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Title: Is Making Someone Look Like a Mess a Feminist Statement?
Review: Obviously I do not think so. Sexton was I think more aware of the impact she was making and what "turf" was available to women writers in the Fifties. Same as today -- the body. Writing about her own body she could reach for universality. But Middlebrook is not willing to really examine her poems except to analyze their "clang" or rhyme scheme, and after awhile comes off as kind of dull-witted; eternally pointing out that Sexton can rhyme. The meaty stuff of why Sexton became a celebrity, commanded high speaker fees (for her time) on such small book sales Middlebrook doesn't go into. I would rather read the biography by Sexton's daughter Linda if I can find it. I think Linda also forgave her mother for being sexual, later; but I may be wrong.
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