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greenwillow77's review against another edition
challenging
dark
sad
medium-paced
2.25
I picked this book up after reading excerpts , & despite not really enjoying it, I did find it compelling. The author sets out to be detached & tells people this will be a book about “men without women,” despite being a woman herself, & so undoing her own premise from the start.
Her fascination with these men who blow into town with money to burn & throw it at alcohol, drugs, women, & games of chance begins in her teens, leads her into this project & to become embroiled in an affair with one of the first oilworkers she meets.
Her attitude is never as detached as she sets out for it to be, wether this is self delusion or by design isn’t clear. For example, she calls the men she meets on their attitudes towards women, yet judges & stereotypes other women herself, every one from her sister, to her boyfriend’s wife, to the girl her friend is casually seeing. She appears to want to be the exception, yet only goes so far as to prove herself as guilty & as biased as everyone else she encounters.
The tension between who she is, what she wants, & where her life is going is a bigger theme than the oil rig workers she interviews & whose stories intersperse her own. The pervasive sense of sadness & dissatisfaction is what they share, of past glory & lost youth, & an unclear future.
Her fascination with these men who blow into town with money to burn & throw it at alcohol, drugs, women, & games of chance begins in her teens, leads her into this project & to become embroiled in an affair with one of the first oilworkers she meets.
Her attitude is never as detached as she sets out for it to be, wether this is self delusion or by design isn’t clear. For example, she calls the men she meets on their attitudes towards women, yet judges & stereotypes other women herself, every one from her sister, to her boyfriend’s wife, to the girl her friend is casually seeing. She appears to want to be the exception, yet only goes so far as to prove herself as guilty & as biased as everyone else she encounters.
The tension between who she is, what she wants, & where her life is going is a bigger theme than the oil rig workers she interviews & whose stories intersperse her own. The pervasive sense of sadness & dissatisfaction is what they share, of past glory & lost youth, & an unclear future.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Drug use, and Alcohol
Moderate: Misogyny and Suicide
Minor: Chronic illness and Dementia
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