Expository Writing - Background and Analysis, Part 2

Research on leadership shows that, in general, gender is consequential in relation to leader’s effectiveness. Analyzing what makes leaders most effective, experimental studies have identified the female leadership advantage (Vinkenburg et al. 2011). Leadership styles that emphasize feminine qualities are described as transformational leadership. Transformational leadership is empowering, participative, and fosters the input of coworkers. Transformational leaders inspire, motivate, and encourage creative solutions to problems (Vinkenburg et al. 2011, 11).

Women display more transformational behaviors, while men are associated with more position-based and formal leadership. Men are believed to manifest command and control, while women facilitate cooperation and collaboration. Women encompass a distinctive set of capabilities and tend to lead with effective styles. They encourage commitment, interaction and involvement. Contemporary views of good leadership emphasize the ability to empower. Organizations can utilize these effective leadership styles to their competitive advantage. Among U.S. organizations that have adopted transformational leadership styles are Google and Facebook. These Silicon Valley giants hired women executives to stimulate innovation and progressive change (McLean 2014).

Not all women, however, exhibit this transformational style. Similarly, many men do. Advocating the advantages of feminine leadership in a way perpetuates a problem. Stating that men and women lead with distinctive styles promotes gender differences. It reinforces expectations concerning appropriate female behavior. Women are naturally seen to be different. Difference itself is a problem. The goal is to acknowledge that men and women are the same and deserve similar rights and responsibilities.

To this end, some organizations in the United States have adopted an “androgynous view” of leadership roles (Eagly and Carley 2003, 826). It includes a wide repertoire of masculine and feminine behaviors. Marissa Mayer, Yahoo’s CEO, points out that she is “gender-oblivious” (McLean 2014, 72). “She has credited her obliviousness with her success” (McLean 2014, 72). Mayer was one of Google’s highest-ranking women prior to becoming the youngest woman, at 37, to run a Fortune 500 company. She also refuses to be stereotyped and never noticed that she stood out as Google’s first female engineer. Being empathetic, decisive and having the ability to influence others are some of the modern characterizations of great leaders.

Women don’t make better leaders than men, or worse. But there are patterns of inequality which stand in way of women’s paths to executive roles. In American organizations, equality is not a distant goal. There is an upward bump in women's representation among corporate officers. Women in the United States have come a long way. Thanks to the Makers project, one of the initiatives that focus on issues of American women, leadership, and the workplace, a number of conferences and networking events are launching as part of the growing women’s movement. The Makers effort, originally a series of documentaries about women who make America, will soon become a global brand built around women’s empowerment (McGregor 2014). Sheryl Sandberg, the chief operating officer of Facebook, is one of the women of distinction who was featured in a Makers documentary. After the wide success of her first book, Lean In, Sandberg is writing the second book for university graduates and is introducing “Lean In Circles” to college campuses (McGregor 2014). These networking groups are formed to open the dialogue on subjects like negotiation techniques and body language (Luscombe 2013, 42).

During negotiations, women pull back when they should lean in (Sandberg 2013, 44). According to the norms of behavior associated with masculinity and femininity, women tend to be deferential, which appears to be powerless and weak. Women have internalized the norms around gender and work. This internal regulation prevents them from self-promotion and using assertive speech when it comes to bargaining and negotiations. There is a tendency for women to equalize status, demonstrate responsiveness, and support others. It is an internal cognitive matter that is expressed in behavior. It is a mindset that translates into habits. Getting rid of the internal barriers that hold women back—the internal messages that say it is wrong to be outspoken, aggressive, and more powerful than men—is critical to gaining power (Sandberg 2013, 44).

Denying self-determination, in light of expectations, affects women’s chances of success. Each workplace situation brings up gendered expectations. Whether they lean in or pull back, women are automatically wrong regardless of how they respond to these expectations. Some women in positions of influence try to navigate the conflicting expectations, without deviance from norms of feminine behavior. A negotiation method, for example, that combines “niceness with insistence” is a creative way to attain a goal (Sandberg 2013, 48). Other female leaders seem to gain advantage by using competitiveness with cooperativeness, without appearing less caring or understanding. This technique, however, is a way of responding to expectations for femininity, like playing a role that is already scripted. In fact, most women hold each other accountable to appropriately manage their gender roles. Adhering to the norm meets the expectations, while departing from tendencies invites resistance. This type of gender compliance reinforces the binary expectations. The activity of managing the expectations is a self-defeating endeavor.

Expository Writing - Background and Analysis, Part 1

In their review of leadership research, Alice Eagly and Linda Carli, psychology professors whose research is based on gender differences, examined the stereotypic expectations of male and female leaders in organizational settings. Using large numbers of studies, they focused on findings of prejudice and discrimination directed against women as leaders. When people expect women to possess female-stereotypic attributes, they perceive individual women to be warm and selfless, which is a divergent from leadership qualities of decisiveness and instrumentality (Eagly and Carley 2003). Incongruity between expectations about women and expectations about leaders underlie prejudice against female leaders (Eagly and Carley 2003). Inconsistencies between the demands of leadership roles and the perceived female gender role produce disadvantages that women have “from prejudicial evaluations of their competence as leaders” (Eagly and Carley 2003, 807).

To explore this “role incongruity principle,” Eagly and Carley (2003, 823) consider previously conducted meta-analysis of stereotype research that compared the performance ratings of effectiveness for male and female leaders. They looked at studies where men and women held the leadership roles that were defined in especially masculine terms (Eagly and Carley 2003, 823). The results of these studies proved that there are biases against women in performance evaluations. Women were less effective compared to men in extremely male-dominated positions – roles that require the ability to direct and control people (Eagly and Carley 2003, 823). Since the desirable leader characteristics are aligned with stereotypically masculine qualities of dominance, women who demonstrate leadership ability may be perceived as “insufficiently feminine” (Eagly and Carley 2003, 820). They encounter more dislike than men for showing dominance or being highly assertive (Eagly and Carley 2003, 820).

This double bind is a dilemma in which women receive conflicting messages, with one message negating the other. Female professionals are held to these conflicting standards because the norm for professional managerial style is aligned with masculinity and associated with authority. Using authority wisely is an important aspect of leadership. Certain concepts of leadership, however, are perceived as acceptable to be applied by men, but are considered unacceptable when applied by women. This creates a situation in which a successful response to one message results in a failed response to the other. When female leaders exhibit stereotypically masculine qualities, they encounter judgment and resistance.

The “negatively bias judgments” of women’s performance as leaders constrains their chances of becoming business executives (Eagly and Carley 2003, 823). The findings on leadership research show that the masculinity of leader roles affects women’s rise in organizations. In view of the results produced by these studies, Eagly and Carley (2003, 823) conclude that the success of women in leadership roles depends on context. In male contexts, prejudicial reactions restrict women’s access to leadership roles and reduce the effectiveness of women who attain these roles (Eagly and Carley 2003, 823).

Expository Writing - Introduction

In the United States, organizational definitions of leadership are stereotypically associated with men. Americans have preconceived notions about what kind of work is masculine and feminine. The expectations about leadership are built around masculinity. The problem is that we have stereotypical expectations of men and women, and how they lead. The different norms for how women and men should lead may lessen women’s chances of achieving more elite positions (Vinkenburg et al. 2011).

Many years of studies on women and leadership questioned whether women can lead as well as men. Findings suggest that there are some people who still believe that women differ from men in personality and temperament in ways that affect leadership (Eagly and Carli 2007). There is vast research and literature on how such stereotypical beliefs may affect the promotions of women to higher levels in organizations. Modern research confirms the presence of the discriminatory glass ceiling phenomenon in organizations.

As a metaphor for barriers that prevent women from advancing, the glass ceiling has framed our understanding of reality. Despite the educational advantage of women over men, females remain rare in some executive roles; there is still a predominance of male leaders. Shattering the glass ceiling and the gender inequity in organizations remains a challenge.

Women are fully aware of the glass ceiling processes that are based on the ideologies in which women and their achievements are devalued. While neglecting the causes of workplace gender inequality, female leaders are tasked with breaking through the glass ceiling in order to attain high positions. There are diverse strategies that women devise to become leaders, “but finding the pathways to leadership demands considerable skill and some luck” (Eagly and Carli 2007).

In organizations, there are all kinds of expectations that invite gendered performance. Modesty and kindness is expected of women who are associated with qualities that convey affection and sensitivity. If women lead confidently they can be seen as abrasive, while men who behave assertively are considered passionate. When women are kind and cooperative they are regarded as inapt for powerful jobs (Eagly and Carley 2007).

What many women face in managerial and professional environment is a double bind. In other words, when women and men exhibit similar behaviors, when they are doing almost exactly the same thing, or saying the same thing, people interpret it differently (Ashcraft and Mumby 2004). They interpret it in line with the binary expectations, and the same behavior takes on different meaning. The same behavior leads to different consequences.

Although women display important leadership behaviors like ambition and confidence, these are inconsistent behaviors with prevalent stereotypes that women are modest and caring. This inconsistency can undermine the effectiveness of such behaviors (Vinkenburg et al. 2011). Women may still hit the ceiling, since these behaviors are not congruent with female gender role.

Gendered expectations create inequality, and lay a foundation for different work and assignments men and women do (Ashcraft and Mumby 2004). This is the underlying cause of impediments that women encounter on the path toward becoming business executives. A variety of obstacles stem from these expectations, restricting women’s access to leadership roles and further sustaining men’s dominance of executive positions. To revise these normative views of gender and leadership, there needs to be a shift at cultural, organizational and individual levels. Changes in current social structure require transformation of cultural ideologies, organizational practices, as well as people’s mindset.

SUMMER BOOKS

'Blue Nights,' by Joan Didion
It's my favorite read of Summer

Greece 2011

Young Greeks Respond to their Plight

I 'heart' The New Yorker

As summer is coming to an end, I want to praise a single publication that made this season ambitious like no novel or cinematic creation could ever make. After reading Kiran Desai's "The Inheritance of Loss," I was overdosed with overdeveloped characters that are faced with unrelenting complexities of life. And the much-anticipated "The Tree of Life" by Terrence Malick featured frustrations that are unique to middle class American families only. What a single issue of The New Yorker does, unlike any other 'escape' I could find this summer, is include themes about power relations, doing gender and the major flaws of interpersonal interaction at intersection of class, sex and race. Just grab the magazine, and you will be offered a selection of stimulating reads like no other publication presents.

SUMMER BOOKS

'The History of Love,' by Nicole Krauss
It's my favorite read of Summer

Armenia 2011

Collaboration is the New Competition

Question: What do we need to build systems that foster new forms of business and ensure their success?
Answer: We need collaboration to increase reach and impact, to inform and ignite. We need to transition from competitive advantage to collaborative advantage.

Today’s incredibly connected world gives us a sense of commons. In today’s merging markets the expectations of consumers are already changing when the self interest is matched against sustainability. We care about the socio-efficient ways of manufacturing. Along that, technologies have dramatically altered the marketplace.

With this global change, profitability has to change also, and companies have to supply the demand for the “green product.” To that end, Alex Bogusky, the former advertizing magnate, has created a digital commons – an area of collaboration, where a group of companies, that by traditional definitions would be considered competitors, come together to encompass ideas of the common community.

Alex Bogusky’s “Common” is a collaborative brand. It brings together a diverse group of stakeholders in a collaborative effort to create new businesses built on sustainability and accountability under the “Common” brand. To have a conversation around what is sustainable people have to be involved. Challenging old ways of working requires more vigorous involvement from all stakeholders.

“Coffee Common” is the new business idea under the “Common” brand. It is a collaboration of people with different opinions but a singular interest – serving great by-the-cup brewed coffee. A diverse group of stakeholders – a coffee farmer, an artisan coffee roaster, a barista and a consumer – have joint together in a collaborative effort to emphasize sustainable farming and fair trade. “Coffee Common” was introduced recently at the TED conference.

The heightened interdependence of today’s world allows the rural agricultural communities worldwide to enter and compete in the high-end marketplace of Europe, America and Asia. High coffee consumption in developing countries gives rise to coffee economy.

Collaboration can be an act that promotes global economic prosperity and cultural exchange. Collaboration shifts control to all stakeholders. Collaboration is the new opportunity; it gives competitive edge and creates win-win situation for all.

Orthodox Capitalism is Dead

The crises we face today, the inability to create new jobs and new industries, are the shortcomings of capitalism as we practice it. Umair Haque, the author of the “New Capitalist Manifesto,” challenges us to recognize the cornerstones of industrial-era capitalism to be able to remake it. “Capitalism is a human creation; we made it and we can remake it. We are at a critical juncture to remake it again.”

Profitability is what we mean by capitalism. To rediscover profitability we need to take a critical look at our competitive advantage. For the next-generation capitalism we need creativity, customization, commitment and compliance. We need to unleash creativity by bringing together diverse constituents to generate new ideas and to reach a creative outcome. We need to redefine consumption methods, like iTunes, and give customized purchasing options to consumers to download a digital album in MP3 format or in a single-file format.

Commitment is a process by which we get people to agree willingly to continue to support something. Companies are in need of commitment and compliance – there is a constant fear that people will go home and not come back. People want a say and to be part of decision making. Companies need to engage employees and encourage “make-our-own rules” approach to decision making processes

The 4 C’s become core characteristics of human interaction – the more active the participation, the more creative the decisions and process outcomes, and the more customized to our needs. Systems by which we make decisions need high degrees of collaboration and participation. This is very different from what we are trained to believe.

Our communication practices are still limited by the legacy of an old design. We favor a form of talk that is an argument, a campaign to win, organized around liberal democracy – it is embedded in our constitution. What we inherited is a 16th - 17th century view of human experience.

Partisanship is an outcome of liberal democratic model – it works to polarize into position. We have a model of how talk should be. Our native theory of dialogue is adversarial talk. We advocate a view, we debate, and the better argument wins.

But having the world we want will not come from voting for it.

So we need to look at the communication designs that are available to us. How we talk to each other and what are the native theories?

COMM 4600

Finally! A course by Stan Deetz!
COMM 4600 - Collaborative Decision Making

Course description from syllabus:
Organizations and communities increasingly use participatory and collaborative forms of decision making to solve complex multi-party conflicts. Communication is core to the quality of all participatory decision making. The course will focus on research and practice. More specifically, the course will explore why the need for collaboration is increasing, the various types and models of collaboration, individual skill needs, and the discussion and deliberation processes that facilitate and limit the success of these programs. As a result of the course, class members should have a better understanding of the changing workplace and its connection to the wider society, an increased capacity to participate in collaborative decision making, and the ability to aid organizations and communities in improving their decision making processes.

The upcoming posts will focus on collaboration!

the tyranny of slender

The impulse to put people into neat categories is irresistible. The human aspect is sadly missing from our categorizations of self. Instead we see ourselves constrained by social hierarchies and gender roles, distinguished by our clothes, body shapes, and economic status.

Today, so much of the conversation about women and fashion focuses on body size that we discuss weight as though it were the most important aspect of our life. It seems like media is on a mission to demoralize the average, chubby woman.

The beauty ideal portrayed by media has always been slender.

Being saturated with so many media messages about how we should do gender and what we need to consume in order to do it appropriately creates an anxiety. Susan Bordo calls it “the tyranny of slender,” and how the slender, firm, fit body is taken as a statement about ones character. This assumption that if you are fit you are somehow a disciplined person, you self manage, and you have managerial abilities. You are an ambitious, achieving person.

The cumulative weight of advertising in our everyday life is the insecurity, and the struggle, to constantly live up to this slender body. Not always consciously, but there are pressures that nag at us in our everyday life. One of the fears of losing femininity for me is whether I live up to this beauty ideal, in terms of how I dress and the amount of time I spend doing hair and make up in order to keep up.















We think that if we are lucky to have a job we better live up to the expectations that come with it - the expectations that are hanging over the work situations and that demand to perform in a public sphere and to live up to the notion of “the universal worker.”

Instead of changing the system, I have built my life around it, around the organizational structure, and I navigate, while negotiating my femininity, toning down sexuality and feminized communication style in order to survive in a bureaucracy that is not gender-neutral, but is built around men and masculinity. According to Joan Acker, it is the organizational system that is gendered.

(As Acker illustrates the concept of hegemony, she claims how the bureaucracy creates gendered hegemony that presses everyone, and how we all buy into this norm.)

I have functioned under the assumption that the barriers to women's advancement are created by expectations and habits surrounding communication, and the assumption that masculine communication style is more naturally professional and managerial, realizing that the only way to be in a strong role is playing a part originally written for men.

Acker acknowledges that there are women who are able to step into “a men’s world” and succeed, but it generally requires what she calls “becoming a social man, whose personal and private needs are taken care of outside work,” in order to live up to the idea of “the universal worker.”

London 2010

Advertising Gender

In Tom Ford’s risqué new fragrance campaign a very nude woman is featured wearing nothing but the product. The bottle of cologne is placed between her legs. In the attempt to make sex and the naked body glamorous and chic, the ad uses photoshopped body parts, producing a shiny and plastic image of a woman’s body that looks like an unclothed Barbie doll. This is not anywhere near a natural body. The woman has no head. She is not a real person.

One example Suzanne Romaine offers of all the contradictions that are embedded in media is promoting the “natural look,” so we are trying to copy this ideal as if it is based on a real woman, which in fact is not a real woman. It is a cartoon image.

In Tom Ford’s most recent menswear ad, a young gentleman, who is dressed in a white suit and holds a bottle of beer and a cigar appears with a fully naked woman, and we see only her toned and tanned body with no face. This is an example of the way women and the promise of women is explicitly used to sell things to men – advertizing gender.

As Tom Ford claims, “we are selling to men – put the fragrance where they want to look,” admitting that objectifying women is very profitable in the fashion industry.

Tom Ford is an equal opportunity objectifier, however. In a parallel process his ads also depict boldly naked men. The campaign includes images of the ideal male body, putting more pressure on men to make a spectacle of themselves with the cut abs and the cartoonish biceps.

Romaine argues that ads call on us to do gender in a way that is truly in drag. We are not copying an original; we are copying what is in essence a hyper-feminine or masculine cartoon. And eventually everyone ends up feeling pressured. Advertisement plays a strong role in this.

In menswear ads masculinity is represented in a fierce formal look. Men appear in suits with immaculately groomed hair. But it is not only the heterosexual man portrayed here. Tom Ford’s PR campaign uses photo and video ads with same-gendered couples in the midst of passionate acts or posing as sophisticated looking professionals (which seems a lot to handle for some people without any warning).

Although homosexual, the male protagonist is of high class, white, similar to the notion of the universal male who is young, fearless and secure.

The femininity is depicted by reducing women to just their body parts. Romaine points out how body parts and gendered images of body parts are invoked even in ads that have nothing to do with sexuality. In this case the ad for cologne is used to evoke sensuality versus sex.

This relates to creating need around ideal beauty and the use of sexuality to sell things, by making the product look like it is associated with a desirable lifestyle.

This is how need is created around ideal beauty, as Romaine claims it. That if you consume the product, it will lead you to this beauty ideal, it will enhance your lifestyle, your relationships, and your status in the world. And we get sucked into particular brand from the basis of those image associations.

Tom Ford brand isn’t selling clothes. It’s selling a culture, an identity. The clothes make you. Buying something from Tom Ford is like joining an elite club.

30 Days of School

My Gender Credentials

I like to wear ribbons and glorious long dresses










In reality, I strive to be a woman. I look for creative ways to be strong and assertive without losing my femininity. I am concerned with how my behavior is perceived by others.

I am constantly involved in:
- Community building
- Networking
- Maintaining of relationships
- Organizing events
- Throwing parties

Ceasing to live according to social expectations
Ideally, I would like a dynamic genderless identity - an identity that encompasses fundamental human traits. I wish to create my identity and construct my self without the constant awareness of the gender categorizations.

I am actively producing gender-specific behavior by:
- Collaborating
- Supporting
- Assisting
- Cooperating

I do not wish to be defined by the traditional female experience
The gender identity I especially wish to avoid is a classic female identity, with mere features of empathy, kindness, motherly compassion and understanding. I do not want to live up to the social expectation and project an intuitive, nurturing personality.
- I try to no longer feel accountable for my unwomanly conduct
- While communicating I am being direct
- I am willing to be logical than yielding or pleasing during the process of reasoning

I am a product of my culture!











In my culture, there are distinctive and separate roles for the males and the females, reinforced by a set of qualities and attitudes that define femaleness and maleness. I was taught that femininity is not an object; it cannot be lost. It is what a woman is. It is a part of woman’s identity.

As a woman, I constantly deal with the tension between the traditional female role of homemaking and my career and education, in order to maintain the necessary creative balance.

The connection between gender identity and existential situations
My gender identity is revealed in the situations in which I am placed. It is through specific circumstances and events that my femininity is enacted.

However:
- I never ask for directions
- I don’t enjoy shopping for shoes
- I am rarely emotional
- I don’t share secrets with my mother
- I say what I think

Meryl Streep is My Gender Model
Because she demonstrates the “ability to plunge into her characters and lose herself inside of them, transforming herself physically to meet the demands of her roles.”1 Streep can be plain or glamorous and radiant; she can be a woman or a man.
1 Brennan, Sandra. “Meryl Streep: Full Biography.” The New York Times. 5 Sept. 2010

That’s the way it is meant to be!
I encountered the following enforced messages that
sustained and rendered my social reality. The first
three were advice given to the bride at a marriage
ceremony:
“The husband is the head of the wife and the wife must be subservient to the husband.”
“A man is to be the head of the house and a good provider.”
“If one of you has to win an argument, let it be your mate.”
“A woman is judged more by her appearance than by her performance.”
“A woman’s place is in the kitchen.”
“A woman should be feminine for the man to be masculine.”

The essence of being a woman











The following are the activities in which I
participate that support my being a woman:
- Gift-wrapping and color-coordinating
- Smiling and nodding while listening
- Including a “smiley face” in my notes
- Putting an exclamation mark in “Thank You!”
- Designing and decorating
- Taking photos and sharing online albums
- Attending baby and bridal showers
- Remembering the birthdays and anniversaries
- Wearing glorious long dresses

BACK2SCHOOL - Fall 2010

BlogDay

СЕГОДНЯ 31 Августа мировое интернет-сообщество отмечает День блога (BlogDay). В этот день каждый пользователь публикует у себя ссылки на пять других блогов, отличных по тематике.

BlogDay was created with the belief that bloggers should have one day dedicated to getting to know other bloggers from other countries and areas of interest. The designated date is August 31, because when written 3108, it resembles the word "Blog". On that day, bloggers recommend five new blogs to their visitors, so that readers discover new, previously unknown blogs.

Ну тогда и я скину Вам 5 блогов которые я читаю:

Сноб
Kris Carr
Erik Raschke
Hasmik Arsen Wanderings
Unzipped: Gay Armenia

BONUS: FearLess Revolution

SUMMER BOOKS

'The Lovers,' by Vendela Vida
It's my favorite read of Summer

Like 2007's "Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name," Vida's "The Lovers" follows a woman who travels far from home on an emotional quest. This time, it's Yvonne, a 53-year-old high school history teacher from Vermont; her destination is the coast of Turkey. Yvonne’s story can be seen from the start as an unusual and engrossing exploration of marriage, parenthood and the accidents that can end and reconfigure lives.

We are presented with an American woman abroad who is less interested in her exotic surroundings than in mapping out the equally mysterious terrain of her past.

To begin, Yvonne isn’t sure she raised her children fairly or understandingly enough. She and her son barely know each other, and her daughter has been severely troubled from an early age. Nor can she pinpoint what part of her was lost or subsumed in marriage, or if the relationship was on the whole a success. Underlying these questions is her desire to know whether she’s lived as she should have. As a teacher of history, she would be familiar with Solon’s admonition to Croesus of Lydia — no one’s life can be deemed happy until it is over — which makes her hope for answers equally fascinating and futile.

Vida, who is married to the writer Dave Eggers, is a subtle writer with a spare and authoritative voice, and her third novel is further evidence that she can fashion characters as unpredictable as they are endearing. Although its ending is a little rushed (some situations feel arbitrarily abandoned), the book is a satisfying, often brilliant portrait of a woman searching for relief from things that will not, she discovers at last with something like acceptance, go away. From New York Times Sunday Book Review, July 1st, 2010


The book advances itself with echoes and variations on themes. A woman who travels alone will see couples everywhere, and there are an overwhelming number in this book. The owls had mated for life, couples sunbathe on a beach, Yvonne's children are twins, and there is an excessively smug pair on a boat trip that Yvonne takes to Cleopatra's island. Lovers, appropriately for a book of this title, surface often, with the furious menage a trois between the house owner and his wife and mistress, Yvonne's love story with her husband, and, most importantly, the book that Yvonne is reading, Marguerite Duras' stunning short novel, "The Lover."

Duras' book gives a reader a key to the deeper aims of Vida's work. Throughout her life, Duras rewrote, in a number of ways, her autobiographical story of a young girl in French colonial Vietnam who takes an older Chinese lover. There is a small echo of the story in Yvonne and Ahmet's friendship: as innocent as it is to Yvonne, theirs is an unequal relationship based on money, and it does appear sinister to outsiders.

Vida's first novel, "And Now You Can Go," is a swift, funny story about a young woman whose life falls apart after she is held at gunpoint in a park, and how she slowly heals after a volunteer surgical trip to the Philippines. Vida's second, "Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name," is about another young woman who flees to Lapland when the man she has always believed was her father dies, leaving her parentless and unsure of her own identity. "The Lovers," Vida's new novel, is the story of yet another woman who, in the aftermath of trauma, travels in order to heal herself.

It is only in light of Duras' lifelong project - to refine her story by retelling it - that we understand that Vida's project over her three novels is quite ambitious, even if her methods are quiet. In the end, by pushing deeper into her refrains of grief and travel, Vida's work becomes clearer and more sophisticated with every book she writes; and "The Lovers" is her best and most disturbing novel yet. From SFGate.com, June 20th, 2010