"Two Lives: Gertrude and Alice" by Janet Malcolm
This is a well written look at circulating rumors of wartime connections between the ladies and Nazi collaborators and there own possible anti-Semitic "self-loathing". While the answers remain hard to pin down I was surprised at some of the right-wing sympathies that Gertrude expressed including her support of Spanish dictator Franco. Another important topic covered is the difficulty the average reader has in comprehending Ms. Stein's prose. Like much of experimental modern literature it requires a doctorate and years of study to penetrate. I love it! The book's main point seems to be an exploration of biography's ability to ferret out "The Truth". This is a slim volume that only hints at these issues and makes me want to read Ms. Malcolm's longer biography of Sylvia Plath, which is a longer meditation on the purposes and problems of biography.
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