I’m rating this one 5 stars not because it’s perfect (although I feel it is pretty close) but instead because it is perfect for right now. In Trainwreck, Sady Doyle unpacks the ways that society judges women who dare to live too big a life and how historically “too big a life” has been pretty darn small.
I was already in an angry feminist headspace last November when I read badkittyuno’s review and her description of the book as a journey through the cycle of trainwrecks in modern pop culture and the stories of the historic trainwrecks who came before sounded right up my alley. When I finished All the Single Ladies and We Should All Be Feminists at the end of last year I decided to add more feminist reading to my list, and Trainwreck moved to the head of the line.
Badkittyuno was exactly right; Doyle’s style of writing will make you angry at how we treat women, and how we always have. But, the tone of the book isn’t “look at all these terrible things that others have done to women” its “look at how our societies have been built to bring down women”. It is a distinction, which is important, and changes this book from what could have been an angry rant into a well-paced, well-spoken examining of culture. The women she chooses to highlight, from Mary Wollstonecraft to Billie Holiday to Britney Spears (the ultimate modern trainwreck), are perfectly encapsulated and Doyle makes sure to highlight that almost all of these women have written for themselves. Doyle takes the time to point this out in order to tell us that we should go back to the source, as she should not be the end all be all of these women’s narratives.
I still believe the patriarchy harms everyone, and feminism aims to heal through equality of options and choice. However, it’s also incredibly important to realize what internalized messages we have all taken onboard and work to undo them. Trainwreck is a place to start, because recognizing the pattern means we can begin to undo it.
Even if you aren’t in an angry feminist mind space right now, this is still a funny, sharp-witted book and I would completely suggest making time for it in your reading diet.
This book was read and reviewed as part of the charitable Cannonball Read.
faintingviolet 