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A review by nehaperi
Tell Me a Riddle, Requa I, and Other Works by Laurie Olsen, Tillie Olsen, Rebekah Edwards
not reviewing because this was for a class. i'm taking a class on 20th century literature and my professor chose to structure it around the great depression, hence...this.
prior to this collection, the only work i'd read by tillie olsen was "i stand here ironing", in my ap lit class, in high school. i remember liking it, but i definitely don't remember being this emotionally touched by how raw olsen's writing is. i mean, i guess that's a given, considering the circumstances she was writing in and the state of the country around her.
"a vision of fear and hope" and "the strike" were just so painfully honest. i love the inclusion of work from during and after the depression, specifically NOT in chronological order. the ups and downs, from the despair to the wisdom of hope, created a narrative on the great depression that felt, in the best sense of the word, holistic.
i say that because we got everything. the fear, anger, and confusion of the 20s and 30s, "i am on a battlefield, and the increasing stench and smoke sting the eyes so it is impossible to turn them back into the past", juxtaposed with "[the 1930s were] a time of human flowering, when the country was transformed by the hopes, dreams, actions of numerous, nameless human beings, hungry for more than food". the duality in reaction comes from perspective, from mediation, from introspection as a lens through which the impossible simply became a victory. a victory of survival.
prior to this collection, the only work i'd read by tillie olsen was "i stand here ironing", in my ap lit class, in high school. i remember liking it, but i definitely don't remember being this emotionally touched by how raw olsen's writing is. i mean, i guess that's a given, considering the circumstances she was writing in and the state of the country around her.
"a vision of fear and hope" and "the strike" were just so painfully honest. i love the inclusion of work from during and after the depression, specifically NOT in chronological order. the ups and downs, from the despair to the wisdom of hope, created a narrative on the great depression that felt, in the best sense of the word, holistic.
i say that because we got everything. the fear, anger, and confusion of the 20s and 30s, "i am on a battlefield, and the increasing stench and smoke sting the eyes so it is impossible to turn them back into the past", juxtaposed with "[the 1930s were] a time of human flowering, when the country was transformed by the hopes, dreams, actions of numerous, nameless human beings, hungry for more than food". the duality in reaction comes from perspective, from mediation, from introspection as a lens through which the impossible simply became a victory. a victory of survival.