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celiathepoet 's review for:
Drinking with Men: A Memoir
by Rosie Schaap
Rosie Schaap's Drinking With Men is well-written, and important. Especially important because it reminds me how very much there is to be written about women's experience of bars. Part-memoir, part-essay, the book visits several bars and catalogs their traits, specifics, and histories. For a woman who drinks in bars, it reads as field guide as much as narrative. it is truly delightful to have this experience properly recorded, and the author does this admirably.
I admit that something was missing for me, though. Though Schaap is generous with her disclosure about her own experience, even the uncomfortable parts, I find I leave the book in a state of longing to have read more moments which were truly like being there, rather than like hearing about it. Sometimes it is like hearing the story as told at the bar. Drinking With Men is memoir, not fiction, and I know I am not promised that immersion into experience. But, I wanted it, and I feel confident that Rose Schaap could deliver it, maybe next time she puts out some work. I hope that will be soon.
I admit that something was missing for me, though. Though Schaap is generous with her disclosure about her own experience, even the uncomfortable parts, I find I leave the book in a state of longing to have read more moments which were truly like being there, rather than like hearing about it. Sometimes it is like hearing the story as told at the bar. Drinking With Men is memoir, not fiction, and I know I am not promised that immersion into experience. But, I wanted it, and I feel confident that Rose Schaap could deliver it, maybe next time she puts out some work. I hope that will be soon.