When, in the late eighties, the author chooses to raise a child with her lesbian partner, she embraces a life outside the lines — one full of curious adventures as well as the usual catastrophes and everyday pleasures.
As a child of the sixties, Leslie Lawrence knew she didn't want to duplicate her parents' lives, yet she never imagines she'd stray so far outside the lines of their — and her own — expectations. The Death of Fred Astaire opens with the story, both wrenching and funny, of how Lawrence says her goodbyes to the iconic images she's held since her youth; she then proceeds to bear a child and raise him with her lesbian partner. Some essays in this debut collection reflect on legacies Lawrence inherited from her Jewish family and culture. In others, she searches gamely for a rich, authentic life — a voice, a vocation, a community, even a "god" she can call her own.
Always a seeker, an adventurer resisting fear, Lawrence, a city girl, creates a summer home in the back woods of the "Live Free or Die" state. She attempts the flying trapeze and takes part in a cross-dressing workshop. Traveling alone to Morocco, she assists a veterinarian tending to an ailing donkey. Teaching in a vocational high school in Boston, she questions her methods and assumptions about race and class. With rare honesty, she confronts the complexities of motherhood, of caring for her ill partner, and of widowhood. In "Wonderlust," the collection's most ambitious piece, she explores the roles of beauty and creativity in our spiritual lives, revealing how lifelong learning in dance, music, and the visual arts can make us all more alive even as we age.
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Praise
Finalistin the 2016 Foreward Indie Book Award for Memoir.
"Leslie Lawrence's essays are sympathetic and patiently observed; she ably demonstrates that hard choices call for careful and humane decisions." — John Irving
"The Death of Fred Astaire assembles a realistic and venturesome portrait of the author — as a writer, teacher, partner, mother, perennial seeker — while capturing the complicated texture of the post-1960s decades of American life. Lawrence's reach is wide, her narrative skills highly honed, and her tone is resonant with a sense of truth being told." — Sven Birkerts, author of Changing the Subject: Art and Attention in the Internet Age
"In this stirring collection, Lawrence boldly plumbs her many lives — as lesbian mother, writer, widow, teacher, student, border-crosser — each rich beyond description. The Death of Fred Astaire is a marvelous book. Read it and rejoice through your tears!" — Hilda Raz, coauthor of What Becomes You
"The Death of Fred Astaire is warm, wry, and rich in detail. A lovely read!" — Kate Clinton, comedian
"This lively and eclectic collection of personal essays will appeal to a wide range of readers, educating some about an era of American cultural history and for others providing material for an associational romp through their own memories. Additionally, The Death of Fred Astaire will provide useful material for courses in education, nonfiction writing, cultural studies and women's studies." — Pamela Annas, Professor Emerita, UMass Boston
Reviews
"The Dancer and the Dance: A Review of The Death of Fred Astaire" in Solstice Magazine http://solsticelitmag.org/content/dancer-dance-review-death-fred-astaire-essays-life-outside-lines-leslie-lawrence/
http://www.lambdaliterary.org/reviews/05/15/the-death-of-fred-astaire-by-leslie-lawrence/
http://www.literarymama.com/reviews/archives/2016/12/the-death-of-fred-astaire.html
http://www.riverteethjournal.com/blog/2017/05/05/one-era-ends-another-beginsClick here for course adoption.
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Interviews
http://solsticelitmag.org/content/leslie-lawrence-interview/
http://woodstockbooktalk.com/size/25/?search=leslie+lawrence
http://www.literarymama.com/profiles/archives/2016/12/a-conversation-leslie-lawrence.html
