The SelfPortrait of a Literary Biographer,Used

From Kirkus ReviewsAutobiography, like surgery, isn't for the fainthearted. Here, noted biographer Givner (English/University of Regina, Saskatchewan; Katherine Anne Porter, 1982, etc.) coolly dissects her own family, career, andoccasionallyherself. Declaring that the writing of an autobiography induces a lastwillandtestament frame of mind,'' Givner proceeds to tell her life story in numbered paragraphs that are as much vignettes as reflections. She recalls her English childhood in a lowermiddle class home where books were rarethe family didn't even own a dictionaryand where gardening and listening to the radio were major diversions. Home for Givner was a place where every act even the simplest one of eating a meal, choosing a helping of this over thatwas subjected to criticism, moral disapproval.'' Her parents were illmatched, she thinks, with her mother's lack of imagination particularly exasperating. Only the author's success at school proved an escape from a crippling relationship with her parentsparticularly her success at college, where she met and married a rich American. Givner elliptically describes the later breakdown of the marriage; her continuing academic success in the US; her move to Canada, where she remarried and gave birth to two daughters; and her teaching career in Saskatchewan. Equally elliptically, she details how her dissertation on Katherine Anne Porter became a book and how she came to write the biography of popular Canadian novelist Mazo de la Roche. Now in her late 50s, Givner ends with an observation that abruptly and disconcertingly undercuts the vehemence of her earlier discontents: To go out of your native land and to leave your people is to sustain a great incurable wound.'' Well written, and certainly tart and opinionated, but too narrow and smallscale, offering no riveting insights into writing or even just living. Copyright 1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.Product DescriptionA biography of literary biographer Katherine Anne Porter. Givner uses an experimental form of numbered vignettes that play the many contrasts of Porter's life against each other to create a richly textured portrait. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.From Publishers WeeklyGivner, an English professor in Canada and the biographer of writers Katherine Anne Porter and Mazo de la Roche, here offers her own memoir, organized into short serendipitous diarylike paragraphs that span large stretches of time and varied settings. Frank and occasionally harsh in tone, Englishborn Givner's most interesting entries deal with her father's death and a troubled, ambivalent relationship with her mother. She devotes a good deal of space to defending herself against the criticism that erupted after Katherine Anne Porter: A Life was published. Included is a description of a meeting between Givner and writer Eudora Welty, who was a friend of Porter's, when Givner was researching Porter's life. Welty's letter expressing her reservations about Givner's intentions is reproduced here, along with other correspondences related to the Porter biography.Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.About the AuthorJOAN GIVNER is the author of biographies, essays, and fiction. Her work includes Katherine Anne Porter: A Life (Georgia) and Katherine Anne Porter Conversations. A native of England now living in Canada, Givner taught English literature at the University of Regina before retiring to British Columbia.