Author of Girl Power: The Nineties Revolution in Music
with Allison Wolfe of Bratmobile
and Denise Oswald, editor and director of Soft Skull Press
The early nineties was the time of the riot grrl. Girls across the country put down gender roles and classic feminist critiques, and picked up instruments, zines, and revolutionary politics. For years the best bands were almost exclusively girl bands.
Author Marisa Meltzer is the coauthor of How Sassy Changed My Life (Faber, 2007). Her work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Slate, Elle, and Teen Vogue. She lives in Brooklyn. She'll be here with the legendary Allison Wolfe of Bratmobile and editor Denise Oswald to talk about the book, the music and the movement.
News of Note
Staff Picks
The Other City
Written by Dustin
By Michal Ajvaz (Dalkey Archive Press, $13.95)
There are a couple of ways for a book to earn itself the sobriquet "Borgesian". One is to be slim, recursive and literary. The other is to feature tiger-gnawed young gods in burning jungles grown up in the depths of moldering libraries, in cities full of hidden cathedrals whose worshipers murder eels in snowdrifts and fight vicious trench wars in your closets, among the coats. This is a pretty Borgesian book, as it turns out.
Inside the Painter's Studio
Written by Adjua
By Joe Fig (Princeton Architectural Press, $35.00)
It's almost too good, this book. The collection of images of artists' studios might have been enough for its scope and the insight it provides alone, but, then, we also get interviews with each artist where they talk about process and influence and intent and reveal themselves just the way you'd want if you're the kind of person who gets all fired up by just looking at images of someone's workspace. Oh, and those images--not just photos, but actually photos of miniature replicas of the studios made by Joe Fig. What's funny is that that's how this whole thing came about, he was so into process that he scaled down and duplicated the process of creating (and working in) each space and interviewed the artists to support that work. Extraordinary.
Let the Great World Spin
Written by Erin
By Colum McCann (Random House, $15.00)
Let the Great World Spin left me spinning--in a good way. McCann's deft portrayal of his characters' deep inner lives feels so authentic, so powerful, that the entire novel manages to be both emotionally vast and psychologically intimate at the same time. In the end, this novel is as breathtaking as Philip Petit's wire-walk itself.
There are a couple of ways for a book to earn itself the sobriquet "Borgesian". One is to be slim, recursive and literary. The other is to feature tiger-gnawed young gods in burning jungles grown up in the depths of moldering libraries, in cities full of hidden cathedrals whose worshipers murder eels in snowdrifts and fight vicious trench wars in your closets, among the coats. This is a pretty Borgesian book, as it turns out.
It's almost too good, this book. The collection of images of artists' studios might have been enough for its scope and the insight it provides alone, but, then, we also get interviews with each artist where they talk about process and influence and intent and reveal themselves just the way you'd want if you're the kind of person who gets all fired up by just looking at images of someone's workspace. Oh, and those images--not just photos, but actually photos of miniature replicas of the studios made by Joe Fig. What's funny is that that's how this whole thing came about, he was so into process that he scaled down and duplicated the process of creating (and working in) each space and interviewed the artists to support that work. Extraordinary.
Let the Great World Spin left me spinning--in a good way. McCann's deft portrayal of his characters' deep inner lives feels so authentic, so powerful, that the entire novel manages to be both emotionally vast and psychologically intimate at the same time. In the end, this novel is as breathtaking as Philip Petit's wire-walk itself.