SOURCE: "A Female Opinionmeister," in Belles Lettres, Vol. 10, No. 2, Spring, 1995, pp. 19, 26.

In the following review, Zenner, an editor at the University Press of Virginia, provides an overview of the topics addressed in Reasonable Creatures.

Not too long ago, Katha Pollitt devoted one of her semimonthly Nation columns to a somewhat rueful consideration of why women commentators are so seldom asked to provide analysis on nongender-specific topics. "Am I being too cynical in arguing that female opinionmeisters specialize in women's issues partly as cultural adaptation?" she wondered. I can only say, hooray for cultural adaptation if that is what it took to steer Pollitt into the roiling waters of feminist social criticism. We certainly need her.

Both for those already familiar with Pollitt's work and for those coming to it for the first time, Reasonable Creatures: Essays on Women and Feminism will confirm her standing as one of the...