Her Face in the Mirror

A compilation of poems, stories, and personal essays by such women writers as Grace Paley, Judith Viorst, and Lore Segal focuses on the complex relationship between Jewish women and their mothers, as they search for reconciliation, identity, and intimacy.

In this rich collection of short stories, poems, essays and novel excerpts, Moskowitz (A Leak in the Heart) presents varied voices of Jewish mothers and daughters. The 56 contributors-among them Grace Paley, Tillie Olsen, Judith Viorst and Letty Cottin Pogrebin-offer a canvas filled with strong emotions, which are often painful but generally affirming. We read of mothers and daughters dealing with Jewish identity, with generational strains, with a love-hate bond. Most poignant are the daughters, tributes to their dead mothers and their yearnings for a relationship lost, as expressed in Judith Steinbergh's poem "No Answer": "I'm not into the afterlife/ and your burial pursues me/ without mercy,/ MA/ answer me."
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Former National Public Radio commentator Moskowitz has gathered an astonishing collection of poems, stories, and essays that explore widely diverse issues like intergenerational conflict, religious orthodoxy, love, death, and the Holocaust. This is a penetrating look at the mother-daughter bond from the perspective of Jewish women. A persistent theme is the marginal status of the Jew in America as a metaphor for the status of women in Judaism. A wide range of writers from Grace Paley and Tillie Olsen to Sandra Bernhard and Irena Klepfisz raise their voices in these haunting and remarkable pages. Highly recommended.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.