Synopsis
Nineteen-year-old summer intern Bronwen McCuddhy must prove herself worthy to join a team probing the deep mysteries of genetics- in spite of an unexpected telegram with news of a family tragedy that makes her question who she really is and what she wants from life. Her sense of humor and her secret weapon- the writings of the poet Rainer Maria Rilke- are the keys to her survival of that fateful, not quite typically American summer.
About the Author
Barbara Riddle was born in New York City in 1944 and grew up in the (then) shabby genteel bohemian paradise of Greenwich Village, when the best education in Manhattan was in the public schools--and after school in Washington Square Park.... She was painfully educated at Reed College (Woodrow Wilson Fellow) and holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Brandeis University. She turned down a fellowship to do postdoctoral work in England when she realized she would rather be an unsuccessful novelist than a successful scientist. She has never regretted that decision, even as it led to jobs as a dog- walker, artist's model, health food clerk and medical editor. Her highest honor was being voted "Best Sense of Humor" in the 7th Grade at P.S. 3, in the West Village. Barbara managed to realize her dream of living in England during the '70's and began to publish in little magazines in London and the U.S. (kayak, AMBIT), traveling also to Spain, Wales, Ireland, Germany, France and Switzerland. Two highlights from this time were hearing the dazzling Ted Hughes giving a live reading and receiving a postcard from Robert Bly praising a poem of hers. When she returned to the United States she settled in San Francisco, at first joining the poetry reading circuit and then mostly working at day jobs and raising her daughter Laramie (Wesleyan, theater/English, with honors). She was officially enrolled in the Creative Writing MA Program at San Francisco State (another degree!) until she dropped out to concentrate on her fiction efforts. She now lives in San Francisco and Greenport, Long Island with her husband, Czech emigre film director Ivo Dvorak ("The Metamorphosis") and their sheepoo (1/2 Shih Tsu, 1/2 poodle) Cosmo. They try to visit Prague- and Stockholm, where Ivo's adult children Adam and Simona now live. One of the benefits of being married to a Czech is discovering writers like Ivan Klima, who should be more widely read in America! (A favorite: "Love and Garbage") She is working on a second novel, and on a collection of short humorous pieces called "Not the Village Idiot" about growing up in Greenwich Village in the 'Fifties. One of these, "Sex and Sinclair Lewis" appears in the anthology Other Voices, available from Amazon.com.
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