A review by lola425
Love and Trouble: A Midlife Reckoning by Claire Dederer
4.0
While Dederer's experiences are unique to her, there is a universality to her expression of those experiences that will ring true to a lot of women:
* Do you want to be safe or be free? Can you be both?
* The transition from being a girl, being blissfully unaware of your body beyond its utility, to the moment you realize that your body is something to be looked upon and it affects the way you move in it, feel about it.
* Simultaneously wanting the male gaze, courting it even, and hating it at the same time.
* Reconciling your feminism, deeply felt, truly believed, with your desire to feel dominated, small, led.
* At midlife, still feeling yourself to be that 16 year old ingenue, your body betraying you once again simply by aging.
* Creating a marriage as you go along, loving your husband desperately, and resenting him a little bit too.
I could go in and on, but suffice it to say I recognized parts of myself in Dederer's story and am thankful to hear it vocalized.
* Do you want to be safe or be free? Can you be both?
* The transition from being a girl, being blissfully unaware of your body beyond its utility, to the moment you realize that your body is something to be looked upon and it affects the way you move in it, feel about it.
* Simultaneously wanting the male gaze, courting it even, and hating it at the same time.
* Reconciling your feminism, deeply felt, truly believed, with your desire to feel dominated, small, led.
* At midlife, still feeling yourself to be that 16 year old ingenue, your body betraying you once again simply by aging.
* Creating a marriage as you go along, loving your husband desperately, and resenting him a little bit too.
I could go in and on, but suffice it to say I recognized parts of myself in Dederer's story and am thankful to hear it vocalized.