The Fabric of the Future: Women Visionaries Illuminate the Path to Tomorrow Book

Joan Borysenko, Brooke Medicine Eagle, Shakti Gawain, Starhawk, Gloria Steinem, and Marianne Williamson are among the contributors to this essential collection of wisdom for the new millennium designed for today's women. Radio drive-time tour.

Kirkus Reviews

A trendy and jargon-laden celebration of contemporary feminist thought, edited by Ryan (A Grateful Heart, not reviewed, etc.). Ryan has solicited essays from 40 feminists in preparation for the impending millennium. The contributors are ethnically, though not ideologically, diverse. The essays sound remarkably repetitive, even employing the same tired phrasing (metaphors involving weaving abound). Ryan compiled these essays, she says, because she wanted to know what she should be doing þto navigate through these turbulent timesþ of change in education, technology, health care, etc. But the essays generally uphold the traditional þfemaleþ values (Ryanþs terminology) of relationality and empathy over the traditionally þmaleþ value of action. In other words, readers looking for answers will find few of them in this book, which offers almost no concrete solutions to the global problems it bemoans. Rather, there are countless references to sacred feminine energy, Gaia, the Goddess, and womenþs ways of knowing (strangely, religious feminists have found common essentialist ground with fundamentalists, who claim that women are inherently more spiritual then men). Some essays are, of course, superior to others. China Gallandþs thoughtfully proposes the black Madonna as an excellent symbol because of her þmultivalent darknessþ which absorbs all races and their sufferings. Marianne Williamson and Gloria Steinem both venture into contemporary economics and break the bookþs mold by offering some solid recommendations for political action. Also, in þWhose Millennium Is It?þ Yoruba writer Luisah Teish reminds us thatall of the anxiety and expectation focused on the millennium spring from a linear Christian view of time. With few exceptions, a modish, almost syrupy anthology with little intellectual stuff to recommend it. (Author tour)