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A review by georgereads982
Three Women by Lisa Taddeo
Did not finish book. Stopped at 35%.
I have countless issues with this book. Firstly, the writing itself felt incredibly surface level and clunky and yet there were moments where it felt like I was reading ridiculously pretentious drivel. It felt to me like this book was written for men who want to 'understand women's issues better', and straight white women. I have no evidence to back that up, but even during the first chapter I could hear Taddeo's intended audience screaming from every page. Especially when she referred to a teenage girl being groomed by her married male teacher as an 'affair'.
I am also baffled as to the fact that Taddeo spent 8 years researching this book and yet all three stories centre around straight white women, two of which arerape victims and the other is manipulated into a cuck fantasy by her husband. Not one WOC? Not one queer woman? Not one woman who has a healthy relationship with sex? Really? The author travelled across America for 8 years and found three slightly different shades of the same woman.
The real villian though is the marketing. I researched the book a little before picking it up from the library and what is described is so far from the actuality of this book it honestly made me angry. This book is marketed as a book about desire and yet there is very little desire present at all (You'll be sick of the word desire by the time you've read even one article). It is a book about three average women, and three fucked up marriages, (one of those marriages being the groomers'). Also including a story of rape and molestation (both of which were done by male authority figures) in a book that is being sold as a tell all on women's desire, is a very dangerous thing to do. I think Taddeo's handling of the molestation retelling was bad enough, but including it in this book at all is simply wrong. This story does not centre desire. It is three stories of damaged women trying to make the best of awful situations they have been put in by men.
Lisa Taddeo should not have written this book, let alone allowed it to be described as feminist. The prologue alone tells you all you need to know about her views on women and sex when shedescribes a vicious sexual assault her mother (who is dead by the way) experienced every day on her way to work, in uncomfortable detail. Taddeo wonders why her mother "allowed it" to happen and seems disgruntled that she can't ask her mother this exact question. Honestly, it's my fault for continuing to read after that.
Finally, there was absolutely no point to this book. It simply exists. For no reason. No conclusions were drawn and no valid points or discussions around sex and desire were made. A completely pointless borderline damaging book.
I am also baffled as to the fact that Taddeo spent 8 years researching this book and yet all three stories centre around straight white women, two of which are
The real villian though is the marketing. I researched the book a little before picking it up from the library and what is described is so far from the actuality of this book it honestly made me angry. This book is marketed as a book about desire and yet there is very little desire present at all (You'll be sick of the word desire by the time you've read even one article). It is a book about three average women, and three fucked up marriages, (
Lisa Taddeo should not have written this book, let alone allowed it to be described as feminist. The prologue alone tells you all you need to know about her views on women and sex when she
Finally, there was absolutely no point to this book. It simply exists. For no reason. No conclusions were drawn and no valid points or discussions around sex and desire were made. A completely pointless borderline damaging book.