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When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice
When Women Were Birds Fiftyfour Variations on Voice
Author: Terry Tempest Williams
The beloved author of Refuge returns with a work that explodes and startles, illuminates and celebrates — Terry Tempest Williams's mother told her "I am leaving you all my journals, but you must promise me you won't look at them until after I'm gone". — Readers of Williams's iconic and unconventional memoir, ...  more », well remember that mother. She was one of a large Mormon clan in northern Utah who developed cancer as a result of the nuclear testing in nearby Nevada. It was a shock to Williams to discover that her mother had kept journals. But not as much of a shock as what she found when the time came to read them.

"They were exactly where she said they would be: three shelves of beautiful cloth-bound books . . . I opened the first journal. It was empty. I opened the second journal. It was empty. I opened the third. It too was empty . . . Shelf after shelf after shelf, all of my mother?s journals were blank." What did Williams's mother mean by that?

In fifty-four chapters that unfold like a series of yoga poses, each with its own logic and beauty, Williams creates a lyrical and caring meditation of the mystery of her mother's journals. When Women Were Birds is a kaleidoscope that keeps turning around the question "What does it mean to have a voice"? 
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ISBN-13: 9781250024114
ISBN-10: 1250024110
Publication Date: 3/5/2013
Pages: 256
Rating:
  • Currently 3.8/5 Stars.
 4

3.8 stars, based on 4 ratings
Publisher: Picador
Book Type: Paperback
Other Versions: Hardcover
Members Wishing: 0
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