“The In-Between Woman” by Cathleen Schine, a review of “Learning to Drive: And Other Life Stories,” by Katha Pollitt

In the NY Review of Books. The review is an interesting read, and I learned of it via the terrific Nancy McClernan, who astutely writes:

… I’m a long-time fan of Pollitt but one thing that tends to annoy me about Pollitt is that her views are shaped by her upper middle class upbringing. She’s lived a bit of a sheltered life which is a primary reason why she didn’t learn to drive until she was 52. She learned to drive because she bought a house on the Connecticut shore. I learned to drive because public transportation in South Jersey is a joke and I needed to drive myself to a series of crappy low-paying jobs in third-hand junkers – one of those jobs was driving instructor.

Not to pick on Pollitt – inevitably the people who make a living as writers come from comfortable backgrounds. Because the decision-makers come from that class, and as with any career, it’s who you know.

But at least, as a liberal, Pollitt doesn’t let her own good fortune blind her to the harsh realities of the poor – one of the major differences between well-off liberals and well-off conservatives. …

–Ann Bartow