Female Protection -- The Wandering Womb -- Grandmother Russia/Selma -- Notes on Camp -- Spy in the House of Girls -- The Year of the Knee Sock -- Separate Vacations -- Younger Men, Older Men -- Exercising the Past -- Halloween, Chicago -- French Yoga -- Mikvah : That Which Will Not Stay Submerged -- South Florida, Before -- The Jew in the Body -- The Land of Allergens -- Cream Puffs -- Late Night -- Up against It -- We Had Paris -- Luck : In the Valley -- Auschwitz : Like the Back of His Hand -- In Wrocław, Formerly Breslau -- The Ambivalence of the One-Breasted Feminist -- Flood, Meyerland -- America : A Polemic -- Something to Sell -- A Traveler's Lexicon -- The Romance of the Spiders.
Summary:
"Even as a fourth-generation Jewish Texan, S. L. Wisenberg has always felt the ghost of Europe dogging her steps, making her feel uneasy in her body and in the world. Growing up, she plays at hiding from the Nazis at her house in the suburbs, fearing that her asthma would make her unlikely to survive. In her late twenties, she infiltrates sorority rush at her alma mater, curious about whether she'll get a bid now. Later in life, she makes her first and only trip to the mikvah while healing from a breast biopsy (benign this time), prompting an exploration of misogyny, shame, and woman-fear in rabbinical tradition. With wit, verve, blood, scars, and a solid dose of self-deprecation, Wisenberg wanders across the expanse of continents and combs through history books and family records in her search for home and meaning. Her travels take her from Selma, Alabama, where her Eastern European Jewish ancestors once settled, to Vienna, where she tours Freud's home and figures out what women really want, and she visits Auschwitz, which--disappointingly--leaves no emotional mark"-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.