The Power Notebooks

I devoured this book and found myself reflecting on it so often I am already rereading! Her relatable descriptions of relationships intertwined with historical literary examples have me placing my own entanglements with more clarity, most appreciably.

Great condition. Love the book.

Perceptive, honest, and disturbing.

Roiphes latest book is provocative and unsettling. In it she examines a contradiction in the lives of women her own as a mother of two and tenured NYU professor, as well as those of famous literary figures past and present, including Simone de Beauvoir, Sylvia Plath and Mary McCarthy. All are powerful, competitive women with strong views, who want to express their opinions and be heard in the public sphere. Yet at the same time, they often find themselves powerless in their personal relationships and cant help but question why: How, on the one hand, can I be a feminist, a serious scholar, a successful author, and on the other hand, submit to my partner or passively take his abuse which is precisely what Roiphe does when her husband throws her out of the car one day and she carries her baby home without putting up a fight? Isnt she being hypocritical? Why doesnt she rebel the same way she does on the page or at the lectern? In a similar vein, Roiphe points to Plaths devastation when her husband threatens to leave her I am aware of a certain cowardice in myself, a wanting to give up this from the author of those famous lines of poetry: Out of the ash/ I rise with my red hair/ and I eat men like air.

Roiphe isnt unique in possessing such contradictions. Who, in reality, follows a rigidly uniform script all the time? Who would want to be with someone who does? Inconsistency and messiness is part of being human. But Roiphe is unique in bravely acknowledging and interrogating her messiness. Its difficult, embarrassing, at times even painful, but in the end, bringing the contradictions to light, voicing them, is liberating.

I read this book in one sitting, I was so riveted. Here the polemicist doubts, and then doubt becomes her main character. What does it mean for a woman to be empowered? Why are powerful women in public so often weak in private? Katie mines her own life and those of others to find out, discovering hard truths about her role in her own subjugation. She holds up a microscope to her faults and foibles as much as she holds it up to others and, in so doing, she teaches us about the messy muddling middle where most of us reside. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. It will make you think and then think again. And her sentences are stunning.

Galaxyaudiobook Member Benefit

- Able to comment

- List watched audiobooks

- List favorite audiobooks

- Bookmark will only available for Galaxyaudiobook member