SOURCE: “World Beat,” in Village Voice, Vol. 38, No. 7, February 16, 1993, p. 65.

In the following mixed assessment of The Astonishing World, Baker maintains that the collection reflects “a thoroughly savvy contemporary woman with a gift for informed enthusiasm and occasional necessary malice.”

Barbara Grizzuti Harrison, one of the best essayists around, first came to wide attention with Italian Days three years ago. Though she had been writing frequently, and increasingly well, for a dozen years before that, the luminous prose and freshness of vision in her Italian book seemed to take everyone by surprise. No surprise this time, however, to find that her new collection [The Astonishing World]—essays, profiles, a few slender short stories—continues to reflect a thoroughly savvy contemporary woman with a gift for informed enthusiasm and occasional necessary malice.

The first bubbles to the surface of an extraordinary interview she conducted over several days with Mario...