The Woman at the Washington Zoo: Writings on Politics, Family, and Fate

Each chapter can be read alone, standing by itself, but each is so well written that I have found it difficult to put the book down. I highly recommend this book, for its insights into people, politics, parenting, and life/death.

Mr. Noah has succeeded in compiling a breathtaking collection of his wife's works. Marjorie comes to life through her writing and it is a bittersweet experience, as you long to know much, much more.

And I. . . . this print of mine, that has kept its color Alive through so many cleanings; this dull null Navy I wear to work, and wear from work, and so To my bed, so to my grave, with no Complaints, no comment: neither from my chief, The Deputy Chief Assistant, nor his chief-- Only I complain. . . . this serviceable Body that no sunlight dyes, no hand suffuses But, dome-shadowed, withering among columns, Wavy beneath fountains--small, far-off, shining In the eyes of animals, these beings trapped As I am trapped but not, themselves, the trap, Aging, but without knowledge of their age, Kept safe here, knowing not of death, for death-- Oh, bars of my own body, open, open Randall Jarrell "The Woman At The Washington Zoo" Marjorie Williams died of liver cancer last year. Her husband has put together her columns/essays, some of them published and some of them are new, into this book. He titled the book from the poem written by Randall Jerrell. They are extraordinary stories, and the most extraordinary is the story of her diagnosis. She tells us about the physicians she visited, the tests she endured, the support of family and friends, and the hope that she would overcome. We know now, of course, that she did not. But, in the telling of her story and that of many other people and their relationships, she opens up her world to us. Her columns/essays of the people who inhabit Washington are personal. How Clinton told Gore why he lost the election, and how their relationship mattered. Looking into Richard Dorman's closet and playing ping pong. Barbara Bush, the Head of the Bush household, so frightened her mother-in-law, that she did not want to cross her. We read of the personal stories of Marjorie Williams, her life, her family, women and their careers, her cancer and her legacy. One of the most endearing stories is that of helping her daughter dress as a rock star on Halloween night. She was able to picture her daughter in a prom dress and all of the events in her daughter's life that she might miss if her cancer did not abate. Marjorie Williams wrote for "The Washington Post" and "Slate" on-line. She was a remarkable woman in many ways. She was able to combine her career with that of wife, mother and friend. She gave to others as we all do, but she did not expect much in return. The love of her family was the highest priority. The liver cancer cut her life short, but it did not stop her from living her life. Her husband, Timothy Noah, edited her columns/essays and in the process brought Marjorie Williams back to life in print. Highly Recommended. prisrob

The title of journalist Marjorie William's posthumous collection of writings, profiles and columns says it all. The first third focuses on her political interviews with the Washington "elite"; the middle portion is her musings on her family; and the final section is heart-rending as she profiles her four year battle against fate & lung cancer which ended her life at the age of 47 earlier this year. From an alcoholic literary family, Ms. Williams was brilliant at Harvard, ambitious in her work with Joni Evans at Viking Press before launching another career in her mid-twenties at The Washington Post, and an exacting wordsmith where writing was her gift but her family was her life. (A comparable life of the poet Jane Keynon was published this year by her husband Donald Hall: "The Best Day, The Worst Day." Ms. Keynon was another gifted wordsmith who would also die at the age of 47.) Her husband picked the best of her observations on life and politics from Vanity Fair and The Washington Post. It is amazing how many politicians would allow themselves to be interviewed by her, when time after time, she would be brutally honest in her attention to details and her summations. "The Woman at the Washington Zoo" is best read as memoir celebrating a life fully lived and tragically cut short for her family. How do you live, knowing that you will die sooner than later and leave your two young children behind? This book is that answer.

You will close this book and mourn that there won't be 30 more years of insight and delicious wit from this great writer. She could do everything: the laser-precise profile; social commentary that made you see events with new understanding; personal essays of heart-stabbing clarity. Her pieces about living with illness and facing death will enter the canon of literature on how to live and die. Her loss echoes throughout this book, yet it is a volume full of pleasure. Anyone who loves great writing will luxuriate in spending time with this writer working at the height of her powers.