The Tea Ceremony: The Uncollected Writings of Gina Berriault

by Gina Berriault

Compiled by Gina Berriault’s daughter and by her long-time companion, Leonard Gardner, this collection opens with five stories, including, "The Figure Skater," the last story published before she died in 1999. Also here is the first section of the novel she left unfinished and her brilliant acceptance speech for the Commonwealth Club of California’s Gold Medal for Literature.

As reclusive as she was meticulous, Gina Berriault did not suffer fools and sat for only a handful of interviews. She was acutely aware of nuance and tended to write and rewrite not only the answers but also the questions, making the interview printed here is as finished and beautiful as any of her writing.

Here, too, are her essays for Rolling Stone, Hungry Mind, and Esquire on subjects as diverse as the first topless dancers in San Francisco’s North Beach to the last execution by firing squad. As a whole this collection becomes her credo on American culture, politics and the written word.

218 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2002

About the author

Berriault was born in Long Beach, California, to Russian-Jewish immigrant parents. Her father was a freelance writer and Berriault took her inspiration from him, using his stand-up typewriter to write her first stories while still in grammar school.

Berriault had a prolific writing career, which included stories, novels and screenplays. Her writing tended to focus on life in and around San Francisco. She published four novels and three collections of short stories, including Women in Their Beds: New & Selected Stories (1996), which won the PEN/Faulkner Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Bay Area Book Reviewers Award. In 1997 Berriault was chosen as winner of the Rea Award for the Short Story, for outstanding achievement in that genre.

Berriault taught writing at the Iowa Writers Workshop and San Francisco State University. She also received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Guggenheim Fellowship, an Ingram-Merrill Fellowship, a Commonwealth Gold Medal for Literature, the Pushcart Prize and several O'Henry prizes.

She adapted her short story "The Stone Boy" for a film of the same title, released in 1984.[2] The same story had previously been adapted by another writer for a 1960 television presentation.[

Reviews

[Joan Winnek · Rating 1 out of 5]

I loved Women in Their Beds, but I just couldn't get into this. I read the first three short stories and the first non-fiction piece, as well as the foreword--then gave up.

[Kallie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Though interesting (especially the interview with Carolyn Cassidy), GB's non-fiction doesn't achieve the power of her storytelling voice.

[Megan Stolz · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting collection, and probably a good way for a reader to get to know Gina Berriault on all levels. This collection includes both fiction and nonfiction, as well as some considerate pieces about Berriault (an introduction and an afterword). I'm looking forward to finding more by her but I enjoyed reading this collection.

[Luke · Rating 4 out of 5]

the short pieces of fiction are splendid.
the non-fiction stuff I could do without.

[Pamster · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read for my book club. I remember one awesome story about a phoenix in NYC?

[Tuck · Rating 3 out of 5]

workmanlike writing, too bad she didnt have a chance to perfect her style and ideas.

[Kristen]

sweet collection of shorts