How I Became Hettie Jones

Rating:
Summary: This book has it all.
Review:

This book has it all. It's half novel, half history lesson, half
feminist screed, and half bittersweet love story. And somehow it all
works.


In my first novel I wrote, "Behind every great man is a good woman he
steals all of his ideas from". But in this case the man had his own
great ideas, and the woman proved later with this book that she is the
equal to the great man.


love, Michael W. Dean

Rating:
Summary: couldn't put it down
Review: Great books - stayed up until 3 am to finish. paid the price this morning but it was worth it.

Rating:
Summary: couldn't put it down
Review: Great books - stayed up until 3 am to finish. paid the price this morning but it was worth it.

Rating:
Summary: not just another beat memoir
Review: hettie jones' well-written book is more than just another account of life in what was then the "new bohemia." the parties, the readings, the hand-to-mouth existence are all there, but hettie jones focuses on the every day events and ordinary moments that ultimately define a life and make it real. through one woman's story, we get equal glimpses into women's lives, their unique struggles even within the "free" subculture of the bohemians, the beat scene, and relations between the races. i originally picked up this book because of my interest in the beat generation and growing interest in the role of the women in this movement, but it is so much more. hettie jones uses seemingly ordinary events and through them draws a clear picture of time, place, emotion, and attitude. throughout it all, she manages to be both unbiased and sympathetic, neither overly critical of herself or others nor excessively self-important about being at the center of a cultural revolution. she brings what has become an idolized and mythological movement down to its true base element: people. hettie jones writes about their lives and conflicts and communications and misunderstandings, removing their status as demi-gods or jobless hedonists (depending on if you are a fan or critic) and revealing accessible, real individuals with real lives who just happened to be looking for a little bit more than the accepted american ideals.

this book belongs equally in the womens' studies, beat literature, and race relations sections of any bookstore or library.

Rating:
Summary: Poignant, but ultimately mundane
Review: Hettie Jones' work is an important contribution to the Beat era. The Beats were avant-garde in many ways, but they remained entrenched in sexism. Sexual liberation is here frought with masculine privilege, as is drug-taking and the creation of art--men get to create, while the mothers cook, clean, and change diapers.

However, I found the book a bit dull and unreflective. Jones seems not to have been very excited by the Beat scene or the people whom she knew. Nor does she emote a real feminist consciousness. Instead, she seems to sense that something was wrong, and hope that things will change.

Rating:
Summary: Poignant, but ultimately mundane
Review: Hettie Jones' work is an important contribution to the Beat era. The Beats were avant-garde in many ways, but they remained entrenched in sexism. Sexual liberation is here frought with masculine privilege, as is drug-taking and the creation of art--men get to create, while the mothers cook, clean, and change diapers.

However, I found the book a bit dull and unreflective. Jones seems not to have been very excited by the Beat scene or the people whom she knew. Nor does she emote a real feminist consciousness. Instead, she seems to sense that something was wrong, and hope that things will change.

Rating:
Summary: I love Hettie!
Review: I had the honor of taking both a poetry and personal essay class taught by Hettie Jones, and all I have to say, is she is just about the coolest lady I know, and since I met her before reading this memoir, it was absolutely amazing to think of all she has been through, she is wonderful and this book reflects just that.

Rating:
Summary: Hipsters knew monotony too
Review: This book is about the hardships, make do's, and sacrifices made in the name of "La Vie Boheme." Mrs. Hettie Jones is a frank and lovely writer, who offers an account of her life with the poet and playwright LeRoi Jones. She could have filled the pages with stories upon stories of her life on the Lower East Side during what would later be know as the Beat movement. But instead, uses the music and art around her like spices to deepen the flavor of her life, as she offers it to us, at that time-frankly. A time when women were just beginning to have choices of what they wanted to BE, Hettie Jones tells us how she reconciled these choices with the responsibility of family. Her love for whom is present throughout.

Rating:
Summary: Insightful, beautifully written, undbitter memoir
Review: This is the kind of book that makes the reader despair of writing! Not only does she have more interesting experiences to write about than most people (she shows beyond any reasonable doubt that the price she paid earned them), but she does it so well! With dignity, she recalls how she coped with women throwing themselves at her unresisting husband as he became better known, and being left for being white (though not divorced by her in-laws)e. She is clear but unbitter about the costs of nurturing a man's career and subordinating her own work to that and the unreasonable expectations to be mother, muse, sextoy, and an independent voice all at the same time.