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sjgrodsky's review against another edition
3.0
A thorough, sympathetic biography that ends in 1994, and so doesn’t cover nearly 30 years.
I certainly learned a lot about Steinem. She is one of those people who is energized by contact with others. I am a natural introspect — just the opposite. I was enervated just reading about Steinem’s killer travel schedule — she was on an airplane to somewhere every single week for years. She would engage with an audience after a speech, listening for hours, long after her companions had gone to bed. Then she would sleep in the plane the next morning. It sounds as if, for years, she was living on coffee, adrenaline, and naps grabbed whenever she allowed herself a quiet moment.
Steinem and I are about as different as two people can be. But — I discerned this from a few of the photos — we both love cats. If given a fact to face moment with Steinem, I might gently remonstrate with her for leaving her cat so often.
Steinem is a fantastic prose stylist. Her biographer— isn’t. Her sentences are often too long and sometimes poorly constructed. It’s work to figure out just what she is saying.
The author also remarks FREQUENTLY about Steinem’s looks. She quotes, at some length, a Wall
Street Journal reporter who describes Steinem’s long legs and “flat abdomen.” You start to wonder if the biographer is not jealous of her subject.
Finally, although this is a biography, I expected a deeper and more cogent presentation of Steinem’s beliefs.
One last point: the author frequently remarks on Steinem’s “calmness.” It may be true that Steinem is preternaturally calm. But the author has lived most of her life in New York City — ground zero for high- strung, confrontational personalities. What she describes as Steinem’s “calmness” could well be that typically Midwestern even-temperedness, that Midwestern courtesy. Midwesterners aren’t confrontational, they don’t raise their voices over minor inconveniences. It’s behavior I noticed when I lived in Grinnell, Iowa. I suspect the author has confused this regional trait with personality.
I certainly learned a lot about Steinem. She is one of those people who is energized by contact with others. I am a natural introspect — just the opposite. I was enervated just reading about Steinem’s killer travel schedule — she was on an airplane to somewhere every single week for years. She would engage with an audience after a speech, listening for hours, long after her companions had gone to bed. Then she would sleep in the plane the next morning. It sounds as if, for years, she was living on coffee, adrenaline, and naps grabbed whenever she allowed herself a quiet moment.
Steinem and I are about as different as two people can be. But — I discerned this from a few of the photos — we both love cats. If given a fact to face moment with Steinem, I might gently remonstrate with her for leaving her cat so often.
Steinem is a fantastic prose stylist. Her biographer— isn’t. Her sentences are often too long and sometimes poorly constructed. It’s work to figure out just what she is saying.
The author also remarks FREQUENTLY about Steinem’s looks. She quotes, at some length, a Wall
Street Journal reporter who describes Steinem’s long legs and “flat abdomen.” You start to wonder if the biographer is not jealous of her subject.
Finally, although this is a biography, I expected a deeper and more cogent presentation of Steinem’s beliefs.
One last point: the author frequently remarks on Steinem’s “calmness.” It may be true that Steinem is preternaturally calm. But the author has lived most of her life in New York City — ground zero for high- strung, confrontational personalities. What she describes as Steinem’s “calmness” could well be that typically Midwestern even-temperedness, that Midwestern courtesy. Midwesterners aren’t confrontational, they don’t raise their voices over minor inconveniences. It’s behavior I noticed when I lived in Grinnell, Iowa. I suspect the author has confused this regional trait with personality.
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