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"What makes Paula Peterson's book so touching and worthwhile are not so much the incidents it documents as its simultaneously unassuming and extraordinary tone – its author's absolute lack of self-pity and self-dramatization as she shows us how an almost unthinkably dark passage in a woman's life can be illuminated by the clear light of common sense, simple grace, and courage." —O, The Oprah Magazine
A tough and vigorous, amusing rather than melancholic blend of literary journalism and memoir.
Penitent, with Roses is a series of essays by a white, middle-class Jewish mother who is diagnosed with AIDS when her son is 11 months old. The first part of the work encompasses several years of her life, including the birth of her son and her diagnosis, her attempt to notify a former lover of her condition, and her experiences as an activist and a hotline volunteer. It is followed by a series of autobiographical sketches of her childhood and young womanhood, framed as a letter to her small son. Throughout, readers accompany Paula W. Peterson as she re-forges her personal identity in the face of physical and spiritual crises.
Winner of the 2000 Bakeless Literary Publication Prize for Nonfiction
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PAULA W. PETERSON received her B.A. in English Literature from Brandeis University and her M.A. in English Literature from the University of Michigan. Her short fiction has appeared in Carolina Quarterly, Greensboro Review, Alligator Juniper, and other journals. One of her stories was included among the 100 distinguished stories of the year in Best American Short Stories. An essay from this Bakeless collection ("Prognosis Guarded") won first place in New Millennium Writings and was subsequently nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Peterson currently lives and writes in San Francisco, where she is involved in HIV/AIDS advocacy work and education and prevention programs.
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