Book, Sharp: The women who made opinion an art[LS]

Genius women, like Sontag, Didion and Arendt, transformed the panorama of their time and made their opinions a new chapter of letters, influencing authors and shaping our cultural scene to this day. The brilliant women who are the focus of Sharp came from different backgrounds and had divergent political and artistic views. But they all made a significant contribution to the cultural and intellectual history of the United States and ultimately shaped the course of the 20th century, despite the men who often underestimated them or dismissed their work. These women – Dorothy Parker, Rebecca West, Hannah Arendt, Mary McCarthy, Susan Sontag, Pauline Kael, Joan Didion, Nora Ephron, Renata Adler and Janet Malcolm – are united by precision of thought and wit. Sharp is a vibrant representation of the intellectual world of 20th-century New York, where gossip-filled parties echoed in the pages of the Partisan Review or the New York Review of Books. Blending biography, literary criticism, and cultural history, Sharp is a celebration of these extraordinary women, as well as a compelling introduction to their works.