Heartbreak

Heartbreak Synopsis

'This final, short book, is the unfolding development of a life and a mind. It reminds us that she was never primarily a political activist, but a writer and, to herself, a scholar ... Since she died last year, a victim of her enormous size, I have come to think that Andrea Dworkin was more important than I thought at the time. Linda Grant, The Jewish Quarterly

'Heartbreak confirms that every bolshy, out-spoken freedom fighter who is the anti-type of standard Western glamour, fast becomes a scapegoat for the hatred of unpopular and hard-to-sell ideas; such as feminism.' The Crack Magazine

'... explosive ... uncompromising courage ... you could not get a voice more intensely alive - in its analysis of inequities which bind and divide women across race and class, its incisive accounts of oppression and the costs of resistance, its eloquent love of creativity, and its take-no-prisoners truth-telling.' Times Literary Supplement

Heartbreak is not the memoir of a victim. Dworkin's tone is dry and humorous. Her personality is warm and likeable and, shockingly, she has a wicked sense of humour. If Dworkin had not come into prominence, first as a victim of rape and later as a campaigner against it, she might even be taking her place alongside Fay Weldon and Margaret Atwood. The Times

'pleasingly bathetic - her persecutors are finally reduced to their proper size.' Charlotte Raven, New Statesman

Always innovative, often provocative, and frequently polarizing, Andrea Dworkin carved out a unique position as one of the women's movement's most influential figures, from the early days of consciousness-raising to the "post-feminist" present. She wrote thirteen books, ranging across feminist theory, fiction and poetry. Andrea Dworkin died in April 2005.