Pastan, Rachel

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Pastan, Rachel

PERSONAL:

Daughter of Linda Pastan (a poet); married David Cohen (an astronomer); children: two. Education: Harvard College, B.A.; Iowa Writers' Workshop, University of Iowa, M.F.A. Hobbies and other interests: Gardening, reading.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Philadelphia, PA. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Writer, novelist, and educator. Swarthmore College, writing instructor; Bennington Writing Seminars, writing instructor. Served as a writing instructor at Edgewood College and the Writers' Place, Madison, WI.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Arts and Letters Fiction Prize; PEN Syndicated Fiction Award; Wisconsin Arts Board fellowship; Delaware Arts Council fellowship; Bread Loaf Writers Conference fellowship.

WRITINGS:

This Side of Married (novel), Viking (New York, NY), 2004.

Lady of the Snakes (novel), Harcourt (Orlando, FL), 2008.

Contributor to periodicals, including Threepenny Review, Arts and Letters, and Mademoiselle.

SIDELIGHTS:

Rachel Pastan is a novelist, short story writer, and writing educator. She grew up in Maryland and acquired a prestigious education at Harvard College and the Iowa Writers' Workshop. Her short stories have appeared in publications such as the Threepenny Review and Mademoiselle, and her short work has received awards such as the PEN Syndicated Fiction Award. She teaches writing in the M.F.A. program at Bennington Writing Seminars and at Swarthmore College. She is the daughter of poet Linda Pastan, and is herself the mother of two children. Pastan reports that she developed an early interest in becoming a writer, encouraged by the example shown by her mother. "I always wanted to be a writer—and I also, thank goodness, always wanted to write," she told interviewer Trevor Newberry on the Southeast Review Web site. "My mother is a writer, so I thought it was a normal thing to be. It took me many years to realize that this was not so, and also that most writers use their choice of profession as a form of rebellion against their families. I had to find other forms," she remarked.

Pastan's interest in writing has led to a successful academic and literary career. Her first novel, This Side of Married, is a "lovely homage to the spirit of Jane Austen, a domestic comedy about love and betrayal, class and money, misapprehension and misunderstanding," commented a Boston Globe critic. A Sun2Surf Web site reviewer stated more directly: "This gem of a tale is a modern day update of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice." A successful forty-year marriage is the foundation of the household of Doctor Evelyn and Judge William Rubin. Encouraged by this feat of matrimonial longevity, Evelyn wants the same for her three daughters. However, her devotion to clichés of romance such as "love at first sight" and "happily ever after" have created unreasonable expectations and impossible-to-meet standards for Alice, Isabel, and Tina. Alice, the eldest child, is an intellectual and, after a series of unsuccessful relationships, has so far been unable to find a mate. Isabel, the Rubins' middle child, is married but is having difficulty conceiving a child of her own, which is causing rifts in her relationship with husband Theo. Tina, the youngest, wildest, and most spoiled of the sisters, harbors dreamy concepts of a perfect wedding and is willing to go to radical lengths to get it; currently, she is engaged to a man who is still married. Into this emotionally complex environment come several men who make the Rubin sisters' lives more complex. Anthony Wolf, a charming and successful cardiologist who seems a perfect match for Alice, may not be as good a catch as he seems. Distant cousin Soren Zank, half-Jewish, half-Swedish, is wealthy and expresses varying degrees of interest in all three sisters. Finally, the family's handsome gardener, Marco Pena, displays an interest in Alice that goes beyond their mutual interest in salsa dancing. Throughout the novel, the Boston Globe reviewer noted, "Pastan's prose is low-key and precise, and she gives her characters some witty dialogue." Booklist reviewer Carol Haggas found the novel to be "an engaging look at the current state of love and courtship."

Lady of the Snakes, Pastan's second novel, is "an interesting take on modern life and women who try to have it all," observed Robin Nesbitt, writing in Library Journal. Jane Levitsky is a scholar of Russian literature, working on her Ph.D. in nineteenth-century Russian works. She specializes in the novels of writer Grigory Karkov and the diaries of his wife, Masha. She strives to maintain a balance between her academic life and her home life with husband Billy and newborn daughter, Maisie. As she pursues her research into the Karkovs, however, she finds it increasingly difficult to maintain the home-career divide. Further complications ensue when she accepts a position at the University of Wisconsin. There, she learns that renowned Karkov scholar Otto Sigelman, long past the point where he should have retired, maintains an office next to hers. When Jane uncovers evidence to suggest that Grigory Karkov's esteemed literary career may have been based on deception—and that Masha might have been the actual author of some of the works that bear his name—conflict with Sigelman becomes inevitable. Meanwhile, the stress of her research is strongly felt within her household, and infidelity threatens to shatter her domestic environment.

Pastan offered Newberry her own assessment of the novel, stating it "is very much about the work-family morass in which many women find themselves, and I think it feels relevant for many readers because of that." When she first started the book, "there were very few books about the experience of life with small children, let alone novels where the ambivalence of working mothers was expressed. When my children were young, I was hungry for books like that, and I think that hunger is still out there," she told Newberry. Throughout the book, Pastan "successfully ruminates on the desire for balance, the quest for personal and professional recognition, and the issues so many ambitious women face," commented Karen Heller in the Philadelphia Inquirer. She "does an admirable job of illustrating the problems of modern married life and the demands of career and family, as well as the nightmare of childcare that faces working parents," observed Curled Up with a Good Book Web site reviewer Luan Gaines.

As a writer, "Pastan has an assured, deft, and lovely voice," remarked Heller. "Fast-paced, well-written, and entertaining, Pastan's latest has a winning feminist twist," commented a Publishers Weekly critic. Booklist reviewer Catherine English concluded that Pastan "expertly delivers an intriguing detective story with a clever academic twist."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, April 15, 2004, Carol Haggas, review of This Side of Married, p. 1426; November 1, 2007, Catherine English, review of Lady of the Snakes, p. 25.

Boston Globe, May 9, 2004, "From London to NY, the Merry-go-round Called Romance," review of This Side of Married.

Entertainment Weekly, January 18, 2008, Jennifer Reese, "Home Truths," review of Lady of the Snakes, p. 85.

Kirkus Reviews, October 1, 2007, review of Lady of the Snakes.

Library Journal, October 1, 2007, Robin Nesbitt, review of Lady of the Snakes, p. 64.

Philadelphia Inquirer, January 30, 2008, Karen Heller, "Swarthmore Writer's Comic Novel Lady of the Snakes Has It All, and Then Some," review of Lady of the Snakes.

Publishers Weekly, April 19, 2004, review of This Side of Married, p. 40; September 10, 2007, review of Lady of the Snakes, p. 36.

Washington Post, May 27, 2004, Jonathan Yardley, "Everybody Loves Rubin," review of This Side of Married, p. C2.

Washington Post Book World, February 10, 2008, Lisa Page, "Mother Russia," review of Lady of the Snakes, p. 4.