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Rating: 
Summary: Her Own Best Informant
Review: Esther Newton is an extremely gifted thinker and writer. She points up important issues for gender studies in a clear and compelling, and still quite groundbreaking, style. This book works very diligently and successfully at several levels: as a historical narrative of the trajectory of Newton's life and career; as a theoretical discourse which is situated specifically by her historical narrative; as a critique of and a profound contribution to her profession, anthropology; as a powerful argument for the inevitable relationship between theory and history; as a courageous and provocative piece of scholarship. Many of these essays were written early in the second wave of feminism, so the issues they engage point up the degree to which Newton has been ahead of her time. That she narrativizes the essays as the historical life of an academic (herself) attests to the fact that she is still ahead of her time: everything-- political, academic, social, sexual--is lived. There are no categories which happen outside of the people who make them. Because of Newton's autobiographical, comfortable style, it should be noted that the book, although clearly academic, is a fairly easy read.
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