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Spinster

Making a Life of One's Own

ebook
2 of 3 copies available
2 of 3 copies available

A New York Times Book Review Notable Book
“Whom to marry, and when will it happen—these two questions define every woman’s existence.”

So begins Spinster, a revelatory and slyly erudite look at the pleasures and possibilities of remaining single. Using her own experiences as a starting point, journalist and cultural critic Kate Bolick invites us into her carefully considered, passionately lived life, weaving together the past and present to examine why­ she—along with over 100 million American women, whose ranks keep growing—remains unmarried.
This unprecedented demographic shift, Bolick explains, is the logical outcome of hundreds of years of change that has neither been fully understood, nor appreciated. Spinster introduces a cast of pioneering women from the last century whose genius, tenacity, and flair for drama have emboldened Bolick to fashion her life on her own terms: columnist Neith Boyce, essayist Maeve Brennan, social visionary Charlotte Perkins Gilman, poet Edna St. Vincent Millay, and novelist Edith Wharton. By animating their unconventional ideas and choices, Bolick shows us that contemporary debates about settling down, and having it all, are timeless—the crucible upon which all thoughtful women have tried for centuries to forge a good life.
Intellectually substantial and deeply personal, Spinster is both an unreservedly inquisitive memoir and a broader cultural exploration that asks us to acknowledge the opportunities within ourselves to live authentically. Bolick offers us a way back into our own lives—a chance to see those splendid years when we were young and unencumbered, or middle-aged and finally left to our own devices, for what they really are: unbounded and our own to savor.

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    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from February 16, 2015
      In this powerful memoir, Bolick, a cultural critic and contributing editor to The Atlantic, takes an unusual approach to telling her life story, by focusing on her five “awakeners”: great women of the past whose work and experiences inspire her to build the life she wants. Bolick learns from the example of essayist Maeve Brennan, columnist Neith Boyce, poet Edna St. Vincent Millay, novelist Edith Wharton, and social visionary Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Bolick delves into the history of her awakeners while rounding out each of their individual narratives with her personal experiences. She also reflects on current expectations of women and marital status, backing up her musings with a handful of statistics and facts. Bolick’s intense and moving combination of personal, historical, and cultural narratives will inspire readers—especially women—to think about what they want their own lives to be, and how close they are to their goals. Agent: Tina Bennett, WME.

    • Library Journal

      February 1, 2015

      Despite the subtitle, Bolick's (contributing editor, Atlantic) debut is neither a how-to nor a why-you-should. Rather, it's a thoughtful examination of the author's own desires and fears about living alone through her own history and the lens of the experiences of other straight, white women writers of the past. She seems to intend her example as emblematic of the broader cultural moment. On that level the account falls short, since it largely fails to engage with topics of race, class, public policy, and other major cultural influences on the changing role of American marriage. But Bolick owns her background and issues, and this book may be a sympathetic read for other straight, white, middle class, intellectual women of her generation who struggle to forge meaningful companionships without being defined by them. The author doesn't so much reach a conclusion as peter out at the present. A pat-sounding ending says the greater meaning of spinsterhood can be reached in or out of relationships, but it rings hollow in the face of the author's life history of fleeing otherwise functional relationships to attain this self-determination. VERDICT A good choice for public libraries with a significant single patron base, readers interested in feminism, and academic women's studies collections. [See Prepub Alert, 7/28/14.]--Meredith Schwartz, Library Journal

      Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

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  • English

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