George's Daughter - Softcover

Becker, Carol

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1963908384 ISBN 13: 9781963908381

Publisher: Spuyten Duyvil Publishing, 2025

Synopsis

A complex story of contradiction, disillusion and love, George’s Daughter is a memoir/essay about a daughter’s attempt to live in accordance with her own values, in spite of conflicts with her controlling father whom she nonetheless adores. Ultimately, her defiance of him––by refusing to end a romantic relationship of which he does not approve––leads to emotionally catastrophic consequences for them both. These themes will resonate with anyone whose family has come undone when a member refuses to adhere to conventional expectations, whether around gender, sexuality, race, class, religion, politics or culture.

The story originates in the neighborhood of Crown Heights, Brooklyn, after World War II. During the author’s childhood, Crown Heights was reeling from the traumas of displaced persons, survivors of the Nazi concentration camps, and those who had lost entire families to the war. Decades later, the neighborhood was again traumatized by tensions, discriminations, and disruptions caused by opposing racial and religious politics that continue to this day.

George’s Daughter illuminates how the decision to live one’s life, as one must, may cause enormous psychic rupture: A person might lose, but ultimately find again, both their family and their sense of self in the process.

About this title

About the Author

George's Daughter is a companion volume to Carol Becker's first memoir/essay, Losing Helen. Becker has also written numerous articles and several collections of essays as well as nonfiction books, including: The Invisible Drama: Women and the Anxiety of Change; The Subversive Imagination: Artists, Society, and Social Responsibility; Zones of Contention: Essays on Art, Institutions, Gender, and Anxiety; Surpassing the Spectacle: Global Transformations and the Changing Politics of Art; Thinking in Place: Art, Action, and Cultural Production. Carol Becker is Professor of the Arts and Dean Emerita of Columbia University School of the Arts. Before arriving at Columbia, she was Professor of Liberal Arts, Dean of Faculty, and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She received her PhD in English and American Literature from the University of California, San Diego. She travels widely, lectures about art, culture, and the place of art in society. Her writing, talks, and interviews can be found at caroldbecker.com. Becker's third memoir/essay, in progress, will focus on her time in California from 1968 to 1978, a decade of revolutionary ideas and actions that continue to transform the world.

Edition details

• Publisher: Spuyten Duyvil Publishing
• Publication date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1963908384
• ISBN 13: 9781963908381
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 282