Women of the 14th Moon: Writings on Menopause

With these almost 100 brief essays, stories and poems, Taylor ( Red Flower ) and Sumrall ( Touching Fire ) offer a valuable collection, practically a support group in a package. Both Janine O'Leary Cobb and Elaine Goldman Gill challenge the premise that any problems women have during menopause are their own fault. Many contributors, who range from playwrights to artists and activists, discuss their experiences with great candor, and they disagree on some issues. For example, Jane L. Mickelson voices strong reservations about hormone therapy, while Marcia Seligson, who opted for such therapy, assesses the issue as one of ``benefits versus risks.'' In a short story, Sumrall shows what happens when a condescending man crosses an uppity menopausal woman, and in a poem Katherine Wells muses, ``It's not the babies I'll regret / but myself, stuck in an old VW body / concealing a Rolls-Royce engine.'' Mary Lou Logothetis's effective article reviews three decades of medical writing that sees the middle-aged woman as ``a caricature of her younger self at her emotional worst.'' Illustrations not seen by PW. (Nov.)