Items related to Seeking Rapture: Scenes from a Woman's Life
In this book of personal reflections on a woman's life as child, wife, and mother, Kathryn Harrison re-creates episodes in her life, exploring how experiences of childhood recur in memory, to be transformed and sometimes healed in the lives we lead as adults. At the heart of Seeking Rapture is the notion that a woman's life is a continuous process of transformation, an ongoing overcoming and re-creating of self.
Standing in her children's bedroom, Harrison asks, "How did it happen that I got from there to here?" The bestselling author of The Kiss and The Seal Wife writes with honesty and grace of how her early longing for the mother who abandoned her led to a pattern of self-destructive behavior, from shoplifting to bulimia, and to yearning for ways to transcend and even erase her physical self, to become the perfect child her mother could love. As a woman, she writes of time, the relentless passage experienced by adults, in contrast to the languors of childhood, and she recalls with vividness and humor her grandmother's attempts in her eighties to cheat on a driving test. And as a daughter, she writes of caring for her ailing mother, hoping for closure that does not come, but which she creates on her own terms.
Standing in her children's bedroom, Harrison asks, "How did it happen that I got from there to here?" The bestselling author of The Kiss and The Seal Wife writes with honesty and grace of how her early longing for the mother who abandoned her led to a pattern of self-destructive behavior, from shoplifting to bulimia, and to yearning for ways to transcend and even erase her physical self, to become the perfect child her mother could love. As a woman, she writes of time, the relentless passage experienced by adults, in contrast to the languors of childhood, and she recalls with vividness and humor her grandmother's attempts in her eighties to cheat on a driving test. And as a daughter, she writes of caring for her ailing mother, hoping for closure that does not come, but which she creates on her own terms.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
Review:
"Seeking Rapture is the biography of a hungry heart. . . . Affecting, beautifully crafted autobiographical meditations."
"--The Boston Globe
""Revealing . . . [Harrison] has produced enthralling essays that bring to mind the robust metaphysics of Kathleen Norris and Patricia Hampl. Kathryn Harrison has challenged herself--and won--with her passionate, rigorous thinking on family bonds and family bondage, and the mysterious intersections of body and spirit."
"--The New York Times Book Review
""[A] rich collection . . . Harrison aims, over the distance of time and often with dazzling accuracy, for unflinching display of motivations. . . . Such fastidious recall is a Proustian gift. With all due regard for her achievement as a novelist, Harrison appears Proust-like in another respect: She is her own truest subject, an unending wellspring of emotion and restless quest."
"--Los Angeles Times
""Harrison remains a master of her craft, with musings that are lyrical, insightful, and haunting."
"--Entertainment Weekly
""It's her fierce devotion to her absent mother that gives this book its shimmering grace."
--"Organic Style
""Poignant glimpses into the life of a survivor."
"--Kirkus Reviews
""The prose sings....Harrison [is] at her thoughtful, provocative best, mindful of the flaws and desires within everyone."
--"Publishers Weekly"
Seeking Rapture is the biography of a hungry heart. . . . Affecting, beautifully crafted autobiographical meditations.
" The Boston Globe
" Revealing . . . [Harrison] has produced enthralling essays that bring to mind the robust metaphysics of Kathleen Norris and Patricia Hampl. Kathryn Harrison has challenged herself and won with her passionate, rigorous thinking on family bonds and family bondage, and the mysterious intersections of body and spirit.
" The New York Times Book Review
" [A] rich collection . . . Harrison aims, over the distance of time and often with dazzling accuracy, for unflinching display of motivations. . . . Such fastidious recall is a Proustian gift. With all due regard for her achievement as a novelist, Harrison appears Proust-like in another respect: She is her own truest subject, an unending wellspring of emotion and restless quest.
" Los Angeles Times
" Harrison remains a master of her craft, with musings that are lyrical, insightful, and haunting.
" Entertainment Weekly
" It s her fierce devotion to her absent mother that gives this book its shimmering grace.
"Organic Style
" Poignant glimpses into the life of a survivor.
" Kirkus Reviews
" The prose sings....Harrison [is] at her thoughtful, provocative best, mindful of the flaws and desires within everyone.
"Publishers Weekly""
"Seeking Rapture is the biography of a hungry heart. . . . Affecting, beautifully crafted autobiographical meditations."
--The Boston Globe "Revealing . . . [Harrison] has produced enthralling essays that bring to mind the robust metaphysics of Kathleen Norris and Patricia Hampl. Kathryn Harrison has challenged herself--and won--with her passionate, rigorous thinking on family bonds and family bondage, and the mysterious intersections of body and spirit."
--The New York Times Book Review "[A] rich collection . . . Harrison aims, over the distance of time and often with dazzling accuracy, for unflinching display of motivations. . . . Such fastidious recall is a Proustian gift. With all due regard for her achievement as a novelist, Harrison appears Proust-like in another respect: She is her own truest subject, an unending wellspring of emotion and restless quest."
--Los Angeles Times "Harrison remains a master of her craft, with musings that are lyrical, insightful, and haunting."
--Entertainment Weekly "It's her fierce devotion to her absent mother that gives this book its shimmering grace."
--Organic Style "Poignant glimpses into the life of a survivor."
--Kirkus Reviews "The prose sings....Harrison [is] at her thoughtful, provocative best, mindful of the flaws and desires within everyone."
--Publishers Weekly
About the Author:
"--The Boston Globe
""Revealing . . . [Harrison] has produced enthralling essays that bring to mind the robust metaphysics of Kathleen Norris and Patricia Hampl. Kathryn Harrison has challenged herself--and won--with her passionate, rigorous thinking on family bonds and family bondage, and the mysterious intersections of body and spirit."
"--The New York Times Book Review
""[A] rich collection . . . Harrison aims, over the distance of time and often with dazzling accuracy, for unflinching display of motivations. . . . Such fastidious recall is a Proustian gift. With all due regard for her achievement as a novelist, Harrison appears Proust-like in another respect: She is her own truest subject, an unending wellspring of emotion and restless quest."
"--Los Angeles Times
""Harrison remains a master of her craft, with musings that are lyrical, insightful, and haunting."
"--Entertainment Weekly
""It's her fierce devotion to her absent mother that gives this book its shimmering grace."
--"Organic Style
""Poignant glimpses into the life of a survivor."
"--Kirkus Reviews
""The prose sings....Harrison [is] at her thoughtful, provocative best, mindful of the flaws and desires within everyone."
--"Publishers Weekly"
Seeking Rapture is the biography of a hungry heart. . . . Affecting, beautifully crafted autobiographical meditations.
" The Boston Globe
" Revealing . . . [Harrison] has produced enthralling essays that bring to mind the robust metaphysics of Kathleen Norris and Patricia Hampl. Kathryn Harrison has challenged herself and won with her passionate, rigorous thinking on family bonds and family bondage, and the mysterious intersections of body and spirit.
" The New York Times Book Review
" [A] rich collection . . . Harrison aims, over the distance of time and often with dazzling accuracy, for unflinching display of motivations. . . . Such fastidious recall is a Proustian gift. With all due regard for her achievement as a novelist, Harrison appears Proust-like in another respect: She is her own truest subject, an unending wellspring of emotion and restless quest.
" Los Angeles Times
" Harrison remains a master of her craft, with musings that are lyrical, insightful, and haunting.
" Entertainment Weekly
" It s her fierce devotion to her absent mother that gives this book its shimmering grace.
"Organic Style
" Poignant glimpses into the life of a survivor.
" Kirkus Reviews
" The prose sings....Harrison [is] at her thoughtful, provocative best, mindful of the flaws and desires within everyone.
"Publishers Weekly""
"Seeking Rapture is the biography of a hungry heart. . . . Affecting, beautifully crafted autobiographical meditations."
--The Boston Globe "Revealing . . . [Harrison] has produced enthralling essays that bring to mind the robust metaphysics of Kathleen Norris and Patricia Hampl. Kathryn Harrison has challenged herself--and won--with her passionate, rigorous thinking on family bonds and family bondage, and the mysterious intersections of body and spirit."
--The New York Times Book Review "[A] rich collection . . . Harrison aims, over the distance of time and often with dazzling accuracy, for unflinching display of motivations. . . . Such fastidious recall is a Proustian gift. With all due regard for her achievement as a novelist, Harrison appears Proust-like in another respect: She is her own truest subject, an unending wellspring of emotion and restless quest."
--Los Angeles Times "Harrison remains a master of her craft, with musings that are lyrical, insightful, and haunting."
--Entertainment Weekly "It's her fierce devotion to her absent mother that gives this book its shimmering grace."
--Organic Style "Poignant glimpses into the life of a survivor."
--Kirkus Reviews "The prose sings....Harrison [is] at her thoughtful, provocative best, mindful of the flaws and desires within everyone."
--Publishers Weekly
Kathryn Harrison is the author of the novels The Seal Wife, The Binding Chair, Poison, Exposure, and Thicker Than Water. She has also written a memoir, The Kiss. Her personal essays, including some from the collection Seeking Rapture, have appeared in The New Yorker, Harper’s magazine, and other publications. She lives in New York with her husband, the novelist Colin Harrison, and their children. She can be reached at thebindingchair@yahoo.com.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherRandom House Inc
- Publication date2003
- ISBN 10 037550558X
- ISBN 13 9780375505584
- BindingHardcover
- Number of pages186
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