Probably more like 2.5 stars. Overall a pretty good book, if you're looking for something to make the case for feminism and why women deserve equal consideration and a polemic against the scourge of domestic violence. Unfortunately, I'm a bit more of an advanced reader than this, and several of the essays, as much as I agreed with them, didn't say much of anything new to me. The book's opening anecdote and title are what sell it. It hardly needs mentioning that I'm grateful to Solnit for bringing to America's attention that men explain things to women. I have been the recipient of this so many times and wish I could reinhabit my younger self on a few of those occasions to speak back to the men who've embarrassed me and/or left me feeling helpless or furious. So I agree with Solnit on every point she makes with regard to that issue and those of the other pieces here: feminism and rape-culture and violence against women ... even the Virginia Woolf/Sontag essay here was good. My only complaint, and it's not much, is that this is the fourth or fifth book of hers I've read over the years and there is always something about Solnit's prose that "repels" me - as in throws me off, flings me out of itself so that my attention is repeatedly dissipated and I have to continually re-focus on the content. That process just tires me. I still don't what it really is - it's very much about style, but perhaps also topics like "hope" and getting lost and wanderlust and muzzy concepts like "faraway nearby" - but even the Eadweard Muybridge book had this effect on me. Eula Biss's book didn't bore me though I wasn't particularly excited by it. I just started reading Meghan Daum's new collection and the prose is so different I feel as if I've had a shot of adrenaline. Style is ineffable.
Thoughtful essays on the state of feminism. and I learned a lot about Virginia Woolf to boot...
—kaussar
Powerful writing, but the last two essays didn't grab me. I'm intrigued by the author.
—pupcake
Some of the essays were mildly interesting, but it really isn't anything special.
—Rsmith2003
A straight-talking and very hopeful book, like a brain reboot.
—flavia
7 essays. Some good, some less so.
—jmouser521
