True North: A Memoir

The first 2/3 or so of the book was an excellent continuation of the first volume of the author's memoirs, [The Road from Coorain]. This story takes the author from her departure from her native Australia to Harvard where she completes her course work for her PhD in American history, her marriage, and her teaching at the University of Toronto. Unfortunately, a lot of the excitement, verve, even descriptive excellence disappears towards the end of the book when she takes on becoming the first Vice President at the U of T and eventually accepts the presidency of Smith College. Unfortunately, this becomes a about women's education and educational politics and is a lot less interesting, and now considerably dated. I also found the story of her marriage a bit forced. She acknowledged the problems of drinking (both) and manic depression (her husband--who was a renowned scholar in his own right), but most of the description is of an idyllic existence and, frankly, he sounds awfully understanding of her ambitions.The balance seems out of whack; it would have been more interesting with more nuance. It's almost as though she felt obligated to write about it, but didn't really want to. ( )

Second of Conway's three autobiographical books. The first is Road to Coorain, which covered her childhood in Australia and college there. True North starts with her graduate schooling at Harvard, her marriage, and her years taeching at the University of Toronto and becoming an administrator there, and ends with her selection as president of Smith College. Conway is a writer who makes me remember the excitement of new ideas, the joy of learning, of comminicating with others about ideas. She grows so much in the course of the book, in knowlege, in confidence in her capacity, and in her understanding of relationships. Highly recommended. ( )