Chicago Tribune

"ESSAYS ON IMAGE AND CULTURE"
'If you can make a Talking Barbie, surely you can make a Working Barbie," writes Susan Jane Gilman in "Klaus Barbie, and Other Dolls I'd Like to See," an essay collected in this anthology of women writing about body image and pop culture. The forte of "Adios, Barbie" is the variety of ways the writers take on this sometimes overworked topic--Nomy Lamm describes life as a 250-pound, disabled woman with a penchant for nightclubbing, and Bhargavi C. Mandava recalls her surprise at finding out that her American-born classmates didn't also rub oil in their hair. (Carolyn Alessio)