Will I love On Lies, Secrets, and Silence?

These essays are the ultimate guide to human intimacy. If you believe, as I do, that the best way to find meaning in life is to establish connections with others, you must read this book.

Rich teaches us that we are all clumsy, needy, fearful communicators, and shows us how what we perceive as failings are actually the secret keys to opening up whole invisible worlds of understanding between each other. She understands the art of gentleness as well as anyone who has ever written.

When I was struggling with my sexual identity as a lesbian, and also beginning to understand how that was connected to feminist ideas, I discovered the writings of Adrienne Rich. Primarily a poet, this book revolutionized my thinking.

As Rich wrote about her own experience as a writer “When We Dead Awaken: Writing as Re-Vision,” and re-visited the poetry of Emily Dickinson showing her as a deeply closeted woman-loving woman, “Vesuvius at Home: The Power of Emily Dickinson,” and re-visioned what honor meant for a women as contrasted to what it meant for men “Women and Honor: Some Notes on… show more.