Literary non-fiction is the most self-indulgent of all styles of literature. Really, does anybody care about some writer's (lesbian) lovelife, vacations, or taste in art? Terry Castle redeems the inherent self-indulgence of the genre, but only just. She actually has interesting taste in music, drops literary references in a way that makes the reader feel more cultured, and the lesbian-ness of the bad relationships makes them a little more enjoyable. The wordcrafting is good, and occasionally sparkling, and what the hell, everybody like lesbians.

((I only mention lesbians, because that's about the frequency at which Terry Castle mentions her sexuality))

I really enjoyed these short writings of Terry Castle's. Well written and engaging.

A book of two halves: "The Professor" an intense, emotional memoir about a relationship between Terry Castle and a female professor, twenty years her senior, in the 1970s, and "And Other Writing", six articles about Castle's life and interests. These two halves don't gel well: "The Professor" could easily be a stand-alone piece, being well over 100 pages long, and its impact is complicated, rather than strengthened, by the other essays. At its best, Castle's writing is witty and understated, with a sense of emotional honesty. She also often uses long paragraphs and a stream-of-consciousness style, which makes the reader feel like they are being knocked on the head: sometimes this is effective, and sometimes it's off-putting. I enjoyed "The Professor" as a piece about a taboo relationship, and as a piece, similar to Dorothy Strachey's "Olivia", about a devastating crush on an older woman. In this case, the relationship is consummated, and the focus is not so much on the power imbalance as the Professor's instability, and how being in the closet has blinkered her. It's an interesting as lesbian history, but I also found the work as a whole to be very uneven, and that even "The Professor" was discursive and wandered into various places that didn't necessarily enhance or add to the central narrative. Worth reading, but only just.

Parts of this book work really well. I loved the mixture of literary criticism with the personal and was expecting the book to be more of a book about book-loving than it actually was, which is fine. I'm torn on her rambling prose...I sometimes like where it leads her and sometimes think she just uses it as a way to tell (terrible) jokes. It's weird how lowbrow her sense of humor is.

Would recommend: No

I finished this book a week and a half ago, but I couldn't bring myself to write a review because I hated it so much.

I absolutely loved this. Castle writes beautifully and her voice - self a deprecating, observant, intelligent yet with obvious affection for popular culture - is immensely appealing. There's a range of topics here, all interesting, but the main essay, which takes up half the book, provides a fascinating insight into 1970s feminism and US Campus life. Yet still manages to reference Little Britain.

As with any essay collection, there are highs and there are lows. The piece on Sontag, though, is masterful.

Have you ever started to read a book and realized that it brought you a bit out of your comfort zone and frankly, was a bit over your head? This was one of those for me. I stuck with it though and it provoked many thoughts, feelings, and useful tidbits.

Terry Castle was once described by Susan Sontag as "the most expressive, most enlightening literary critic at large today." She is the author of seven books of criticism, including The Apparitional Lesbian: Female Homosexuality and Modern Culture (1993) and Boss Ladies, Watch Out! Essays on Women and Sex (2002). Her anthology, The Literature of Lesbianism, won the Lambda Literary Editor's Choice Award in 2003. She lives in San Francisco and is Walter A. Haas Professor in the Humanities at Stanford University.

The Professor and Other Writings is a collection of autobiographical essays that while I found often entertaining, came off at times as incredibly pretentious to me. I get that she is a well-known literary critic, but her constantly using French words and her naivety at the times she is writing about, hardly made me want to respect her. Or even like her for that matter.

I mentioned the nuggets of wisdom & entertainment….

“I’ve come to believe more and more about both writing and music making: that in order to succeed at either you have to stop trying to disguise who you are. The veils and pretenses of everyday life won’t work; a certain minimum truth-to-self is required. “ (in the essay, My Heroin Christmas)

Simply said, be who you are or you are going to fail. A lot of us, even in blogland, try to emulate other successful people as opposed to being ourselves. It is tough work and you can’t keep it up.

The essay, Home Alone, was a hilarious introspective on why we are all obsessed with shelter magazines. Castle refers to is as “house porn” and it kind of is.

I wouldn’t recommend The Professor and Other Writings by Terry Castle unless you are way more cultured and cooler than I am.