Review of \u3ci\u3eTillie Olsen: One Woman, Many Riddles\u3c/i\u3e by Panthea Reid

The large book by Panthea Reid (449 pages, 16 chapters, a prologue, epilogue, and three appendices) tracks Tillie Olsen\u27s long life (1912-2007) step by step, beginning from the Jewish-Russian origins of both her maternal and paternal families, up to her death on January 1, 2007. The book could have been a useful addition to Olsen scholarship, if not for the biographer\u27s insistent efforts to destroy the image of a writer and a woman who was committed so extensively to unhinging the political, social, and cultural stereotypes built up to contain the action of women in America and elsewhere