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A review by cmvoelkel
Three Women by Lisa Taddeo
challenging
emotional
medium-paced
2.75
I picked up this book years ago but put it down very soon after because I just couldn't get into it. This time I started it as an audiobook whilst waiting for other holds to come in and was immediately captivated by the writing and narration. I fully appreciate writers who can write non-fiction in such a lyrical and engrossing way that it reads like a novel. Taddeo's writing really hooked me. That said, nothing else did.
As someone with a degree in sociology/psychology, I have a real interest in observational and ethnographical research. This here however, just felt more like voyerism than ethnography and unnecessarily so. I kept waiting for the big reveal or tie-in at the end, the greater reflections on female desire that the author would use to make sense of or draw value from these (white women's) stories. There wasn't any. I am left wondering what the point of this book was and feeling a bit miffed that such great writing went to such a salacious, shallow and short-sighted cause.
As someone with a degree in sociology/psychology, I have a real interest in observational and ethnographical research. This here however, just felt more like voyerism than ethnography and unnecessarily so. I kept waiting for the big reveal or tie-in at the end, the greater reflections on female desire that the author would use to make sense of or draw value from these (white women's) stories. There wasn't any. I am left wondering what the point of this book was and feeling a bit miffed that such great writing went to such a salacious, shallow and short-sighted cause.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Eating disorder, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, and Suicide