Synopses & Reviews
Review
"Mirroring the two genres of publication in which Stafford excelled, this book has a double orientation: in contents and format, it is part literary, part journalistic. Among the most rewarding sections for the average reader of Stafford's relatively slim oeuvre are the accounts—partly gleaned from notebooks surviving in archives, partly based on well-informed speculation—of the numerous books Stafford wrote before Boston Adventure; full-length novels which went unpublished and often were destroyed later by the author. Detailed outlines of her largely troubled love life as well as her lifelong addiction to alcohol and susceptibility to disease make for fascinating reading and call forth the reader's human sympathy for the fate of this brilliant stylist. Stafford's correspondence with Robert Hightower was one of the biographer's most revealing sources, while some other personal material is not yet accessible. David Roberts has skillfully packed the results of scrutinizing interviews into his text and banned all references to the back, making it sometimes awkward to verify quotes. The contrasts between Stafford's stormy years, 1934—1948, her brief and sudden years of triumph, and her 24-year-long decline are certain to leave the reader with compelling, sometimes harrowing, images." Reviewed by Daniel Weiss, Virginia Quarterly Review (Copyright 2006 Virginia Quarterly Review)