Status Updates From Sleeping with Cats

The long slow death of the marriage resolves itself when Robert finds someone, and by then Marge is much closer to "Woody" than Robert. She is determined to keep the land although Robert tries to push her off of it. Marge and Woody decide on a monogamous relationship. More novels are published, and Marge's mother, who adores Woody--the first of Marge's men that she approves of--dies.

Women's movement takes wing, and Marge becomes friends with Robin Morgan, and it's an important friendship. Her first novel, Woman on the Edge of Time is published and the next one, Dance the Eagle to Sleep is accepted as part of a 2 book deal. Physical miseries include an allergy to cigarette smoke, which back then made her nearly a social pariah, and a bad back from being dragged by a car in a demonstration.

Robert wants an open relationship, and he wants group sex. She agrees to the former as long as it's both of them, though she can sense that her marriage won't survive. The women's movement is dawning, and she is active with the Mobe and SDS. If anyone needs to be hidden, they can stay with her and Robert, and there are always people there.

San Francisco, married to Robert and experiencing middle class life for the first time. It's so easy; she loves it. You can have both food and heat this way. Meanwhile, she falls in love with the neighbor's Siamese, who chooses Marge over his owner. When it's time to go back East, she tries to buy the cat, but the price is too high. She nearly steals him, but is caught by the owner.

France; married to Michel

I love the poem she wrote to her mother, Canoe Like a Crescent Moon. It shows tremendous insight, which is one of the things I have always appreciated about her fiction, too.

She grew up tough. I think I'd assumed she was from a middle class background, as so many novelists are. With these parents it's amazing she was able to become so successful.

The farther into the book, the more Piercy delves into the felines in her life. I love the way she animates them so that they become fully fleshed out characters with their own mannerisms and spirits. It's exactly how I see my own cats and another reason to adore Piercy and her work.

Also, Piercy is so brutally honest about her life, which, having read her poetry, should have come as no surprise, but it's refreshing

I keep meaning to update my progress, and since I don't have the book next to me, this page number is an estimate. I know I've at least passed it.

Anyway, that's neither nor there. I LOVE Marge Piercy the more I read her memoir! I haven't encountered an author yet with whom I identify in so many areas of life and craft. Piercy is the most interesting person I've ever read about!