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3.5 AVERAGE
3.5 AVERAGE
An interesting portrait of a pioneering woman whose ideas are relevant even in this day and age. However also very dry and difficult to get through. The book stays completely away from crafting a story, and instead seems more a summary with some commentary here and there. It felt like reading an extremely elaborate Wikipedia page. Would not really recommend this book.
okay i did not finish this book but i was too close to the end to not count it as read...
anyway, this was a good read overall!! i learned some very insightful info on not only the feminist and women's movements of the time but also on gloria steinem and her revelations with feminism, which actually paralleled my own revelations!! only thing is, this book was given to me by my professor and i was expected to return it to him, and coupled with the fact that this was the first biography i've read, this book proved to be veryyy challenging to get thru. everything was tied together quite neatly, and it was easy to follow thru steinem's life; however, near the end it was more of a chore to read than anything. this may be due to the feeling of being on a time crunch or bc of the lack of content on steinem's activism (she felt very distant during a lot of the book, despite it being a book...abt her...) or maybe even my lack of experience with reading more nonfiction books or even the lack of ig "pretty" words and structure to keep me engaged, or all of the above! whatever it was, after a certain pt, i felt as tho i could simply get the same knowledge i was learning abt her and what she was involved in by reading articles and researching her a little more. it was good in the beginning, especially with the insights on steinem's potential feelings and thoughts, but it left me feeling frustrated and unsatisfied in the end.
anyway, this was a good read overall!! i learned some very insightful info on not only the feminist and women's movements of the time but also on gloria steinem and her revelations with feminism, which actually paralleled my own revelations!! only thing is, this book was given to me by my professor and i was expected to return it to him, and coupled with the fact that this was the first biography i've read, this book proved to be veryyy challenging to get thru. everything was tied together quite neatly, and it was easy to follow thru steinem's life; however, near the end it was more of a chore to read than anything. this may be due to the feeling of being on a time crunch or bc of the lack of content on steinem's activism (she felt very distant during a lot of the book, despite it being a book...abt her...) or maybe even my lack of experience with reading more nonfiction books or even the lack of ig "pretty" words and structure to keep me engaged, or all of the above! whatever it was, after a certain pt, i felt as tho i could simply get the same knowledge i was learning abt her and what she was involved in by reading articles and researching her a little more. it was good in the beginning, especially with the insights on steinem's potential feelings and thoughts, but it left me feeling frustrated and unsatisfied in the end.
A thorough, sympathetic biography that ends in 1994, and so doesn’t cover nearly 30 years.
I certainly learned a lot about Steinem. She is one of those people who is energized by contact with others. I am a natural introspect — just the opposite. I was enervated just reading about Steinem’s killer travel schedule — she was on an airplane to somewhere every single week for years. She would engage with an audience after a speech, listening for hours, long after her companions had gone to bed. Then she would sleep in the plane the next morning. It sounds as if, for years, she was living on coffee, adrenaline, and naps grabbed whenever she allowed herself a quiet moment.
Steinem and I are about as different as two people can be. But — I discerned this from a few of the photos — we both love cats. If given a fact to face moment with Steinem, I might gently remonstrate with her for leaving her cat so often.
Steinem is a fantastic prose stylist. Her biographer— isn’t. Her sentences are often too long and sometimes poorly constructed. It’s work to figure out just what she is saying.
The author also remarks FREQUENTLY about Steinem’s looks. She quotes, at some length, a Wall
Street Journal reporter who describes Steinem’s long legs and “flat abdomen.” You start to wonder if the biographer is not jealous of her subject.
Finally, although this is a biography, I expected a deeper and more cogent presentation of Steinem’s beliefs.
One last point: the author frequently remarks on Steinem’s “calmness.” It may be true that Steinem is preternaturally calm. But the author has lived most of her life in New York City — ground zero for high- strung, confrontational personalities. What she describes as Steinem’s “calmness” could well be that typically Midwestern even-temperedness, that Midwestern courtesy. Midwesterners aren’t confrontational, they don’t raise their voices over minor inconveniences. It’s behavior I noticed when I lived in Grinnell, Iowa. I suspect the author has confused this regional trait with personality.
I certainly learned a lot about Steinem. She is one of those people who is energized by contact with others. I am a natural introspect — just the opposite. I was enervated just reading about Steinem’s killer travel schedule — she was on an airplane to somewhere every single week for years. She would engage with an audience after a speech, listening for hours, long after her companions had gone to bed. Then she would sleep in the plane the next morning. It sounds as if, for years, she was living on coffee, adrenaline, and naps grabbed whenever she allowed herself a quiet moment.
Steinem and I are about as different as two people can be. But — I discerned this from a few of the photos — we both love cats. If given a fact to face moment with Steinem, I might gently remonstrate with her for leaving her cat so often.
Steinem is a fantastic prose stylist. Her biographer— isn’t. Her sentences are often too long and sometimes poorly constructed. It’s work to figure out just what she is saying.
The author also remarks FREQUENTLY about Steinem’s looks. She quotes, at some length, a Wall
Street Journal reporter who describes Steinem’s long legs and “flat abdomen.” You start to wonder if the biographer is not jealous of her subject.
Finally, although this is a biography, I expected a deeper and more cogent presentation of Steinem’s beliefs.
One last point: the author frequently remarks on Steinem’s “calmness.” It may be true that Steinem is preternaturally calm. But the author has lived most of her life in New York City — ground zero for high- strung, confrontational personalities. What she describes as Steinem’s “calmness” could well be that typically Midwestern even-temperedness, that Midwestern courtesy. Midwesterners aren’t confrontational, they don’t raise their voices over minor inconveniences. It’s behavior I noticed when I lived in Grinnell, Iowa. I suspect the author has confused this regional trait with personality.