Moore, Susanna 1948-

views updated

Moore, Susanna 1948-

PERSONAL:

Born December 9, 1948, in Bryn Mawr, PA; daughter of Richard Dixon (a physician) and Anne Moore; married Richard Sylbert (a film production designer), 1972 (divorced); children: Lulu Linnane Sylbert. Education: Attended a private preparatory school in Honolulu, HI.

ADDRESSES:

Home—New York, NY. Agent—Stephanie Cabot, The Gernert Company, 136 E. 57th St., New York, NY 10022.

CAREER:

Writer. Home script reader for actors and motion picture studios, 1967-80; motion picture art director, 1980-82.

AWARDS, HONORS:

American Book Award nomination for best first novel of 1982 and Sue Kaufman Prize for first fiction from American Academy-Institute of Arts and Letters, both 1983, both for My Old Sweetheart; Literary Lion Award from New York Public Library, 1993.

WRITINGS:

NOVELS

My Old Sweetheart, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1982, reprinted, Vintage Contemporaries (New York, NY), 1997.

The Whiteness of Bones, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1989, reprinted, Vintage Contemporaries (New York, NY), 2003.

Sleeping Beauties, Knopf (New York, NY), 1993.

In the Cut, Knopf (New York, NY), 1995.

One Last Look, Knopf (New York, NY), 2003.

The Big Girls, Knopf (New York, NY), 2007.

OTHER

(Contributor) Jennifer Bartlett: Important Works, 1974-1995, Locks Gallery (Philadelphia, PA), 1996.

(Coauthor) Living by Design, Rizzoli (New York, NY), 1997.

I Myself Have Seen It: The Myth of Hawai'i, National Geographic (Washington, DC), 2003.

Contributor of essay to photography book, Fighting Fish, Fighting Birds, photos by Hiro, Abrams (New York, NY), 1990.

ADAPTATIONS:

In the Cut was adapted for film and released by Screen Gems, 2003.

SIDELIGHTS:

Susanna Moore's novels frequently deal with young women who come from unhappy families and who suffer emotional and sexual difficulties. Moore grew up in Hawaii during the 1950s, where her novel My Old Sweetheart, which recounts Lily Shields's journey to maturity, takes place. "My Old Sweetheart is one of those rare books that really does show us how people grow and change," Bruce Allen commented in the Chicago Tribune Book World. "Moore's prose is modestly lyrical," he continued, "yet it succeeds admirably in casting her troubled characters in vivid relief: They loom larger than life, seem, somehow, emblems of the age that weighs so heavily on them."

Moore's second novel, The Whiteness of Bones, also is a female coming-of-age story. The primary character, Mamie Clarke, is the elder daughter of well-off sugar cane farmers on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. At the age of twelve, Mamie is molested by a long-time family servant. In the aftermath of the incident, Mamie grows deeply uncomfortable with her body and sexuality. Several years later, she and her younger sister, Claire, move to New York City, where their Aunt Alysse, a retired model, introduces them to her circle of socialite friends. Claire is swept up in a world of drug use and abusive sex, while Mamie suffers a sexual assault before finding a man who helps her deal with the problems that have plagued her since childhood.

Chicago Tribune Books reviewer Hilma Woltzer considered The Whiteness of Bones less tightly constructed than Moore's first novel but admired much in it, including its humor. "Moore deftly juxtaposes frankly brutal and hilariously funny events," according to Woltzer. Jonathan Yardley, writing in the Washington Post Book World, praised Moore's powers of observation and her "large and understanding heart"; he found many passages that have "the ring of absolute truth." To Voice Literary Supplement reviewer Carol Anshaw, however, much in the book rings false. She criticized Moore's view of 1980s New York as anachronistic. "No crime or grime or homelessness here," wrote Anshaw, who went on to note: "Moore's Manhattan is a stage set of the Upper East Side, a My Sister Eileenish froth of gossip and bitchiness." Anshaw found the characters to be caricatures and the portrayal of Mamie's sexual difficulties and eventual awakening to be sexist. "If sex were politics," stated Anshaw, "Susanna Moore might be the new Ayn Rand." Other critics, though, deemed Moore's voice a feminist one. "The shaping of Mamie's feminine self-esteem is wisely and poignantly drawn," asserted Wolitzer.

In Sleeping Beauties, Moore again deals with a Hawaiian woman who escapes to a new environment. After her mother leaves the family and her father proves to be indifferent to the needs of his children, Clio—Mamie Clarke's cousin—runs away at age thirteen to her Aunt Emma's Hawaiian estate. She and Clio have mixed native Hawaiian and white European ancestry; Emma considers herself the custodian of native culture, seeking to maintain traditions against the onslaught of outsiders, and she schools Clio in her beliefs. Clio becomes a mythology researcher and marries a self-centered movie star, Tommy Haywood, and moves with him to California. The "West Coast [is a] version of the frivolous world of New York socialites … in The Whiteness of Bones," observed Michiko Kakutani in the New York Times. Tommy becomes physically abusive, and when Clio extricates herself from him she returns to Hawaii, where a return to her roots and a new relationship offer her a second chance at happiness.

Several critics praised Moore's writing style in Sleeping Beauties but expressed reservations about her handling of plot and character. Kakutani remarked that Sleeping Beauties would be a superior novel if Tommy and his world were portrayed in less cartoonish terms. A different view came from Belles Lettres contributor Bettina Berch, who asserted that Moore's characters are "distinct and quirky," when they could have been walking cliches. Certain reviewers found the book a worthy effort; "Flawed as it is, Sleeping Beauties expands a body of work that is eloquent and disturbing," wrote Abby Frucht in the New York Times Book Review. Washington Post Book World reviewer Francine Prose commented that the book "leaves us with images … that stay with us long after we've finished the novel," although readers must make it through "much steamy tropical excess" to find them. Kakutani commented that Sleeping Beauties, despite its problems, "ratifies Ms. Moore's earlier achievements and attests to her lucid, poetic gifts as a writer."

With In the Cut, Moore leaves her Hawaiian milieu in favor of a New York-based murder mystery that features explicit sex and violence. Written in first-person, the book's narrator is a teacher, linguist, and writer who becomes involved in the police investigation of an especially brutal murder and falls for one of the investigators. "Though the novel's themes of rebellion and erotic violence are hardly new to the author, the book is a major departure from Ms. Moore's earlier work," wrote Kakutani in the New York Times. However, Kakutani noted that in trying to create a heroine different from those of her other novels, Moore has created "a disembodied creature subject only to perverse desires and whims." Kakutani and some other reviewers considered the book's descriptions of sex and violence to be overheated yet ordinary. Larissa MacFarquhar commented in the Los Angeles Times Book Review that Moore's sex scenes are "selected from the catalogue of Basic Hetero Porn Plots." Molly Haskell, writing in the New York Times Book Review, deemed Moore's "refusal to express horror or outrage" when describing violent incidents "refreshing" yet troubling, noting that "her Zenlike, unflappable sensibility doesn't quite work with material so loaded with the toxic ill will of our ever more divided culture." Conversely, Haskell praised many of the book's details as evidence of Moore's perceptiveness, as did Kakutani, who expressed a wish that Moore would have used this ability to create a more credible heroine instead of writing scenes designed to shock. If she had done so, Kakutani noted, "she might have written a novel more commensurate with her rich talent."

In her 2003 novel, One Last Look, Moore borrows from the real-life diaries of Emily Eden to tell the story of three British siblings who find themselves in India, with each having a different reaction to their new environment. The year is 1836 and Henry Oliphant is the new Governor-General for India. His sisters, Eleanor, who narrates the story through her diary, and Harriet, accompany him to his new post. While Henry is caught up in his duties, Harriet at first finds her new environment exhilarating but eventually comes to view the Indians as beneath her. Meanwhile, Eleanor travels the country and gains respect for the Indian people and a realization that Great Britain is actually hurting and not helping them. "One Last Look is character-driven, rather than plot-driven, and Moore's depiction of the language and attitudes of the times is flawless—formal, restrained, and often self-indulgent," wrote Mary Whipple on the Mostly Fiction Web site. Leann Isaac, writing in the Library Journal, commented that the author's "image of saffron-tinged India will have readers pulling out their Baedeker's and booking passage on the next ship."

The Big Girls takes place at the Sloatsburg women's prison and revolves around Helen, an inmate who suffered childhood abuse and has since killed her two children. The story is told from the point of view of four characters: Helen, her jailhouse psychiatrist, a corrections officer, and a Hollywood actress who begins corresponding with Helen. "Reading this heartbreaker is like watching a train wreck while dialing for help on your cellphone," wrote a Publishers Weekly contributor. Joanne Wilkinson, writing in Booklist, commented that the author "brings electrifying prose and a richly compassionate viewpoint to her meditation on both the dark and the generous impulses at work in all of us." Several reviewers praised the author's complete development of the four characters, each with their own problems, although they can't compare to Helen's difficulties. Another reviewer, Bookslut Web site contributor Melissa Albert, noted another major character: "The novel's most compelling character, however, is Sloatsburg, with its complex system of rules and a rigid social structure that is constantly overturned and reinforced by sudden flares of violence, consistent as the prison's Monday-night movie."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Belles Lettres, winter, 1993, Bettina Berch, review of Sleeping Beauties, p. 50.

Booklist, September 15, 2003, Marta Segal Block, review of One Last Look, p. 211; April 15, 2007, Joanne Wilkinson, review of The Big Girls, p. 23.

Books, June 23, 2007, Maud Lavin, "Fine Edges: Susanna Moore's Gripping Tale of Love and Pain, Intimacy and Betrayal," review of The Big Girls, p. 5.

Chicago Tribune Book World, February 13, 1983, Bruce Allen, review of My Old Sweetheart.

Entertainment Weekly, October 10, 2003, Jennifer Reese, review of One Last Look, p. 126.

Kliatt, January, 2005, Nola Theiss, review of One Last Look, p. 16.

Library Journal, January, 1998, Gayle A. Williamson, review of Living by Design, p. 97; September 1, 2003, Leann Isaac, review of One Last Look, p. 209; April 15, 2007, Leigh Anne Vrabel, review of The Big Girls, p. 75.

Los Angeles Times, November 30, 2003, review of One Last Look, p. 7.

Los Angeles Times Book Review, November 14, 1993, review of Sleeping Beauties, p. 3; November 5, 1995, Larissa MacFarquhar, review of In the Cut, p. 3.

New Yorker, August 21, 1995, Hal Espen, "Femme Fatale," p. 124; May 28, 2007, review of The Big Girls, p. 77.

New York Review of Books, April 27, 1989, review of The Whiteness of Bones, p. 50.

New York Times, March 10, 1989, Michiko Kakutani, review of The Whiteness of Bones, p. B4; September 14, 1993, Michiko Kakutani, review of Sleeping Beauties, p. B2; October 31, 1995, Michiko Kakutani, review of In the Cut, p. C15.

New York Times Book Review, March 26, 1989, review of The Whiteness of Bones, p. 5; September 5, 1993, Abby Frucht, review of Sleeping Beauties, p. 2; November 12, 1995, Molly Haskell, review of In the Cut, p. 9; October 26, 2003, D.T. Max, "In the Imperial Bedroom," review of One Last Look, p. 7; December 7, 2003, review of One Last Look, p. 68; May 13, 2007, Stacey D'Erasmo, "Jailhouse Flock," review of The Big Girls, p. 7.

O, the Oprah Magazine, May, 2003, "Aloha to All That," review of I Myself Have Seen It: The Myth of Hawai'i, p. 190; October, 2003, Cathleen Med- wick, "Sense and Sensuality: A Novel of Erotic Awakening in Colonial India," review of One Last Look, p. 176.

Publishers Weekly, August 28, 1995, review of In the Cut, p. 100; November 6, 1995, review of In the Cut, p. 54, and Karen Angel, "Susanna Moore: From Island Childhood to Asphalt Jungle," p. 72; October 13, 2003, review of One Last Look, p. 58; March 19, 2007, review of The Big Girls, p. 37.

Spectator, January 17, 2004, D.J. Taylor, "Too Much Key, Not Enough Novel," p. 37.

Times Literary Supplement, January 2, 2004, Sara Curtis, "After Eden," review of One Last Look, p. 21.

Tribune Books (Chicago, IL), November 7, 1993, Hilma Woltzer, review of Sleeping Beauties, p. 3; October 5, 2003, review of One Last Look, p. 1.

Vanity Fair, October 1995, George Hodgman, "Oh, Susanna," interview with author, p. 198.

Voice Literary Supplement, July, 1989, Carol Anshaw, review of The Whiteness of Bones, p. 29.

Vogue, January, 1994, "Hawaii Homecoming: Novelist Susanna Moore Returns to Her Roots in the Hawaiian Islands—Where, She Is Happy to Report, Some of Her Favorite Childhood Haunts Remain Unchanged," p. 160.

Washington Post Book World, February 26, 1989, Jonathan Yardley, review of The Whiteness of Bones, p. 3; September 12, 1993, Francine Prose, review of Sleeping Beauties, p. 9.

Women's Review of Books, July, 1989, review of The Whiteness of Bones, p. 31.