SOURCE: "Essays for Collecting and Dissecting," in Christian Science Monitor, Vol. 86, No. 232, October 25, 1994, p. 13.

In the following excerpt, Rubin praises Pollitt's ability to cut to the heart of issues in her collection of essays Reasonable Creatures.

…. Of a more consistent quality are the 19 timely pieces by poet and journalist Katha Pollitt in Reasonable Creatures: Essays on Women and Feminism.

They are, indeed, about women's issues, but Pollitt, a true descendent of large-visioned, feminists like Mary Wollstonecraft, effectively demonstrates why these issues are relevant to everyone.

These essays from The Nation, The New Yorker, and the New York Times were written in response to a variety of current events and news stories, from the "Baby M" surrogacy case to the William Kennedy Smith rape trial. They share a recurrent theme: Pollitt's belief that women should be treated like "reasonable creatures" (Wollstonecraft's phrase) with the freedom and responsibility to make...