Devotion

To Miriam Levine, “devotion” implies love and self-creation; to her mother’s generation, it meant martyrdom and self-denial. The domain of this memoir is the interval between those attitudes. Devotion is the expression of a sensibility that trusts the physical—a facet of women’s existence that is at once ennobling and primary, transcendent and spiritual. Affirming her deep connection to people, Levine draws from a rich expanse of memories, misgivings, epiphanies, and associations to tell of the adventures and dangers of her emergence as a woman writer.

Oliver's novel is an elegant, poetic, and deeply moving tribute to the Davis family and especially to the long-neglected women of that tragic clan. Anyone who loves the story of the South owes her a gesture of thanks.|Wow . . . An extraordinary, compelling tour de force—wise, hard-nosed, and not the least bejasmined or fraught with Confederate or Victorian nostalgia. In the circus this is called working without a net. Oliver gets things right by getting Winnie’s voice right, right from the beginning, and then getting all the rest.|By using a chorus of narrators, Oliver brings to life the sometimes dysfunctional Jefferson Davis family, especially his surprisingly modern daughter Winnie, peeling away their public images to reveal each personal story in this fascinating novel.|Oliver is at her best in creating a psychological portrait of the Davis family, traumatized by its drastic changes of fortune. . . . She certainly proves that Davis, whose life began too late and ended too early, was singularly qualified as the ambassador of a lost cause.|A fascinating examination of one of history's most interesting, yet little known figures.|The story brings the human element to each member of the [Jefferson] Davis family.|A sharp, endearing account of a woman who was well-educated and sensitive to the ironies of the Reconstruction era. . . . Oliver's sure hand is evident on every page of this slim, lyrical novel|Oliver delivers in this fascinating historical fiction account of Winnie Davis. . . . This sweeping tale of a star-crossed family is indeed one for the ages.

MIRIAM LEVINE is the author of four poetry collections, most recently The Dark Opens, winner of the 2007 Autumn House Poetry Prize. She is also the author of a novel, In Paterson, and A Guide to Writers' Homes in New England.