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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
The best book I have ever read, 16 Aug 2003
I am sorry if that title is a cliche, but it is true. I bought "Braided Lives" as a student in 1983 when it first came out in paperback in this country. No novel, before or since (and I read a lot) has spoken to me with the same immediacy, wisdom, beauty or truth. I read it in a weekend, turned immediately to the first page again after reading the last, read it monthly for three years and at least yearly ever since. It is a masterpiece and I have no idea why it ever went out of print. If you happen to read this review, I beg you to pick up one of the secondhand copies available. It will be the best £ you ever spent.So why is it so good? Jill, the central character, is the most believable and fully rounded character in literature. Partly, I suspect, because she is semi-autobiographical. (Indeed, Piercy's autobiography "Sleeping with Cats" (also well worth reading) confirms this). I also love the book because it is so dense. Not in the sense that it is hardgoing (anything but) but that every word is valuable. I just believe in the world of that novel more than any other. Jill's triumphs and humiliations illuminated mine as a young adult and I get something new from it every time I read it. I now identify more with the older Jill who tells her story in flashback than with the brash young college kid, but both still say so much. Come on, Women's Press or Persephone Books, get this fantastic novel back in print so that it may shine on the lives of a new generation.
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