SOURCE: Simon, Linda. “Biography beyond Gender.” Christian Science Monitor 81, no. 53 (10 February 1989): 13.

In the following review, Simon derides the lack of sympathy for men as well as the narrow focus of Heilbrun's thesis in Writing a Woman's Life.

In her latest book, Writing a Woman's Life, feminist scholar Carolyn Heilbrun asserts that in telling the story of a woman's life, whether in autobiography or biography, that story must be shaped to fit a male narrative—a linear progression of experiences ending in worldly success. There are only a few narratives available to women—the marriage narrative, for example—and except for these, women are bereft of a story.

Like many other feminist critics, Heilbrun draws on a small population of women to support her views. Sylvia Plath, for one, and Virginia Woolf, Colette, and George Sand. Eudora Welty annoys Heilbrun because she is too sentimental and nostalgic. “I do...