Daring

July 14, 2014
An overlong memoir by the investigative journalist and prolific author Sheehy (Passages in Caregiving; Sex and the Seasoned Woman, etc.) tracks four decades of her astonishing ability to catch America’s swiftly changing moods, from undercover operations in gynecology for the New York’s Herald Tribune and prostitution for New York magazine, to books on “pop psychology” and caregiving. She attended college (the first of the women in her Westchester family to do so) in the late 1950s , married early, and worked to put her husband through medical school. Sheehy had drive and chutzpah, asking her first boss—Mr. James Cash Penney of Manhattan’s JC Penney—if he paid the “girls the same as boys.” The gritty, testosterone-fueled world of journalism attracted her, and as a single mother of a young daughter, she moved from the women’s page of the Trib to Clay Felker’s brand-new New York magazine by the late 1960s, making her name swiftly within the ranks of the New Journalists (which included talents like Tom Wolfe, Gay Talese, and Joan Didion) with a piece about Bobby Kennedy shortly after his assassination. Romancing the boss turned into a long, tumultuous relationship that eventually led to marriage. Sheehy and Felker became a New York power couple, hosting Henry Kissinger and David Frost for a memorable dinner over Peking duck in 1972, and later weathering the takeover of New York by Rupert Murdoch in 1976. Passages made Sheehy a wildly popular and bestselling author, followed by her groundbreaking work on menopause, The Silent Passage. Sheehy’s ponderous chronicle dwells on her uneven relationship with the ambitious, larger-than-life Felker, whom she nurtured through his death in 2008. There is so much spectacle in terms of a cultural record that the reader loses sight of Sheehy as the focus and heroine of her own life.

September 15, 2014

Sheehy's newest title alludes to her series of best-selling psychology books (Passages; Passages in Caregiving), however, as a memoir, it departs from the others by recalling some of the major turning points of the author's life. An award-winning journalist and pioneer of the New Journalism school of reportage, Sheehy catalogs many fascinating moments from her long career, including interviews with Bobby Kennedy, a brush with death on Ireland's "Bloody Sunday," and an undercover investigation of New York City's prostitution ring during the early 1970s. Perhaps because Sheehy is such a reporter at heart, she struggles with the memoir form. There is plenty of "remembered self" (i.e., a detailed, chronological record of her life) but a surprising lack of "remembering self," or interplay between the two, that would craft this record into a forceful, narrative-driven story. More reflective moments, too, are often burdened with self-justification when self-revelation is needed. VERDICT Sheehy gives readers a distinct glimpse into some of the most important events of the last 40 years, and, for many, this will be enough reason to read on. Her perspective on the women's movement and the decline of print journalism is especially compelling. [See Prepub Alert, 3/3/14.]--Meagan Lacy, Guttman Community Coll., CUNY

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2014
A journalist recounts her risks, fears and triumphs. Author of 16 books, Vanity Fair contributing editor Sheehy (Passages in Caregiving, 2010, etc.) has made a career out of examining life stages. Passages (1976) stayed on the New York Times' best-seller list for three years, followed by Silent Passage (1993), New Passages (1995) and Understanding Men's Passages (1999). Passages in Caregiving was motivated by the last illness of her husband, publisher Clay Felker; now, she reflects on her own transitions in a brisk, gossipy narrative complete with handsome hero (Felker), villain (Rupert Murdoch), nail-biting adventures (Bloody Sunday, for one), scores of celebrities (including interview subjects Hillary Clinton, Margaret Thatcher, Bobby Kennedy and Anwar Sadat) and famous friends (Gloria Steinem, Tom Wolfe and David Frost). Like Wolfe, Sheehy is a practitioner of New Journalism. "We treated the protagonists of nonfiction stories like characters in a novel," writes Sheehy. "What was their motivation?...What was it like living inside their reality?" The author reprises her own reality in three parts: the Pygmalion Years, when she was a young, ambitious journalist trying to establish her reputation and overcome editors' prejudices about women writers, whom they commonly assigned to stories about food and style; the Passages Years, when she was a star writer for, among many other venues, Felker's New York magazine, Helen Gurley Brown's Cosmopolitan and Tina Brown's Vanity Fair; and the Bonus Years, focused on Felker's cancer and Sheehy's gradual recovery from alcohol abuse and depression following his death. After Passages, Sheehy felt she had to "justify" that success with "an academic-level study." The result was Pathfinders (1981), about people who risked "choosing the less-traveled path." Raising a daughter on her own, adopting a Cambodian girl after visiting a refugee camp and helping to found the Women's Refugee Commission to advocate for survivors of genocide are among many reasons-aside from her career choices-why Sheehy, too, is one of those audacious pathfinders. Daring, the author amply shows in this spirited life story, defines her.

COPYRIGHT(2014) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from August 1, 2014
She is an icon of American journalism, a groundbreaking pioneer for women in media. Her interviews with the twentieth-century's most enigmatic and charismatic world leaders, from Mikhail Gorbachev to Anwar Sadat, Margaret Thatcher to Hillary Clinton, set the standard for biographical character studies that became the bedrock of what is now known as the new journalism. But it was her surprise 1983 best-seller, Passages, that put Sheehy on the map. A deeply reflective and exhaustively researched critical analysis of the commonalities both genders experience at different stages in life, Passages would be named one of the 10 most influential books of our times by the Library of Congress. It was a trope that would serve Sheehy well through countless other examinations of life's challenges, from menopause to caregiving for the terminally ill, based on her own experiences. Approaching 80, Sheehy now looks back on her personal passages from dutiful daughter to renegade writer, from single parent to liberated woman, to wife of publishing icon Clay Felker and mother of an adopted Cambodian refugee. Ardent, approachable, forthright, and empathetic, Sheehy's memoir of a life lived in the center of her time's most defining moments beside its most influential characters is a riveting account of one woman's exhilarating trajectory, a page-turning, powerhouse testament to resilience, perseverance, and hope.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: A national media campaign and 25-city satellite tour will ensure the highest attention for the latest work by renowned journalist and author Sheehy.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)