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From the New York Times bestselling author of Let's Take the Long Way Home comes a moving memoir about how the women's movement revolutionized and saved her life, from the 1960s to the #MeToo era.
In a voice as candid as it is evocative, Gail Caldwell traces a path from her west Texas girlhood through her emergence as a young daredevil, then as a feminist—a journey that reflected seismic shifts in the culture itself. Caldwell's travels took her to California and Mexico and dark country roads, and the dangers she encountered were rivaled only by the personal demons she faced. Bright Precious Thing is the captivating story of a woman's odyssey, her search for adventure giving way to something more profound: the evolution of a writer and a woman, a struggle to embrace one's life as a precious thing.
Told against a contrasting backdrop of the present day, including the author's friendship with a young neighborhood girl, Bright Precious Thing unfolds with the same heart and narrative grace of Caldwell's Let's Take the Long Way Home, called "a lovely gift to readers" by the Washington Post. Bright Precious Thing is a book about finding, then protecting, what we cherish most.
"A glistening reflection on how the women's movement profoundly influenced the Pulitzer Prize winner's life...Caldwell's fourth memoir sings. It's a song for the ages, but it sounds especially resonant in the #MeToo era." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"[E]mpowering...Caldwell celebrates female resilience and basks in her love of her pet Samoyeds. This pleasant if slight entry works best as a companion to Caldwell's previous memoirs." - Publishers Weekly
"Caldwell presents an affecting, realistic argument for friendships and personal connections, particularly the enduring ones, which help us face what the author calls the 'mirage' at the end of our lives." - Library Journal
This information about Bright Precious Thing was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
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Gail Caldwell is the former chief book critic for the Boston Globe, where she was a staff writer and critic for more than twenty years. In 2001, she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
She has written three memoirs, A Strong West Wind, Let's Take the Long Way Home, and New Life, No Instructions.
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