Waverly Place - Hardcover

Brownmiller, Susan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0802110908 ISBN 13: 9780802110909

Publisher: Grove Press, 1989

Synopsis

Inspired by the notorious Lisa Steinberg case, this novel follows a couple as they descend into a nightmarish reality of child abuse and the society that quietly tolerates it

About this title

Reviews

The 1987 Greenwich Village child abuse case involving the death of six-year-old Lisa Steinberg is the basis of feminist writer Brownmiller's ( Against Our Will ; Femininity ) painfully absorbing, if somewhat simplistic and sensationalized novel. Obviously intended to reach a wide, commercial audience, the book betrays evidence of hasty writing and thin characterization. Changing the names of the principals and adding "dialogue, motivations, events, and characters based on her own understanding of battery and abuse," Brownmiller constructs a portrait of a man's brutality and a woman's destructive dependence. Criminal lawyer Barney Kantor is a psychopathic bully, conman, chiseler and cocaine addict; insecure, self-hating children's book editor Judith Winograd has a need to be dominated and abused; she's also a heroin addict. During the 17 years the couple live together, Kantor establishes a pattern of physical battery followed by grand gestures of contrition. When an adoption scam brings two babies into their lives, the children, especially Melinda, become innocent victims. Although her attempts to show the ways in which family, friends, colleagues, social workers, neighbors and school personnel fail to act or be heeded are disappointingly glib, Brownmiller builds narrative momentum as the events spiral to the final horror. But she goes too far with offensive portraits of the protagonists' parents, drawing them as stereotypically crass, ignorant and insensitive. 100,000 first printing; $100,000 ad/promo; first serial to Ladies' Home Journal; Literary Guild main selection; author tour.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Based on the sensational Steinberg/Nussbaum case in New York City, this riveting fictional work recounts the events leading to abuse and death of a child by her adoptive parents: an attorney and a former teacher/children's book editor in Greenwich Village. Told in brief chronological episodes skipping from character to character, this work reflects Brownmiller's nonfiction orientation (she is the author of the noted Against Our Will: Men, Women, and Rape) . But these vignettes of teachers, clients, friends, neighbors, co-workers, relatives, and others interacting with the couple build a chilling montage of people who glimpsed different aspects of monsters and saw, perhaps, only others like themselves. A sad and frightening tale which leaves a bitter aftertaste of questions about ourselves, our society, and our values. Literary Guild main selection.
- Ann Donovan, Central Washington Univ. Lib., Ellensburg
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Grove Press
• Publication date: 1989
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0802110908
• ISBN 13: 9780802110909
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 294