The Beacon Book of Essays by Contemporary American Women Book

	Acknowledgments
	Introduction
I	Generations: Essays on the Family
	On Going Home	3
	Brothers and Sisters	6
	Only Daughter	10
	Ruth's Song (Because She Could Not Sing It)	14
	Mother Tongue	32
	My Father's Penis	38
	Balancing Act	43
	The Deterioration of My Marriage	46
	Here: Grace	53
	Thoughts on Becoming a Grandmother	65
II	Inside Passages: Essays on Self-Identity
	Names	85
	Hair	93
	A Friendship Forged on Concrete	100
	An American in New York	103
	Dreams of a Black Christmas	113
	A Knowing So Deep	122
	La Guera	125
	Split at the Root: An Essay on Jewish Identity	134
	Writing from the Darkness	152
	Monday, May 3rd, 1982	160
III	Breaking the Silence: Women Confront Oppression and Violence
	Speak for Yourself	167
	On Being the Object of Property	171
	A Beaut of a Shiner	181
	Give and Take	184
	Death of Popeye	188
	A Rape	191
	Amazing Rage	199
IV	Women's Bodies, Women's Choices
	On Having a Baby	205
	Trying (and Trying and Trying) to Get Pregnant	218
	Sperm in a Jar	225
	I Just Came Out Pregnant	231
	A Moral Choice	241
	Consequences	251
	Standard Operating Procedure	255
V	What the Lover Knows: Essays on Nature
	Sight into Insight	265
	Waking	278
	Waking Up the Rake	281
	The Bowl	286
	A Woman's Dance	289
	A Very Warm Mountain	291
	Contributors	299
	Credits	307