True North: A Memoir($15.00Value)

Description

True North is the inspirational Canadian Chapter of Jill Ker Conway's life story, which began with her much love, bestselling memoir, The Road from Coorain.   Beginning with her departure from Australia, Jill Ker Conway tells of her romance with Harvard House Master John Conway, of coming to grips with his manic-depressive disorder, and of their move to Canada in 1964 where she became the first female vice-president at the University of Toronto.  In this vibrant memoir, we watch as a most private woman makes of herself a public persona in Canada. YA-Following The Road from Coorain (Knopf, 1989), Conway leaves Australia to discover the freedom of open inquiry at Harvard University, and to break away from her mother's oppressive demands. For the first time, she forms true friendships with other women and develops a sense of confidence and happiness that becomes almost complete when she marries Professor John Conway, her "true north" (compass point). The Conways face serious challenges as they move to Canada where the author teaches history and later becomes vice president of Toronto University. As the book ends, she is president of Smith College. Conway writes in a clear, brisk, literary style that is readable, engaging, and sometimes lyrical. She details successes and pleasures as well as personal sorrows and disappointments that require background knowledge from the earlier title. The final third of the book is a technical discussion of university-administration issues and of less general appeal, but good for readers interested in academic careers. Mature YAs seeking biography or women's studies will find Conway's continuing journey a fascinating one. Judy Sokoll, Fairfax County Public Library, VA Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. Conway's memoir picks up where her best-selling The Road from Corain left off. Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. Insofar as the appeal of Conway's best-selling Road from Coorain (1989) was its exotic Australian setting, this narrative of the second stage in Conway's life--from her 1960 arrival in the U.S. as a graduate student to her selection in 1975 as the first woman president of Smith College--may be less popular. It seems likely, however, that it was Conway's painful but perceptive explorations of family troubles and her own struggle for individuation, as much as her vivid evocation of childhood on an isolated outback sheep farm and adolescence in bustling Sydney, which led Carolyn Heilbrun to describe Road as "one of the few heroic stories of girlhood." Conway's sensibility is the same as she describes landmarks of early adulthood: building a career as a feminist historian and university administrator; establishing supportive friendships with other women; marrying older colleague John Conway and coping with his manic depression and her own infertility; coming to terms with her mother's destructive anger. Conway analyzes her own experiences in the U.S. and Canada just as thoughtfully and penetratingly as her academic work investigates the lives of several previous generations of American women. An alternate selection of both the Book-of-the-Month Club. Mary Carroll In this memoir Conway picks up where she left off in Road From Coorain (1989). She recounts her life in America, from her arrival in 1960 up to her appointment to the presidency of Smith College in 1975. Conway comes to the United States to pursue her interest in history and escape Australian society, which has no place for a woman academic. She conveys her first impressions and wonderment at the American way of life, from its ethnic diversity to its stale packaged bread to what Conway considers to be the disarming emotional frankness of Americans. Pursuing her studies at Harvard, she discovers a supportive intellectual community she had never before known. Studying American women reformers, she learns to identify passionately with those who defied social convention to bring women out of the confines of domesticity and into public life. Later, during her tenure at the University of Toronto, Conway experiences the difficulties of coping with her husband's manic- depression and her own inability to have children. At the same time, as the first woman in the university's senior administration, she finds she has become a public figure, a role model for feminists, and is frequently asked to speak to women's groups. Just as necessary funds are being cut at the university, Conway is asked to serve as president of Smith. She is most happy about the appointment because she finally will be able to properly champion women's education, which always has been one of the deepest concerns in her personal life and historical studies. Conway's life has been a fascinating, adventurous one. Yet the reader's sympathy may be tested by her frequent resort to benign ethnic stereotypes (``Gallic joie de vivre,'' ``the wildly extravagant humor'' of Jews, ``the Irishman's way with a story'') as a substitute