Many novelists and playwrights are simply keen observes of the world around them. They watch, they feel, they think and they create and aggregate wonderful stories. But for some, (think Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Tom Wolfe) they themselves embody their work and their time. There is a kind of almost impenetrable membrane between them and the stories and characters they create. Wendy Wasserstein, author of such plays as The Heidi Chronicles and The Sisters Rosensweig, was such a writer. She was a true baby boomer, who captured the essence of the post feminist angst of the 80's and gave voice to so many woman who felt as if she knew them personally. Her death at the age of 55, shorted circuited a truly creative life. Journalist and former WSJ film critic Julie Salamon captures all of Wasserstein in Wendy and the Lost Boys: The Uncommon Life of Wendy Wasserstein
My conversation with Julie Salamon:
My conversation with Wendy Wasserstein, from June 2001, on the publication of her book Shiksa Goddess: (Or, How I Spent My Forties) Essays
