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Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: Based on the reviews of Lincoln and others, I had high expectations for this text. Specifically, I'd hoped that the text would prove useful in terms of my research into the construction of self through personal narrative. I was sorely disappointed. The text is virtually atheoretical, does not provide much in the way of explorations of past and present paradigms for narrative inquiry (though paradigms in education are discussed ad nauseum), says little about the interpretation of texts, and neglects current thought on narrative from the disciplines of cultural studies, anthropology, semiotics, and sociology. A perfunctory glance at the references section reveals egregious omissions. For those interested in exploring the intersections of (auto) biography, self, culture, and narrative forms, I would suggest Riessman's 1993 text Narrative Analysis, Dezin's Interpretive Biography, or Reed-Danahay's collection Auto/Ethnography. These are more accessible, lucid, and instructive.
Rating: 
Summary: limited
Review: I turned to this book hoping to find help in theorizing the biographical narrative I use as an education researcher. In an attempt to establish their research stance as viable, the authors attack both quantitative and formalist (e.g., deconstruction and post-stucturalist) positions. To do this, they take what is in reality a wide array of theorists and tools and lump them together, making huge generalizations and managing to misrepresent these other traditions in dramatic ways. My goal in writing this is not to defend these other positions, but to suggest that when we try to establish our own validity through straw men, we most often end up weakening our own position. Unless we are going to assume that our colleagues are stupid or evil for taking research and epistemological stances different than our own, it seems more realistic and useful to assume that we have room for a wide variety of tools and that a given tool will work well in some situations and more poorly in others. In the wake of the real threats posed to progressive practice and qualitative research from the National Reading Panel and No Child Left Behind, I find myself now seeking allies among quantitative researchers and I am better served trying to understand how we can work together. This book would have been more useful if the authors had spent more time defining and redefining their own position and less time attacking others. As it is, it is undertheorized and overwrought.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent -- The Answer to Many of my Research Dilemmas
Review: I was in the midst of struggling through my thesis process when I picked up this book on Narrative Inquiry. It was such a relief to find that some one had so clearly articulated dimensions of the process that I hadn't had the good fortune to find elsewhere. The writing is very clear, accessible and incisive. The concepts put forward: the 3-dimensional inquiry space, the role of temporality and memory -- these are all extremely helpful and I found directly applicable to my own research. This book really provided me with a road map out of thesis despair -- I recommend it!
Rating:
Summary: Illuminations on Reflections
Review: I wish this text was out when I was writing my dissertation. The authors provide meaningful ways to study, interpret, and present narrative research. The writing is completely clear and always reflective. This is a book about how to study experience based on the authors' own experiences in the field. A wonderful and necessary text for any qualitative researcher interested in using personal documents.
Rating:
Summary: Illuminations on Reflections
Review: I wish this text was out when I was writing my dissertation. The authors provide meaningful ways to study, interpret, and present narrative research. The writing is completely clear and always reflective. This is a book about how to study experience based on the authors' own experiences in the field. A wonderful and necessary text for any qualitative researcher interested in using personal documents.
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