Push, Sapphire

I read this book in about four hours.  At approximately 175 pages, it isn’t a long book by any means. Small though it may be, the storyline was fascinating and it packed a punch.

I found Precious to be confronting, upsetting, uncomfortable, unforgiving and raw.   Some parts of it just made me want to bury my head in the sand and pretend that this stuff doesn’t really happen to real people in this real world.  But the other parts of me applauded Sapphire for writing such a book. 

Yes.  Ugliness in this world exists.  Some fathers rape their daughters.  Some children see the most despicable things at a time when they should be colouring in or playing hide and seek.  But despite this ugliness and a feeling that the world is against you, it’s possible for great beauty to thrive.  This book was uplifting.  I thought it was beautiful.

How to Be a Woman, Caitlin Moran

So I actually finished this book two days ago and it’s taken me this long to get to writing what I thought.  This fact alone says a lot.  Initially, when I first finished the book I thought I liked it a lot.  In fact, if I had actually sat down and written my thoughts back then, it would be a different review to this one.

Two days ago I would have said I liked it, and that’s it.  But now, I can honestly say I only liked bits of this book.  Part of it I found offensive.  It had nothing to do with the description of masturbation, or the different names for vagina.  No.  It was this passage (and I can’t even recall what Moran was referring to):

“He will react as if he has had a live rat wanged at his head. He will run, screaming, away from you – like that Vietnamese kid covered in napalm.”

What.  The hell.  I actually wanted to stop reading the book then and there.  And it was only about a third of the way in.  But I pushed myself to finish the book, and it was fine.  I bought this on my kindle upon reading a Mammamia book recommendation and they raved about it.  Raved!  So I bought it.  And I think I laughed….oh, maybe twice?  If that?  I concede, I may have lost my funny bone at the mention of the “Vietnamese kid covered in napalm”.  And FYI – her name is Kim Phuc.  I know this because I have read the book “The Girl in the Picture” which is the story behind the famous photo.   Just sayin’.

But back to the book in question.  Moran raised a lot of interesting points that made me pause and think about what I do including what fashion I choose, and why I choose it.  Asking yourself “are the boys doing it?” as a kind of misogyny metre is something I have taken away from this as a very handy tip.  In fact I have come away from this book with a few handy tips and a few a-ha moments.  I will definitely be looking at the world a little differently now, thanks to Moran, so for that I’m thankful.

So overall, it was okay.  Just okay.  I realise that I am in the minority here as a lot of people think this book is the bees knees and they laughed til they cried through the entire book.  But that just wasn't me.