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A review by megatsunami
Girls to the Front: The True Story of the Riot Grrrl Revolution by Sara Marcus
4.0
3.5 stars. I really enjoyed this book and it made me reflect a lot on my own adolescence (just a tiny bit too late to be part of the Riot Grrl movement) as well as on youth and social movements in general. The author did really exhaustive research through interviews, video footage, zines, letters, and mainstream media coverage. She does a great job connecting the Riot Grrl movement with what was happening on the larger political and social scenes, which really puts the story in context. She also describes her personal investment in the topic (her own participation in the scene), which I appreciated. And I liked her emphasis (throughout the book) on what the movement was really supposed to be about: empowering women and girls to resist the limited options offered to them. Reading this re-connected me with some parts of my feminism that I haven't paid as much attention to lately. Thanks!
My main problem with the book was that I dislike the narrative voice she used (a kind of omniscient narrator) when it comes to describing people's inner experiences. It's a journalistic pet peeve of mine. It seems to me that the individual voices get lost in this style of narrative, since we're never sure how much was directly said by the person and how much is the author's interpretation. I really would have preferred more lengthy direct quotations, even if they included a lot of "um"s and "you know"s. At times the author went over the top in trying to give amazing descriptions of people's internal experience, where it would have been more powerful spoken directly in the person's voice. Example: "A layer of Molly's self-hatred burned off, and its charred remains drifted out the car window." (p. 181). Did Molly actually say that? Cause if she did, you should just quote her.
Occasionally the book got too bogged down in the day-to-day lives and petty in-fighting that happened. It's a fine line to walk, for sure - a lot of the details are important from a writing perspective to give us the flavor of the story, and important from a political/historical perspective to help us understand the movement. Still, sometimes there was just a little too much information about what the weather was like or who ate whose tofu without permission.
As a side note, what's up with the several random snarky digs at L7? They were a totally awesome and feminist band!
My main problem with the book was that I dislike the narrative voice she used (a kind of omniscient narrator) when it comes to describing people's inner experiences. It's a journalistic pet peeve of mine. It seems to me that the individual voices get lost in this style of narrative, since we're never sure how much was directly said by the person and how much is the author's interpretation. I really would have preferred more lengthy direct quotations, even if they included a lot of "um"s and "you know"s. At times the author went over the top in trying to give amazing descriptions of people's internal experience, where it would have been more powerful spoken directly in the person's voice. Example: "A layer of Molly's self-hatred burned off, and its charred remains drifted out the car window." (p. 181). Did Molly actually say that? Cause if she did, you should just quote her.
Occasionally the book got too bogged down in the day-to-day lives and petty in-fighting that happened. It's a fine line to walk, for sure - a lot of the details are important from a writing perspective to give us the flavor of the story, and important from a political/historical perspective to help us understand the movement. Still, sometimes there was just a little too much information about what the weather was like or who ate whose tofu without permission.
As a side note, what's up with the several random snarky digs at L7? They were a totally awesome and feminist band!