In the Saturday Essay, Gila Lyons laments Asif Kapadia’s portrayal of Amy Winehouse in the documentary, Amy, and contrasts the film with the recent biopic of Kurt Cobain. The gender-based double standard is alive and well here. Women are still being objectified and martyred by the media. “The film eschews Amy the artist for Amy the addict,” Lyons writes, “and that’s a show we’ve already seen.”
Next, Julie Marie Wade reviews Shipbreaking. Robin Beth Schaer’s poetry collection makes insightful use of sensory imagery and vibrant verbs to navigate the themes of breaking and falling. “Some poets play the spoons,” Wade argues, “but Schaer plays the knives. Her words are not so much written as carved, her lines not so much offerings as incisions.”
Finally, in the Sunday Interview, Gina Frangello talks to author Mark Haskell Smith about his latest nonfiction book exploring the world of nudists and nudist colonies. Smith shares a few of his realizations from writing of Naked at Lunch: A Reluctant Nudist’s Adventures in the Clothing-Optional World, including the age discrepancy between the clothed and non-clothed, body image, differences in norms among nations, and the “Puritanical idea of shame…”
