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The Critic's Daughter: A Memoir
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79/99
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34/99
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84/99
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About This Book
An exquisitely rendered portrait of a unique father-daughter relationship and a moving memoir of family and identity. Growing up on the Upper West Side of New York City in the 1970s, in an apartment filled with dazzling literary and artistic characters, Priscilla Gilman worshiped her brilliant, adoring, and mercurial father, the writer, theater critic, and Yale School of Drama professor Richard Gilman. But when Priscilla was ten years old, her mother, renowned literary agent Lynn Nesbit, abruptly announced that she was ending the marriage. The resulting cascade of disturbing revelations―about her parents' hollow marriage, her father's double life and tortured sexual identity―fundamentally changed Priscilla's perception of her father, as she attempted to protect him from the depression that had long shadowed him. A wrenching story about what it means to be the daughter of a demanding parent, a revelatory window into the impact of divorce, and a searching reflection on the nature of art and criticism, The Critic's Daughter is an unflinching account of loss and grief―and a radiant testament of forgiveness and love.
Reviews
"Gilman writes with resplendent clarity, meticulous candor, and incandescent love forged in the fire of extraordinarily demanding family dynamics ..."
"This is an eye-opening testament to the lasting wounds of divorce."
"This revealing and clearly heartfelt memoir — a love letter to her father that doesn't obscure the difficult and frustrating aspects of their relationship—works precisely because Gilman delivers a detailed portrait of her father, proverbial warts and all ..."
"It offers few stories of being and remaining entangled ..."
"The narrative is passionate, resonant, and beautifully written, with just a few forgivably maudlin moments ..."
"Throughout the book, Gilman delightfully weaves the television shows, plays, and movies of her childhood into the story....Gilman also addresses the contradictions and shortcomings of dramatic criticism, suggesting that people should be free to love what they love, in all senses, not just the theatrical ..."
"As both fair-minded prosecutor and tenacious defense attorney, Priscilla Gilman scrupulously placed her father's manifold strengths and obvious flaws on the balance scale and finds that the weight of the evidence tips decidedly in his favor."
"Nesbit, the super agent whose clients have included Joan Didion..."
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