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This title in other editionsThe Leopard Hat: A Daughter's Storyby Valerie Steiker
Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:This indelible story of a mother and daughter opens with a magical childhood on the Upper East Side of New York. At its heart is Valerie Steiker’s mother, Gisèle, a Belgian Jew who, as a child, was hidden from the Nazis during World War II. As an adult, Gisèle developed a large appetite for joy, beauty, and spontaneity, tempered only by her old-world superstitions and protectiveness. The apartment on Madison Avenue where she and her husband raised two daughters overflowed with books, musical instruments, velvet-lined boxes, Gisèle’s flamboyant wardrobe, and, above all, love and warmth.
When Gisèle died during her daughter’s junior year at Harvard, Steiker’s challenge was to preserve the enveloping glow of her mother’s presence even as she stepped outside of it. With grace and humor, she explores her girlhood and adolescence and the crucial growing pains of her twenties. She falls in love; she moves to Paris for a year on her own; she returns home to find her mother still absent. Layering episodes in her own life with those of her mother’s, she often sees Gisèle illuminated in her own experiences. The Leopard Hat is an intimate account of loss and reconciliation, and of the unshakable bond between a mother and daughter; it is, finally, the celebration of a young woman’s vivacious emergence into adulthood. Review:"Early in the narrative, Steiker studies a photo her mother took of her and aches for 'the sensation, lost forever now, of standing and dreaming and being me before my mother's eyes.' This rich, elegantly understated chronicle brings back that very feeling for Steiker and for her readers." Publishers Weekly Review:"[L]uminously written....A loving tribute to a woman who taught her daughters to value beauty and joy." Kirkus Reviews Review:"Steiker relates the events of her mother's life in captivating fashion but is less successful with her own struggles to establish her identity....The various locales are vividly rendered, but the construction of individual chapters around different animals seems a bit forced." Library Journal Review:"The Leopard Hat is an ode to courage, elegance, and beauty. Valerie Steiker has written a compelling, sensitive book that reads fluidly and touches the heart." Diane von Furstenberg About the AuthorValerie Steiker?s writing has appeared in The New Yorker, Vogue, ARTnews, The Forward, and The New York Times Book Review. Before becoming an editor at Artforum and, more recently, at Vogue, she was on the editorial staff of The New Yorker. She lives in Manhattan. What Our Readers Are SayingBe the first to add a comment for a chance to win!Product Details
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