Talking Out of School: Memoir of an Educated Woman

by Kass Fleisher

Overview

Humour abounds in this memoir which reads like an expose of the power structures in America's higher education system: Whose got it, how they're abusing it, what everyone else is willing to do to get it and the social cost of doing educational business this way."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781564785176
Publisher:	Deep Vellum Publishing
Publication date:	12/18/2008
Series:	American Literature
Pages:	271
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Caitlin M. Alvarez is the author of True or False: __Break __Mend __Live (Press 254, 2014). Her work has appeared in Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies (2014), The Reservist (2013), and Coal City Review (2009). She served as a guest coeditor for PoetsArtists magazine (2013). She teaches writing in Peoria, Illinois. Kass Fleisher's most recent publications are Talking Out of School: Memoir of an Educated Woman (Dalkey Archive, 2008) and the novel Dead Woman Hollow (SUNY Press, 2012). She is the founding publisher of Steerage Press and teaches writing and women's literature in Normal, Illinois.

Editorial Reviews

A shockingly honest examination of the academy. Calling this book a feminist critique of higher ed would be to read the book too narrowly given the discussions of class and race. Should be required reading for everyone in academia.

Steve Tomasula

Fleisher goes against the grain in her work and her thinking, doing so in richly considered, evocative, original, and provocative fashion that in every way promises to make a genuine difference in our understanding of the broadest definitions of what it means to write and learn, and to live and love, in an age of new media, global consciousness, and shifting notions of what it means to be human.

Michael Joyce

Fleisher, a creative writing instructor at Illinois State University, uses autobiographical sketches to paint a picture of what life is like for women in America's higher education system. While her main focus is gender issues, she also touches on other divisive forces, such as racism and homophobia. She raises good questions, such as, "...doesn't it make sense to think that racism will never disappear until sexism disappears?" Unfortunately, these relevant issues get muddled amid a subjective, scattered narrative. Fleisher isn't a bad writer; she does well with description, imagery, action, and irony. But her book might have more impact if she further emphasized the need to break down the walls of bureaucracy and corruption in higher education. Suitable only for select academic libraries.
—Karen Long

Library Journal