THE LIBRARY - BOOK REVIEWS - WOMAN AT THE WASHINGTON ZOO - DONNE TEMPO
The Woman at the Washington Zoo: Writings on Politics, Family and Rage
Reviewed by Cece O’Bryon-EnglandI found myself in the possession of "The Woman at the Washington Zoo: Writings on Politics, Family and Fate" (PublicAffairs; New Ed edition) recently. The author’s husband, Timothy Noah edited the collection of essays.
Information that may well serve the public as opinions continue to be formed and votes are cast. The collection is divided into three sections, “Profiles,” “Essays,” and “Time and Chance.”
The portraits of individuals found in “Profiles” are not always flattering but they are insightful and fascinating (see her essays on “The Philanthropist,” Gwendolyn Cafritz, “The Wife,” Barbara Bush, and “Scenes from a Marriage” Bill Clinton and Al Gore).
The questions posed in the “Essays” section reveal the true questions a workingwoman faced in the eighties and nineties. The concerns of feminism, the issues brought to the forefront by Clarence Thomas and his trial, and the death of Princess Diana.
The articles compiled in the section labeled “Time and Chance” deal with the personal struggles of a writer, wife, and mother, living with a cancer diagnosis.
The death of Marjorie Williams at the age of 47, is the wrenching denouement of this collection. It is also the reminder, that women in this world must live their lives to the fullest.
In the short time each individual is allotted on earth, may they reach as many as Marjorie Williams did. Her reporting is astute, her assessments are valid, her personal trials are a lesson in living.
There is comic relief to be found here. This is a testament to the strength of Williams’ husband, the book’s editor Timothy Noah. That he was able to create such a complete portrait of a woman through her work is a testament to their relationship.
Williams’ writes of noticing her original weight loss, and attributing it to her renewed sense of fulfillment as she took up running again in her 40’s.
“[I was] running my hand up and down my now deliciously scrawny stomach. And just like that I felt it.: a mass…on the lower right side of my abdomen,” the author writes.
She explores her own interactions with the array of medical professionals through her diagnosis, remission, and the final stages of the disease. She writes of her expectations for the future lives of her children.
Williams comes across, in this collection, as a fully realized woman, one who may have had too short a stay in this world, but one who loved, and lived and told her own story.
It is a story that we all should read.
Biography Marjorie Williams
Marjorie Williams was born in Princeton, N.J.,
in 1958 and died (of liver cancer) in
Washington, D.C. in 2005. At the time of her
diagnosis in 2001, Marjorie was a columnist for
the Washington Post’s op-ed page, a
contributing editor to Vanity Fair, a regular
book reviewer for Slate, and a frequent
contributor to the Washington Monthly.
Marjorie
began her career in journalism in 1986 as
editor of the Washington Post’s Federal Page.
Subsequently she became a writer for the
paper’s Style section and Sunday magazine,
specializing in political profiles. Marjorie
left the Post for Vanity Fair in 1992, then
left Vanity Fair in 2000 to write the Post
column and to become a contributing editor at
Talk.
She returned to Vanity Fair in 2001. Over time, Marjorie’s writing shifted from features to essays focused on the topics of gender, family life, and – during the last years of her life – mortality.
Prior to becoming a journalist, Marjorie worked in book publishing as an editor at Simon & Schuster, the Literary Guild, and Harcourt Brace. She embarked on this earlier career after dropping out of Harvard. Marjorie graduated from Princeton Day School in 1975.
The Woman at the Washington Zoo won the PEN/Martha Albrand Nonfiction Award, which is granted to an author’s first work of nonfiction. Marjorie shared this award in 2006 with A Perfect Red: Empire, Espionage, and the Quest for the Color of Desire by Amy Butler Greenfield. In addition, a shorter version of the chapter “Hit By Lightning” that appeared in Vanity Fair under the title “A Matter of Life and Death” won a National Magazine Award in 2006 in the essay category. Marjorie is survived by her husband, Timothy Noah, a senior writer at Slate, who edited The Woman at the Washington Zoo, and by her children, Alice and Will.
She returned to Vanity Fair in 2001. Over time, Marjorie’s writing shifted from features to essays focused on the topics of gender, family life, and – during the last years of her life – mortality.
Prior to becoming a journalist, Marjorie worked in book publishing as an editor at Simon & Schuster, the Literary Guild, and Harcourt Brace. She embarked on this earlier career after dropping out of Harvard. Marjorie graduated from Princeton Day School in 1975.
The Woman at the Washington Zoo won the PEN/Martha Albrand Nonfiction Award, which is granted to an author’s first work of nonfiction. Marjorie shared this award in 2006 with A Perfect Red: Empire, Espionage, and the Quest for the Color of Desire by Amy Butler Greenfield. In addition, a shorter version of the chapter “Hit By Lightning” that appeared in Vanity Fair under the title “A Matter of Life and Death” won a National Magazine Award in 2006 in the essay category. Marjorie is survived by her husband, Timothy Noah, a senior writer at Slate, who edited The Woman at the Washington Zoo, and by her children, Alice and Will.