User:DeRossitt/Sister Brother: Gertrude and Leo Stein

Sister Brother: Gertrude and Leo Stein is a 1996 book by writer Brenda Wineapple.

Overview
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Reception
Phoebe Stein in Biography: The result of Wagner-Martin's commitment to writing the story of a "woman's life," with special attention to Stein's childhood, adolescence, and internal world, is a biography which brings into focus a larger and richer portrait of Stein, one which deals with issues previous biographers have rarely broached. Wagner-Martin perhaps breaks the newest ground in her book with her consistent attention to four topics: Stein's early family life, her status as a member of immigrant family, the importance she placed on her Jewish identity, and her fluid identity

Sister Brother thus provides a new window on Gertrude Stein, and an entirely new context within which to read much of her work ...

Robin Buss in The Independent: there is scarcely a hint of a laugh in Wineapple's book, the product of meticulous research and a qualified affection for both its subjects; but the personal and social conflicts that the Steins had to confront are still relevant now, and so are their earnest responses to them.

Andrea Barnet in The New York Times: Ms. Wineapple suggests that there was more to the peculiar dynamic of Leo and Gertrude's relationship than has been historically acknowledged. What hasn't been emphasized is Leo's part in Gertrude's self-invention. While Gertrude appeared dominant and Leo dependent, in truth Gertrude's outward show of self-confidence concealed a deeper need for Leo's support.

"In her ambitious biography "Sister Brother," Brenda Wineapple tries to strip away the layers of legend that have accumulated around Gertrude Stein, not only to illuminate the sources of her art but to get at the heart of her enigmatic relationship with her brother. Yet while the book provides a basis for speculation about the nature of their curious symbiosis, it never satisfactorily answers the question of why, after 40 years of near-constant companionship, Gertrude was able to expunge Leo so completely from her life."

Kirkus Reviews: Wineapple makes good use of formidable amounts of material--the Steins apparently committed to paper every mental hiccup--to give vivid impressions of her subjects' characters: Gertrude earthy, gregarious, and domineering; Leo more neurotic, indecisive, and introspective. The author also captures the gossipy, close-knit world they moved in. She does not quite succeed, however, in elucidating the dynamics of the pair's exceptional closeness, nor does her account of their estrangement in 1914 offer much beyond the facts: Alice B. Toklas and the woman who would become Leo's wife drew them apart; the final blow was Leo's failure to appreciate Gertrude's increasingly experimental prose. They died 12 months and two days apart, still not speaking. Thorough and intelligent, but lacking that final spark of empathy that distinguishes a truly exceptional biography.