One of the pleasures of being a writer is that you can explore anything, Karen Chase writes in History is Embarrassing, and thats exactly what she does in this vibrant and wide-ranging collection of essays. Her subjects include her experience as a childhood polio victim and her resulting fascination with Franklin Roosevelt; her imaginative journey into the lives, hearts, and voices of two homosexual lovers in 16th century India; a rollicking road trip across the country with her grown son; her baptism and immersion into the world of guns; and her hair-raising investigation into a bear-poaching ring. What binds them all together is her distinct voice, the startling directness, immediacy, and intensity of her writing, and her fearlessness to go wherever her interests and imagination take her. History may be embarrassing, as her title attests, but Chase is not afraid of being embarrassed, or, for that matter, of spending time alone with a slightly menacing man and his arsenal of weapons, if it might lead to the discovery of something she doesnt know. Yet there are no easy conclusions or phony epiphanies here, no designs on the reader, but instead many surprises, and an openness that clears the air for unexpected forces to breathe. Chase prizes authenticity and has it in spades. Believe me, youve never read essays quite like these. They will make you feel 'like a hunter walking deep into the forest of knowledge to find god knows what.'Enjoy!" * Jeffrey Harrison, author of "Between Lakes" *
In the early 50s, during the polio epidemic, I worked as a physical therapist. I saw firsthand the crushing suffering children and their families endured. I also saw their bravery and love for each other. Karens memoir is a truly remarkable piece of history. * Olympia Dukakis *
Karen Chase has put together an absolutely fascinating edition of the log describing Franklin Roosevelts winter cruises along the Florida coast in 1924-26. Wonderfully illustrated and edited, this is a book that will appeal to historians, FDR aficionados, Floridians, fishermen, and boaters of all kinds. Highly recommended. * Nathaniel Philbrick, author of "In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex" *
Lyric and eros armed with a tattered shield of humor Karen Chase is present in her life and our times. * Andrei Codrescu, author of "No Time Like Now" *
Karen Chases poems modulate from the humorous to the erotic and then to the elegiac. All is held together by her skill and intensity. No line sleeps in these poems in which moments of real experience are isolated and made incandescent.
* Billy Collins, U.S. Poet Laureate, 2001-2003 *
"In her preface, Chase quotes Didion about the emphasis on the I I I of personal essays. 'It shows how self-centered a person can be,' says Chase. Her reference to Didion affirms that in showing 'how this particular person moved forward at this particular time on earth,' Chase recalls an eccentric and particular America in which she has lived. She has tuned her hearing to the sound of the decades that formed her. Perhaps, like Didion, no one else has heard the pitch quite like she has." -- Jayne Benjulian * The Berkshire Edge *
