In the Company of Strangers
by Mary Meigs
List Price:
Our Price: $8.75
You Save: $6.20 (41%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Mary MeigsEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1991-01-01
ISBN: 0889222940
Number of pages: 176
Publisher: Talonbooks
Book Reviews of In the Company of Strangers
Book Review: Modest Gem of a Book; Invaluable Companion to the Film
Summary: 5 Stars
_The Company of Strangers_ (American title: _Strangers in Good Company_) is a Canadian docudrama featuring 7 elderly women and 1 younger in contrived desperate straits. When their tour bus breaks down, they're forced to fend for themselves in an abandoned house in the middle of nowhere. A sort of "reality series" precursor, coming several years before MTV's Real World, the film is not in the least suspenseful. We're not worried about whether or not these women will survive. We're just interested in watching them get to know each other and getting to know them better. It's a purely magical look into the histories and minds of these women.
This book is a look by one of those women into the process and the experience of making that film.
Selected by the associate director to represent Lesbian, septuagenarian Mary Meigs insisted on remaining an individual--and a fascinating individual at that. Writer, painter, activist and former professor of creative writing at Bryn Mawr, Meigs trains her artist's eye on her surroundings. The book she created is an interesting artifact in its own right. Meigs muses about age and gender and sexual identity, but in an unobtrusive way, wrapped up in a descriptive prose style that reminded me somewhat of a more grounded Annie Dillard, as when of the filming process she says:
"We are spectators and recipients in the great magic show. Disembodied hands holding Styrofoam cups appear just as the words -water- or -coffee- form in a head; invisible spirits place chairs under our bums (Cissy's word) just before we fall backward into space, or coats on our backs, or scarves around our necks on a nippy morning. The same hands are also held out to be draped with the same coats, scarves, extraneous handbags and hats, to be hidden in secret places, away from the camera's prying eye. Umbrellas, parasols, bee helmets materialize, according to the weather. On hot, still days we stand knee-deep in meadow grass, looking like extraterrestrials, helmeted in green gauze while the black flies peer in greedily from outside. Through a green mist I see us lined up, eight mediaeval women warriors, waiting for our marching orders."
The magic for Mary is in the mundane--the smile of this woman, the smell of that place. Meigs does an outstanding job of conveying that and, with her self-effacing manner, hinting at its relevance.
But while _In the Company of Strangers_ can stand on its own, it really shouldn't. It is a magnificent companion piece to the film. To those who have fallen in love with the women in the movie, it offers an opportunity to see a little more, to find out what happens next. In the process, it reveals a few secrets, demystifies a scene or two. But it doesn't diminish the magic. It completes it.
If academia has not already embraced the pair, I believe it will. Women's Studies. Gay and Lesbian Studies. Canadian Studies. Whatever they are calling or will someday call the culture of aging. These have a lot of homes. And I personally believe that a lot of homes will be better off for having them.
Biographies & Memoirs Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Biographies & Memoirs Books
I Had a Hammer: The Hank Aaron Storyby Hank Aaron, Lonnie Wheeler
Harpercollins; Published: 1991-02; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.71
Price in other shops:
Cracked: Putting Broken Lives Together Againby Drew Pinsky
William Morrow; Published: 2003-08-19; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $3.45
Price in other shops:
The Last Season (P.S.)by Eric Blehm
Harper Perennial; Published: 2007-01-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.54
Price in other shops:
The Last Seasonby Eric Blehm
Harper; Published: 2006-04-04; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.99
Price in other shops:
Truck: A Love Story (P.S.)by Michael Perry
Harper Perennial; Published: 2007-07-31; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.50
Price in other shops:
My Grandfather's Son: A Memoirby Clarence Thomas
Harper Perennial; Published: 2008-10-14; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.98
Price in other shops:
American Jezebel: The Uncommon Life of Anne Hutchinson, the Woman Who Defied the Puritansby Eve LaPlante
HarperOne; Published: 2004-03-02; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $12.99
Price in other shops:
100 Missions North/ a Fighter Pilot's Story of the Vietnam Warby Kenneth H. Bell
Brassey's Inc; Published: 1993-04; Hardcover; Book
Price in other shops:
Macmillan Profiles: Villains & Outlawsby Et Al
MacMillan Reference Books; Published: 1998-10-15; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.93
Price in other shops:
Hawk : Occupation Skateboarderby Tony; Mortimer, Sean Hawk
Regan Books; Published: 2000; Hardcover; Book
Similar books summaries and other product reviews
The Winter Seaby Susanna Kearsley
Sourcebooks, Inc.; Published: 2010-12-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.98
Price in other shops:
Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Lifeby Richard Rohr
Jossey-Bass; Published: 2011-04-19; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $11.98
Price in other shops:
Prime Time: Love, health, sex, fitness, friendship, spirit--making the most of all of your lifeby Jane Fonda
Random House; Published: 2011-08-09; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $9.00
Price in other shops:
Wesley the Owl: The Remarkable Love Story of an Owl and His Girlby Stacey O'Brien
Free Press; Published: 2009-06-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.75
Price in other shops:
Grossan Breathe-ease Nasal Moisturizing and Irrigation Solution Kit (Double Pack)Grossan; Grossan; Health Care
Best price: $24.95
Lily Briscoe: A Self-Portraitby Mary Meigs
Talonbooks; Published: 1981-01-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $16.95
Price in other shops:
The Time Beingby Mary Meigs
Talonbooks; Published: 1997-01-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.49
Price in other shops:
Bagdad CafeSAGEBRECHT,MARIANNE; Release date: 2001-07-24; DVD
Best price: $10.99
Strangers in Good CompanyFirst RUN Features; Release date: 1999-12-07; DVD
Best price: $15.94
Price in other shops: