Reviews tagging 'Sexism'

Ricordi della mia inesistenza by Rebecca Solnit

8 reviews

mads_jpg's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective medium-paced

4.25

Rebecca Solnit can even make the Acknowledgments section beautiful.

Very inspiring to read her story and learn the context around some of her books. She's such a wonderful writer and it was really interesting seeing the ways community and art and difficulties have all shaped her life.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism, Colonisation, and Classism

Moderate: Body shaming, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Murder, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Addiction, Drug abuse, Hate crime, Toxic relationship, and Medical content

tianamannell's review against another edition

hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Sexual harassment

cartermon4's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Racism, and Sexism

Moderate: Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, and War

Minor: Murder

julianh's review against another edition

emotional informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny and Sexism

Moderate: Rape and Sexual assault

Minor: Addiction, Gun violence, Racism, Antisemitism, Cultural appropriation, War, and Classism

melissalivanos's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Rape

Minor: Domestic abuse and Homophobia

peggychecksitout's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

Every now and then, you come across a writer who speaks to something in you—an instinctual, clarifying realisation that the writer has something to teach you, if you’ll have the patience to listen to the message and learn it by heart. Rebecca Solnit is such a writer for me. What the message is, I’m still learning, but reading her memoir has unlocked a little more of it for me. 

Recollections of My Non-Existence isn’t a conventional memoir, it’s more of an essayistic exploration of how she found her voice as the writer she is today. She muses on the forces around her that shaped her—her experiences facing gendered violence and oppression, the different communities she has been involved in and drawn to, and her love of books and writing. 

Solnit has a really engaging writing style: she’s funny, insightful, lyrical and impactful. She effortlessly weaves together narratives exploring the personal, the philosophical, the political and the historic, and she is so good at invoking a sense of time and place you really come away feeling like you’ve experienced a small slice of it.   

I think the best non-fiction is that which leaves you with the world making a little more sense in a new way—a small piece of the puzzle that is the human experience clicks into place, and this book was definitely achieved that for me. 

Though this is only my third book of hers in my reading journey through her ouevre, it has definitely cemented Solnit as a guiding light in my own journey to find my way as a person and as an aspiring writer. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, and Racism

Moderate: Sexism, Sexual violence, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Physical abuse, Stalking, and Death of parent

novelyon's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny

Moderate: Rape, Sexism, and Sexual violence

Minor: Stalking

violetends's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

Read this for my bookclub. There are so many things about this book that left me without words. Even though it is an autobiographical work that also looks at history and the social contexts of her experiences, Solnit writes as if it were poetry. And with such incredible precision! Especially the chapters about misogyny, sexual violence and feminism were outstanding. It is very important to say though that these are particularly graphic. I found them difficult to read at times, nevertheless I consider them thoroughly enriching. 

This book is just something else and I have not read another work that compares. It is difficult on an emotional level, but so much worth it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Classism