Hanky of Pippin

These two novels explore the themes of physical and emotional exile and "between-ness." In The Hanky of Pippen's Daughter, a German woman tries to come to terms with her ancestry. What did her parents, two "ordinary people" in Nazi Germany, really stand for? How does their bad marriage resonate in the lives of their daughters? Can we really know the past or its place in our lives?

Written as an epic collage, A Form/of Taking/It All measures the subjective experience of the narrator against the historic, scientific, and political discourses that control her personal experiences.

"Readers will find in this ambitious, at times brilliant fiction a passionate articulation of a painful and guilt-ridden memory." --New York Times Book Review

"It is not the least of Waldrop's talents that she is very, very funny, and she sharpens her black humor to a knifelike edge that makes the punchlines hurt . . . [The Hanky of Pippen's Daughter] is stunning, an incisive portrayal of the proposition that the history of lies is the vital task of history itself." --Village Voice