Working With Available Light: A Family's World After Violence

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Ostensibly, Jamie Kalven's Working with Available Light focuses on a single, life-altering event, but it's primarily about a marriage. While running along Chicago's lakefront area near their home in Hyde Park, Kalven's wife, Patsy, was brutally beaten and sexually assaulted. Apart from the physical damage, which proved fleeting, the attack caused a lingering, often paralyzing sense of fear not only in Patsy but Kalven and their two young children, as well. This memoir covers the five years following the incident and the family's efforts to deal with--and, if possible, learn from--the trauma. The fact that this survivor's tale is written from the perspective of a loved one rather than the victim makes it a particularly interesting story. The experience forces Kalven to confront his own complex feelings of guilt, anger, and loss, as well as to analyze his entire relationship with Patsy. Admirably, Kalven acknowledges that his attempts to comprehend fully his wife's experience will invariably fall short.

Working with Available Light is written in careful, elegant, and often poetic prose. It is also unflinchingly honest--almost to a fault. In sorting out his emotions on the page, Kalven exposes nearly every conceivable intimate aspect of their married life, and the effect of such a thorough cleansing is both tender and chilling. "Some experiences can't be absorbed all at once; you must spend your life working to make them yours," he writes. This book is only part of that process.

Book Description

A courageous, compelling, resonant account of how one woman and her family responded to an act intended to destroy her. On a golden autumn afternoon, photographer Patricia Evans, out for a run on Chicago's lakefront, was attacked by a man who severely beat and sexually assaulted her. Evans's husband, Jamie Kalven, has written the story of a family shipwrecked in the midst of everyday life, each struggling in his or her own way to make sense of the violence that has entered their lives. It covers a period of five years, during which Evans remaps the world in light of the terrible knowledge inflicted on her, and regains her place in it. Evans's honesty and refusal to embrace easy answers create the space in which the story unfolds, and Kalven bears witness to her experience not by presuming to understand but by deepening his questions. The narrative evokes a richly textured world of family, friends, and neighbors; it takes in the sweetness of everyday life as well as the desolation of grief, the play of light upon the world as well as the enveloping darkness of terror. A profound inquiry into the effects of violence and a singular love story, this startling book again and again rewards the reader with fresh, unexpected perceptions.

Customer Reviews:

An interesting perspective on rape.......2006-07-01

The author of this book writes about his wife - her experience of rape and survival, and his love for her. He admits that he can't know what she has gone through. He is a journalist, and he is striving to report with honesty and integrity.

I do disagree with the reader who implied that he exploited his wife. He speaks often of her integrity. He says that she holds strong to her separateness. She wouldn't allow the book to be written if she did not wish it. They were complicit in the telling of her story. I did find at times that I wanted her to be the author of the book, not him, because this is her story.

I also disagree with the reader who accused him of name dropping. Instead, I see it as a willingness to be open about who he is. He writes about people being defined by their relationships and connections with others. He writes, on page 256:

". . . tortureres routinely assault their victims by way of their relations.... Every human connection supporting civilized life is ravaged."

Elsewhere he writes: "My mind keeps circling back to Alan's words: 'Our identities are composed of our relations with others.' " He also writes: "I was aware of myself as being uninjured by violence and, at the same time, impaired, as if I lacked a sense they both possessed. There is a word for this mix of robustness and obliviousness: privilege. Not the privilege of gender, race, or class (though not altogether unrelated either.)...'the privilege of ordinary heartbreaks.' " His candid descriptions of his friendships help tell the story of who he is, and who his wife is. It shows how even a woman from a privileged family can suffer, and even a man with contacts and privilege cannot make it better.

There were times when I was unsure whether the book was about the author or his wife. I do not think this makes the book less valuable, when a woman is raped, her husband and male family members also suffer. Speaking of male family members, while the daughter in the family is mentioned often, the son is given less time in the story. That leaves me wondering. How did this influence the son, and the formation of his values? I missed that part.

As someone else said, this is a good book, but not the only one. Anyone interested in this subject matter would benefit from also reading other works.

the line between light and dark.......1999-09-15

This book has much to recommend it. And much that leaves me, ultimately, wondering. At times I feel the image of being assaulted from behind is an apt metaphor for the book itself. I have this sense of the author running to catch up with his wife, overtaking her and finally discarding her -- as if her body were simply a vessel to provide him access to an experience otherwise unavailable to him. What I don't know is: Does this say something about him personally? About the ruthlessness of the writing process? About being human? I don't know. But something leaves me uneasy.

He takes liberties with her experience (not just the assault, but other aspects of her life and personhood) that take my breath away. It's as if he's unclear where she ends and he begins -- as if that line doesn't really matter, is subservient to this book, the act of writing, his own sense of the world.

But in spite of this limitation (and to me, it is a limitation), Kalven has much of insight to say. And maybe, ultimately, he and Patsy have carved out a marriage that works for them. After the assault, she turned to him to recount everything she was feeling, every change in her personal barometer, every shift in the weather. And he took it all in. Maybe the invasiveness of this book is the cost of that kind of attentiveness.

Life's a mystery. And Kalven, insufferable at times, mostly recounts it beautifully.

Recommend to advocates for crime victims.......1999-08-05

The earlier posted reviews from readers and media sources do a good job of summarizing most of the strengths and weaknesses of this book. I want to add another perspective. As a sexual assault victim advocate, prevention educator and survivor, I have been recommending this book widely. Working With Available Light, and Telling by Particia Weaver Franciso, help all of us understand more clearly the years and years long impact of any crime, and particularly of sexual assault. The criminal in this book did commit sexual assault under the laws that apply in most states (despite some confusion on the part of some reviewers.). Sexual assault affects almost every aspect of one's life for many years to come, and yet the sexual assault and reactions to it happen in a larger context of relationships, interests and activities. The impact ebbs and flows and evolves with time. Sexual assault also affects every member of the survivor's family and community. This book provides a new view of that context and the long term effect. Survivors, family and friends, counselors, victim advocates, law enforcement, prosecutors, judges, medical workers should all find this book both affirming and enlightening. Kalven does write from a position of great social privilege. Other feminists may wince, as I did, at some of his comments. This book speaks of stranger rape of a woman over the age of 25. The vast majority of sexual assault happens to people under 25 and the perpetrators are known to the victim. The amount of community support for victims of stranger rape is generally greater than for those who survive acquaintance rape -- and this book illustrates the kind of support I wish every rape victim could receive but rarely does. Working With Available Light is not the "one and only best book anyone should read on rape" but I am very glad this book is available. It now holds a key place on my own suggested reading list for those who work against sexual assault.

A Rape in the Neighborhood.......1999-05-30

This is an important book as well as a good book. It is a part of the movement away from thinking of rape as a kind of dishonor and towards thinking of it as a kind of physical and social torture that one can speak of and fight against.

I should note that I am not an objective reviewer. I am a lifelong friend of the author, Jamie Kalven. I have known Patsy Evans, Jamie's wife and the book's hero, for about as long as he has. I am briefly mentioned by name in the narrative. I haven't even finished the whole book yet, because I find it too upsetting.

What Jamie and Patsy are trying to teach us, in part, in Working with Available Light, is something that the people running Serbia already know. Rape is a very effective way to pull people apart from their communities.

Patsy, Jamie and I live in Hyde Park, a neighborhood within Chicago and a sort of character in the book. Everyone here seems to connect with everyone else in at least three or four ways. Typically, I know X because I took her class and I garden near her, and I went to high school with her and she's related to Y and a friend of Z. When Patsy was raped, all those connections stretched and frayed, in addition to the ties with her husband and children. I wouldn't have understood this, but for the book.

Patsy had the courage to rewrite the story that our culture had prepared for her--the one in which she is a devalued victim who either never or only speaks of the rape. In that story, she is soiled goods. She drops out of relationships in her community, because she is not who she was when she formed them. So does Jamie, because the story makes him a shamed and injured party who has suffered a type of irreversible property damage.

We see ourselves as too sophisticated to think this way now. We remind ourselves that we don't live in Kosovo. Working with Available Light is a book about how hard it is to rewrite the old story of a rape, even in a sophisticated American community.

Truisms are true. We can't change how we think collectively unless people have the courage to speak out specifically. My friends Jamie and Patsy are intensely private people who have decided that sexual violence is not a private matter. They want to tell you their story. They want to make some room for others to speak.

Very-well written but both pompous and invasive.......1999-05-27

There are many parts of Working with Available Light, by Jamie Kalven, that I found difficult to handle. The central subject matter of rape was not the most disturbing. The issue that I found most troubling was the use of first and last names with academic vitae included for most of the characters. A kind of name-dropping that I found both pompous and invasive. This kind of invasive pomp is especially questionable as it regards his telling of his wife's story.

Kalven makes various nods though out the book to the fact that he is a man and thus somehow implicated in heterosexual power structures, that maybe his telling of this story is invasive rather than healing, that he doesn't know from any personal experience what it is like to be oppressed by his gender, class or racial status. He quite blithely tells his tale from a position of extreme privilege and names his privileged relationships throughout the book to somehow legitimize his speaking for the voiceless/speechless ones.

For me, this book would have benefited greatly from a changing of names and details so that the admittedly well-written narrative would have had to stand on its own rather than being propped on the prestige of its characters. It truly is too much like day-time talk shows, something else to which Kalven nods his head.

The ending is also extremely questionable.

Book Description

Authoritative British editions of the 14 Variations, rich with melody and vibrant rhythms, each revealing a facet of a central theme never fully expressed and each depicting an unnamed friend of the composer. Also includes 4 of the 5 stirring "Pomp and Circumstance" Marches.

Customer Reviews:

Good deal.......2007-07-27

This edition of Elgar's Enigma Variations is a very high quality print with a reasonable price. Both for study or performance purposes it is a choice to everyones personal library.

Great Score - But Incomplete.......2005-04-04

Two of the most popular works by Sir Edward Elgar(1857-1934) are
the "Enigma Variations" (a theme followed by 14 variations -
1-12 being musical sketches of his friends, the 13th for his wife
with the final variation depicting the composer himself) and
the 5 "Pomp And Circumstance" marches.

I feel that Dover presents these works(in full score)in a way that is very clearly read and well presented.

The only problem I have with this compilation of Elgar's works has to do with the omission of Pomp And Circumstance March No. 5 (in C Major). Where is it? No. 5's liveliness is sorely missing from this group of 5 marches that Elgar wrote for many
various occasions (not just for graduations).

Regardless, I highly recommend buying this score collection.Enjoy the rich orchestration that Elgar uses in his various works
You'll see why Elgar is described as the Englishman who was credited as being one of the last true Romantic composers.

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Suspenseful Cultural Anthropology - A New Genre
An unexpected pleasure

Enigma Variations
Richard Price , and Sally Price
Manufacturer: Harvard University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 067425726X

Book Description

Noted writers on art, culture, and the tropical Americas, Richard and Sally Price have crafted a mystery at the intersections of art and anthropology. Drawing readers into their quest for a solution, they build an unusual partnership between text and pictures, daringly expanding the possibilities of academic discourse. Enigma Variations--in the tradition of The Recognitions and The Crying of Lot 49--is an entertainment as readable for its intellectual power as for its irresistible drama.

Customer Reviews:

Suspenseful Cultural Anthropology - A New Genre.......2004-07-29

I had to continually remind myself that this remarkable story was indeed fiction and not a scholarly account of a factual occurrence. I had actually purchased this book believing it to be a descriptive work of field anthropology. Enigma Variations was published by Harvard University Press, the authors acknowledged their fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities, every page is illustrated with scanned images of Saramakan art objects, and the footnotes referenced genuine scholarly publications. I did not immediately realize that this fascinating story was actually a rare blend of cultural anthropology and suspenseful fiction.

Richard Price and Sally Price have individually and jointly published scholarly works with titles like Stedman's Surinam: Life in an Eighteenth Century Slave Society, The Guiana Maroons, Primitive Art in Civilized Places, and Saramaka Social Structure. According to the book cover, they divide their time between rural Martinique and the College of William and Mary in Virginia.

In this short novel two anthropologists are asked to appraise a remarkable set of museum quality Saramakan musical instruments that are offered for sale. In following their investigations we readers learn about art smuggling, art renovation, and art forgery, and gradually discover that the ethical distinction between original and forged art can become quite blurred.

Enigma Variations is an exceptional book that defines an entirely new genre. I highly recommend this fascinating work.

Curiosity: This soft cover publication by Harvard University Press is printed on high quality, vanilla colored paper. The pages were bound backward in my discounted copy.

An unexpected pleasure.......2000-10-21

Richard and Sally Price are practicing anthropologists who have written a novel about some of the non-academic aspects of their work. Based on their real experiences, this book describes a detective hunt to establish the authenticity of some South American tribal and slave artifacts. But a simple yes/no question quickly blurs into shades of grey as they worm their way through collectors who 'restore' pieces, native carvers who mix styles to please buyers and museum officials trying to justify monies spent.

The book provides a fascinating philosophical discussion of authenticity and the differences between the way the art world and the academic world define it. Every page includes a photograph of an artifact discussed in the story, only at the end do we get a glimpse of which were genuine and which were not.

Book Description

Elgar's Variations for Orchestra, commonly known as the 'Enigma' Variations, marked an epoch both in his career, and in the renaissance of English music at the turn of the century. The first extended study of the work, this Cambridge Music Handbook contains historical information concerning the conception and writing of the work, an extended musical discussion requiring only a little technical knowledge of music, and a fascinating survey of the "solutions" to the mystery implied by the title of Elgar's most famous work.

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Enigma Variation, A Fictional Memoir
Patrick Jackson
Manufacturer: Athena Press Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1844012816

The Enigma of Comparative Law: Variations on a Theme for the Twenty-First Century

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The Enigma of Comparative Law: Variations on a Theme for the Twenty-First Century
E. Orucu
Manufacturer: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Comparative | Perspectives on Law | Law | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 9004139893

Book Description

Viewing the contested theme Comparative Law as an `Enigma', this book explores its fundamental issues as sub-themes, each covered in two variations. After the Overture, the author pulls some strands together in the Intermezzo, uses a free hand in the Cadenza, and asks the reader to draw her own conclusions in the Finale. By this method two fundamentally opposed views are exposed in each Chapter. The what, why and how of comparative law, comparative law and legal education, comparative law and judges, and comparative law and law reform by transposition are explored. The author also examines current debates of comparative law such as law and culture, deconstruction of classifications, mixing systems, limits of comparability, convergence/non-convergence and ius commune novum.

Book Description

The 1899 debut of the Enigma Variations won Elgar renown throughout the British Isles and abroad, and the work remains one of his most widely performed works. Reprinted here from an authoritative English edition, the 14 variations teem with rich melodies and vibrant rhythms. Each portrays the personality of one of the Elgar's friends.

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Enigma Variations
Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt
Manufacturer: Dramatist's Play Service
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

History | Drama | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0822218100

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Elgar:Enigma Variations
London Philharmonic Cdagro Cfp574880
Manufacturer: ALLEGRO CORPORATION
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio CD

General | Books on CD | Audiobooks | Formats | Books
ASIN: 630703145X

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Fishmonkeys!

Enigma and Variations
Ivan Arguelles
Manufacturer: Pantograph Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1880766116

Customer Reviews:

Fishmonkeys!.......2005-04-01

Ivan Arguelles, Enigma and Variations: Paradise is Persian for Park (Pantograph, 1995)

Another piece of Arguelles' epic masterpiece, Pantograph. In the greater scheme of things, I can't say enough good things about Pantograph (though lord knows I've tried in the reviews of the books I've so far managed to track down). It is a brilliant piece of work. Arguelles is, perhaps singlehandedly, keeping alive the true spirit of surrealism on American soil in this amazing journey; all we can do is hitch ourselves to the wagon and hope we survive the long, fast, exceptionally bumpy ride.

Enigma and Variations is, unfortunately, one of the less pleasant bumps, but don't let that in any way stop you from reading this alongside the other works in the piece. While Arguelles' stream-of-consciousness style remains intact, and his language is as precise and potent as ever, Enigma and Variations is the first piece of the puzzle I've read that actually seems as if it didn't flow forth from the pen, all of a piece, Athenalike. There is the air of craft about it, the air of revision.

Now, normally, this is not a bad thing in poetry. In fact, there are thousands upon thousands of pages of poetry extant in the world today that could use far more craft, and far more revision, than they have. The problem with it in this case is that Enigma and Variations is not quite the same swirling, chaotic, beautiful mass that the other books in the series (those I've read, at least) are. For a few pages, scattered here and there, the subconscious effect disappears, and we see the various obsessions spread out along their various threads. The evil spectre of message poetry rears its basiliskesque head and attempts to stare us in the face. Now, to Arguelles' great credit, said gorgon never fully rises out of its murky pit and takes over the place to break all the glass and make us pay to clean up the mess. At best, we find ourselves rubbing only slightly against the flying glass, and we emerge relatively unscathed. But still, when compared to such amazing journeys as Hapax Legomenon, Enigma and Variations is a bit rougher of a trip, just that much less readable than its brethren and sistren. Now, I rush to add that "just that much less readable" (emphasis there, strongly, on "just") means it's still better than 99% of what you'd pick up off a store shelf randomly, and it's still very much worth your while to hunt down and read. However, if you're an Arguelles newbie (and if so, I envy your your first dip into the bottomless black pool that is Arguelles), you may want to start with Hapax Legomenon or, outside the Pantograph epic, the brilliant Looking for Mary Lou: Illegal Syntax. The local china shop will thank you. *** ½

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Enigma Variations
John Maddox Roberts
Manufacturer: Ace
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Science Fiction | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0441180566

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