May Sarton: Biography

For me this book got progressively more interesting. I think I was between a quarter and halfway through when I abandoned the book and picked up one of May Sarton's journals which are so refreshing in their comparative simplicity. In reading her biography we realize that her journals certainly don't tell a complete story. A week or two later I went back to the biography and found that it started to sweep me away. In the second half of the book there are more details from May's personal life. The beginning chapters became tiresome to me because it seemed like "Same old, same old." May went to London--then back to France--met a woman--fell in love--did some writing--did more traveling--another woman--another love affair, ad infinitum. After she settles in the U.S., her love affairs become more interesting. We hear about the conflicts, both verbal and physical, and the obsessions on both sides. The European setting reminded me of Ernest Hemingway and his crowd. Alcohol in abundance. Trysts. Pressing the moral boundaries. Plenty of all of this in America but this time we get to see behind the closed doors and understand more of what went wrong--tantrums and frustrations galore. We get to see May Sarton throughout the book pursuing women much the way a playboy would pursue women. This book has opened my eyes but it hasn't closed my heart. I will continue to read and reread May Sarton's journals and revel in their beauty. But I've come to a deeper understanding of the woman who yearned for true and lasting love but ended up in solitude, alternately raging against the loneliness and relishing the peace.

Peters does an excellent job of explaining the intricacy of a totally self-absorbed woman, who was talented, articulate, terribly selfish and using, did not realize her own potential, and who was intricate indeed. Not a Lesbian, myself, I was somewhat appalled at Sarton's insatiable need for conquest, to be in control, to be the center of attention. I have a number of Lesbian friends, and none of them are at all like this. Of course these defects in Sarton's character are not due to her being Lesbian, but due, rather, to, most likely, her childhood. In many ways, she remained always a spoiled, self-centered child. Right up until she died.

Though many Sarton readers may be disturbed learning 'too much:" about Sarton, I was pleased that the authorreceived permission from Sarton as she grew closer to her death. and that the book rings true to the Sarton Iknew. I am glad I have the book and glad that I can have it to refer to and to lend. M. Peters has written a biographythat is solid andwritten very well, not an easy task due to the whirl of May Sarton's life.

I couldn't even finish this book due to her miserable behavior. Not someone I would have wanted to know. However, the book was well written.

I don't mind if a biographer shows me "warts and all" of a writer. I can take a bit of snipe at a beloved figure. I never thought May Sarton was the wise sage solitary that she wanted so badly to portray. Even in 1997, before the age of staged blog photos and pinterest, surely it wasn't news s that memoir and journals are prettified versions of the writer? And frankly, Sarton didn't exactly paint herself as St. May in her journals.This biography reads like a romance novel with a bad country music playing as backdrop..she loved 'em...she lost 'em...she did them wrong. Did the biographer wish to shock us with how many women May Sarton bedded? Even when the book was written (1997), the fact that lesbians can take many lovers and have complicated love affairs? Old news. Today, such a laundry list of May Sarton's lovers reads as one extended "duh", to anyone who's been in the literary/art/theatrical circles. The tone of judgment about the many lovers was quite clear throughout the book, and I wondered if the same distaste would have been shown for a male writer. (Likely the jilted women would have been portrayed as happy to be part of his great artistic landscape.) Sadly, many of the people are inserted for a few pages, then dropped and never mentioned again.My biggest disappointment was how little space was given to actually discussing Sarton's work, or the writing process of her many novels and books of poetry. Sarton's difficulty with writing "The Magnificent Spinster" is mentioned a few times, but never described in great detail. Sarton's difficulty with being both poet and novelist is mentioned, but then dismissed with a snarky remark that, "If May Sarton made a list of those who were both great poets and great novelists, she would have found it quite short." Wow....who whizzed in the biographer's tea?I'm slogging through, because of the few crumbs of information I'm getting sprinkled in with all the sex, snark and psychobabble about Sarton's dysfunction. However, I'm already glad I bought this book used for a few dollars.

If you're a May Sartan 'fan', you'll love this book. It shows a side of Sartan's life that isn't really shown in her journals,though there are hints of it in her poetry. I was fascinated. It made me want to re-read all her journals in a new light.

Sure, but it if you want to bore yourself to death.

Excellent biography.

If you think it is fine to have a baby and then farm it out to others to care for, emotionally neglecting it, then please read the tragic story of May Sarton. Like many emotionally unbalanced people, May had a magnetic effect on others. However they rapidly got tired of her incessant neediness. She stalked, harassed, plagued and intimidated those she loved. People tried to be generous to her but she was incapable of calmness and of ever feeling satisfied and replenished. The emotional deprivation of her childhood was a permanent state. She was unable to rest, ceaselessly working, nagging at people, connecting frantically with others ... it's almost unbearable to read. At times I felt really angry with her but at other times very sorry for her. I'm so glad I never met her. Margot Peters has written a brilliant, insightful biography of this wretched human being.

As a long time May Sarton fan it was fascinating to read the story of her life and to discover the very human complexity of her temperament, much of which was not revealed in her journals. Margot Peters, while revealing some of May Sarton's less appealing characteristics, never-the-less, offers with a sympathetic understanding the underlying reasons for her sometimes erratic behavior and allows us to appreciate all the more what was wonderful, generous, and talented about May.