of north-central Florida in the 1930s and 1940s, before developers began to bulldoze over its natural wonders. And readers get a penetrating look at one driven writer's work process — Rawlings' correspondence with her editor, the legendary Maxwell Perkins, is the apotheosis of a nurturing writer-editor relationship ... And yet, it's not quite clear what tormented and inspired Rawlings ... The 'cosmic consciousness' McCutchan says Kinnan always grasped for is never deeply explored ... a vivid portrait of a woman who gave her all to do her best work.
... a significant contribution to literary studies. In addition, this thoughtful book situates the novelist’s thinking about race and other issues within the historical context, providing a masterful analysis that will allow contemporary readers to approach Rawlings’ novels with increased understanding. Despite Rawlings’ initial acceptance of the prejudices of her day, she was at her best, as McCutchan shows, when she was writing about the beauty of her local environment and the deep humanity of all of its people.
... both an exploration of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings’s life and inspirations and an insightful look at the ups and downs of the creative process ... Drawing upon Rawlings’s abundant surviving correspondence, McCutchan doesn’t shy away from exposing the temperamental behavior that often strained her subject’s relationships with friends and lovers, or the frequent mood swings—exacerbated by illness and excessive drinking—that complicated her work habits ... A comprehensive, well-researched portrait of the life of Rawlings and her creative struggles that will engage a variety of readers.
Florida native McCutchan captures Pulitzer Prize–winning Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings’ unconventional life, from her peripatetic girlhood to her great love, the beautiful, temperamental terrain of north-central Florida, in a well-paced and absorbing biography ... the singularity of her life shapes her work ... One hopes that this appraisal of Rawlings leads to a revival of interest in her as both a chronicler of a time and place and an exacting practitioner of the writer’s craft.
Novelist Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings proves to be an elusive subject in McCutchan’s comprehensive if bloodless latest ... McCutchan poignantly captures how Rawlings’s friendship with Zora Neale Hurston sensitized her to her own racism, and how Rawlings’s growing passion for racial equality put her at odds with her neighbors ... McCutchan isn’t able to get into the head or heart of her subject, leaving it vague as to what drove and tormented her. Those new to Rawlings’s work will find it admirably researched, but this glimpse into a consequential writer’s life will leave readers wanting.
An affectionate biography of the beloved author ... Work by work, McCutchan carefully details Rawlings’ gradual development as a professional writer who keenly absorbed this beautiful area’s history, culture, and dialects ... An all-inclusive and intimate assessment that could help Rawlings attract a new generation of readers.
