cover image Missile Wounds of the Head and Neck, Volume I

Missile Wounds of the Head and Neck, Volume I

Barbara Selfridge, Bizhan Aarabi, Howard H. Kaufman. American Association of Neurological Surgeons, $109.95 (269pp) ISBN 978-1-879284-64-7

Straightforward, simple prose and a spirited outlook characterize this debut collection of 12 stories tracking the growth of freethinking, idealistic, politically radical women. The pieces, all but one first-person narratives, describe stages in the evolution of white, middle-class females into radical feminists and socialist activists with a deep commitment to various leftist agendas. Two stories feature a Westchester County teenager in 1966, a member of the Teen Action Movement, whose flirtatious friendships with teenage black boys deepen into sensual awakenings. ""Credentials,"" more of an autobiographical essay than fiction (co-written with Louise Rafkin), is told in two voices, as ""Barbara"" and ""Louise"" exchange rather tepid reminiscences about their friendship (one's a lesbian, the other's not). Other stories follow Ellen Chatfield, ""inappropriately Caucasian, inappropriately heterosexual,"" who in ""The Spread of Maoism"" is a na ve, earnest '70s freshman activist at Berkeley. She acknowledges her feminist/Communist heritage in ""Death of a Dillon Girl,"" a tale honoring the line of zany, feisty women in her mother's family. Elsewhere, Ellen teaches English in Puerto Rico, where she's immersed in macho culture and embarrassingly in love with a younger man, Wilfredo Mel ndez, and a 30-year-old Ellen turns up waitressing at a trendy French restaurant in San Francisco, pursuing intense friendships with her Hispanic co-workers. Sometimes Selfridge's tales are pleasing, with their sweet if tame, good-natured self-mockery, but bland reminiscences of junior high home economics, monotonous discussions of feminism and a ""been there, done that"" attitude may have readers hoping in vain for a surprising twist in this otherwise routine jaunt through the realm of leftist political activism. (Aug.) FYI: Glad Day Books is a writers' publishing collective dedicated to issuing political literature.