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A review by jove64
The French Photographer: This Winter Go To Paris, Brave The War, And Fall In Love by Natasha Lester
5.0
This book was so good I stayed up much later than planned to keep reading it and finish it. The themes are ones that generally interest me: women fighting to be considered fully human and thus capable of doing interesting and important work as well as having relationships; and chosen/found family.
This story is told from different points of view in different time periods. World War II gave women the opportunity to do work that might otherwise not have been open to them at all. However, their ability to do it, and to do it well, was still constrained by policies and cultural practices based in assumptions of women's weakness (and need for protection) and the sexualization of women. Of course, there are atypical individuals who support and enable women, but even they are constrained in their ability to affect the situation. (I'm a sociologist by training. This tension between structure and agency is ubiquitous.)
This story is beautifully written. It also does not shy away from some of the less pleasant ways that gendered power relations play out. Sexual harassment, petty administrative inconveniences and delays, and sexual assault are all present in this narrative, in ways that are consistent with how they play out in women's lives even now. The formal and informal ways that these barriers to doing their jobs are addressed also forms an important part of the narrative. The long term impact of those behaviours affects those even a generation or two removed.
A wonderful story that really makes you think.
This story is told from different points of view in different time periods. World War II gave women the opportunity to do work that might otherwise not have been open to them at all. However, their ability to do it, and to do it well, was still constrained by policies and cultural practices based in assumptions of women's weakness (and need for protection) and the sexualization of women. Of course, there are atypical individuals who support and enable women, but even they are constrained in their ability to affect the situation. (I'm a sociologist by training. This tension between structure and agency is ubiquitous.)
This story is beautifully written. It also does not shy away from some of the less pleasant ways that gendered power relations play out. Sexual harassment, petty administrative inconveniences and delays, and sexual assault are all present in this narrative, in ways that are consistent with how they play out in women's lives even now. The formal and informal ways that these barriers to doing their jobs are addressed also forms an important part of the narrative. The long term impact of those behaviours affects those even a generation or two removed.
A wonderful story that really makes you think.