At the Still Point - Hardcover

For most of her life, Buckley was one of "the last generation of do-nothing women. 'Homemakers'?that is what our passports say on the line that designates 'profession.'" The youngest of 10 children in a wealthy, conservative Catholic family whose men were achievers (Senator James and writer-publisher William F. among them), she was groomed for marriage and motherhood, like all the women in her family. But two unhappy marriages in which she willingly played the dependent wife?a "lady who lunched," shopped, gave parties, raised money for good causes, had her hair done and tried to be a good mother?left her with a sense of emptiness and no identity without a man. She became alcoholic and was institutionalized for a nervous breakdown. In her 40s, with help from a therapist, the author returned to college, earned degrees in psychology and social work and painfully discovered a life as a single, independent and productive woman. Her portrait of privileged, ornamental women is at once cutting and sympathetic. Her journey from glittering luxury to witnessing the lives of the troubled people she came to care for as a social worker testifies to the success of her transformation. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Buckley was the last child born into the large and privileged Buckley clan. (William F. Buckley Jr. is the most notable of the ten children.) She grew up among servants, feeling abandoned or neglected by her parents and siblings. How this abiding loneliness and the need to win affection led to self-destructive behavior later in life is the framework for these recollections and anecdotes from the little sister in a prominent family. Among her hurdles were two failed marriages, depression, a suicide attempt, and recovery from alcoholism. Although readers may feel as if they are listening behind a psychiatrist's couch, this book adequately recounts the by-now familiar journey of self-discovery made by many women born into the domestic traditions of the 1940s and 1950s, who painfully gained self-knowledge in their thirties and forties and achieved emotional independence in middle age. Recommended for general readers interested in women's perspectives and family gossip.
Carol A. McAllister, Coll. of William and Mary Lib., Williamsburg, Va.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.