The Tea Ceremony: The Uncollected Writings

By Gina Berriault

Book Overview

Compiled by Gina Berriault's daughter and by her long-time companion, Leonard Gardner, this collection opens with five stories, including, "The Figure Skater," the last story published before she died in 1999. Also here is the first section of the novel she left unfinished and her brilliant acceptance speech for the Commonwealth Club of California's Gold Medal for Literature.

As reclusive as she was meticulous, Gina Berriault did not suffer fools and sat for only a handful of interviews. She was acutely aware of nuance and tended to write and rewrite not only the answers but also the questions, making the interview printed here is as finished and beautiful as any of her writing.

Here, too, are her essays for Rolling Stone, Hungry Mind, and Esquire on subjects as diverse as the first topless dancers in San Francisco's North Beach to the last execution by firing squad. As a whole this collection becomes her credo on American culture, politics and the written word.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1593760043
• ISBN13: 9781593760045
• Release Date: September 2003
• Publisher: Counterpoint LLC
• Length: 800 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.8" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Last collection of a truly great writer

Not the place to start if your new to Berriault (if you're new, try "Women In Their Beds" or "Afterwards").Berriault is one of the finest American writers of the last 50 years, despite the fact that her work is not well known. Perhaps no one writes better about the inner lives of women. And her sentences are always superb--lyrically honed, filled with insight.This collection is what you get after you've read everything else and there are some nice gems here too (some nice journalism, a very thoughtful interview, some uncollected stories). Go get your hands one aforementioned books!