The Color of the Heart: Writing from Struggle & Change 1959-1990

Previously published in a variety of periodicals, these essays, poems and short fictions by the editor of Ikon magazine remain crisp as an examination of feminist, political and literary topics of the last three decades. Sherman evenhandedly analyzes the implications of the controversial case of Weatherman Jane Alpert, who was accused by many women on the left of being an FBI informer. In a series of incisive essays, Sherman reports on the progress of revolutionary change, from the political participation of women to improvements in the standard of living, in Cuba and Nicaragua. Most affecting are her autobiographical stories and prose poems: her moody voice leads the reader from her student days at Berkeley and the throes of her intellectual and sexual awakening to the middle-aged years in New York, coming to terms with failure and mortality. The success of the poetry is mixed. While some poems capture delicate states of feeling, many suffer from unfocused themes and lackadaisical language. Overall, though, this is a sensitive, thoughtful collection from a woman who learned long ago that ``to retain the freshness of experience'' one must be ``willing to face the strangeness and horror of it.'' (Aug.)