Getting from
Here to There: Conversations on life and work
Margaret R. Miles and Hiroko Sakomura
The Lutterworth Press £15
(978-0-7188-9263-0)
THE conversation partners of
this book met when the Japanese-born exhibition-producer Hiroko
Sakomura asked Margaret R. Miles, Emerita Professor at Graduate
Theological Union in Berkeley, to lecture on the use of vision in
religious practice at the American venues chosen for her
international exhibition of Buddhist Art. The discussion recorded
here, however, does not dwell on that commission. In their own
words, this is a book of memoirs which stretches the boundaries of
the genre as it compares and contrasts their different experiences
of life and work.
Reflecting first on their
childhood, socialisation, relationships, and children, Miles and
Sakomura go on to identify some of the strategic issues that have
helped or hindered their progress: positive and negative
role-models and self-images; good and bad habits; critical stances;
questions of style, energy and power, pleasure and happiness. The
final section encapsulates the here and now of their professional,
religious, social, and public life.
While there is interest
enough here for an extended feature in an exhibition catalogue, it
is not a memorable or particularly inspiring book, and the only
question it raises is who will buy it.
Do not be swayed by the
professional distinction of the authors. This is women's talk,
which reflects the inside rather than the outside story, and that
is the pleasure of reading. It does nothing more than affirm the
trials and tribulations of seeking meaning and purpose in a culture
that is still strangely biased against women who challenge
conventional expectations. I respect the value that these two
conversation partners confer on each other, but do not think that
their voices are unique. Ask any woman the same sort of questions,
and you will get similar answers, even though some have not had the
courage or opportunity to express themselves so honestly in
public.
The Revd Penny Seabrook
is Associate Vicar of All Saints', Fulham, in London.