The Shape of Red: Insider/Outsider Reflections

One feels privileged to read the authors' eloquent and bravely honest correspondence in which they examine aspects of their liveswork, feminism, marriage, childbearing and rearing, sexuality, political activismin terms of being insiders or outsiders to the world around them and to their own authentic selves. Randall, a poet and photographer, was born in the U.S. and has lived in Mexico, Cuba and Nicaragua. Both an insider and outsider in these varied cultures, she offers imagery-rich insights into capitalist and socialist societies. Hubbard writes viscerally and movingly of the outsider experience of being a Jew in Nazi Austria and then an immigrant in the U.S.; a biologist at Harvard, she casts a critical eye on male-created and dominated scientific theory and practice. The book's organizing principle of ``insider/outsider'' grows tiresome and is so broad that occasionally the discussions are unfocused. Still, the concept is a useful tool that in the hands of the talented correspondents inspires readers to reconsider their own experiences and identities. Photos not seen by PW. (Dec.)