NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY: NPR, ESQUIRE, The LA Times, and NEWSWEEK WINNER OF THE STRANGER GENIUS AWARD Shrill is an uproarious memoir, a feminist rallying cry in a world that thinks gender politics are tedious and that women, especially feminists, can’t be funny. Coming of age in a culture that demands women be as small, quiet, and compliant as possible–like a … that women, especially feminists, can’t be funny.
Coming of age in a culture that demands women be as small, quiet, and compliant as possible–like a porcelain dove that will also have sex with you–writer and humorist Lindy West quickly discovered that she was anything but.
From a painfully shy childhood in which she tried, unsuccessfully, to hide her big body and even bigger opinions; to her public war with stand-up comedians over rape jokes; to her struggle to convince herself, and then the world, that fat people have value; to her accidental activism and never-ending battle royale with Internet trolls, Lindy narrates her life with a blend of humor and pathos that manages to make a trip to the abortion clinic funny and wring tears out of a story about diarrhea.
With inimitable good humor, vulnerability, and boundless charm, Lindy boldly shares how to survive in a world where not all stories are created equal and not all bodies are treated with equal respect, and how to weather hatred, loneliness, harassment, and loss, and walk away laughing. Shrill provocatively dissects what it means to become self-aware the hard way, to go from wanting to be silent and invisible to earning a living defending the silenced in all caps.more
I’m going to start this with a huge cliche: This felt like it was written just for me. I know that’s the lamest way to review a book. But as a fat, loud, sensitive, feminist woman who is continually striving (and sometimes struggling) to love myself better and more completely, it was like Lindy West came to me before writing it and asked me exactly what I was looking for in a book — what topics I wanted explored, what sentiments expressed, what points made — and then instead of having to articulate it all (because articulating is really hard, especially when something is so important and personal) she just looked inside my head and then wrote Shrill.
I read most of this on a train to and from Maine this weekend, and the elderly couple next to me heading to their beach house were very taken aback by my (mostly stifled, I thought) outpouring of emotion. Lindy is hilarious, smart, honest, and pulls no punches. She writes so candidly and sharply about being a woman and being fat (and dealing with society’s shit for both). This book is incredibly painful and incredibly affirming and I want everyone who I care about and who cares about me to read it.
Finished Shrill last night, and today I wish I could compel everyone who cares about me, who cares about any woman, to read it. @bridget posted a great recommendation of it a couple of months ago, and I encourage you to take a moment to read her words. I’m mostly here to add my voice to the chorus of others: this is fantastic writing, used to deliver incredibly important messages that everyone should hear.
Lindy West totally crushed it with this book. She had me laughing in commiseration with the awkwardness of life at the beginning, enraged at the simple injustice that is being a female in the middle, and crying by the end when she chose to share her husband’s beautiful vows.
While I don’t always love books that take me on a straight-up roller coaster of emotion, it felt right with Shrill because that roller coaster is so much exactly what being a woman feels like. I wholeheartedly consider myself a feminist, but often feminism and weight standards and abortion and rape culture and body shaming and women’s rights are hard to talk about — so often you find yourself talking to (or “preaching at”) people who 1) don’t understand, 2) don’t care, or 3) don’t understand but like to pretend they do.
West does an absolutely kickass job of illustrating the struggle to have an open and meaningful dialogue with people who are threatened by your ideas, desires, or goals, and yet she puts herself in that situation over and over again — for women. When an internet troll admitted to West that he was threatened by her, she responded, “that’s why I do that, because people don’t expect to hear from women like that. And I want other women to see me do that and I want women’s voices to get louder.”
It’s difficult — and scary — to stand up for yourself, for what (and those) you believe in, especially when the idea that women and fat people are less and deserve less is so perpetuated in society and the media. But West is trying — and succeeding — at being a champion for these groups, at giving us “a script for dealing with monsters in [our] own lives” when we need it, and a cheerleader hanging out on the sidelines (West is also great at writing herself as your best friend) when you don’t.
A must-read.
With a deft pen, Lindy West does a great job peeling back harmful layers of US culture and driving home exactly what it’s like to exist with certain characteristics society is designed to revile. Her acerbic wit paints a vivid portrait of the misogyny, fatphobia, and rape culture rampant in society, drawing from her own experiences in an authentic voice. What Lindy does especially well is demonstrate how pervasive these things can be, how they can inject themselves into literally every single human interaction you have — and how toxic that is. A great read, especially for anyone who doesn’t know what it’s like to be on the receiving end of this treatment.
Holy crow was this book ever an eye opener. I was quickly sucked into Lindy’s memoir by her honesty, humour, and critique of our society. Her voice is never preachy. She is always incisive and cuts right to the heart when she exposes the misogyny and fat-prejudice she has experienced thusfar in her life. She is also forking hilarious. She is a voice I will be reading and watching out for now. Forking brilliant, not to mention brave. Let’s all be SHRILL like Lindy.
Carter Sherman talks with Lindy West, author of Shrill, and he says: “The collection of connected essays, spiked with West’s signature insight and dark humor, illustrates just how deeply sexism pervades our society while laughing at the absurdities that sexism somehow normalizes. West digs deep into pain—her struggles with body image, her father’s death, the harassment she faces online—to find humor and grace.”
http://www.elle.com/culture/books/interviews/a36355/lindy-west-shrill-book/
There is beauty in pain and healing. There is beauty in blunt honesty. This book has all three and so much more.
Lindy West is a big girl. She makes no bones about the fact she’s not small and will never will be. I liked her blunt honesty. It was nice to read a book where the heroine isn’t apologizing for being big. She’s just herself. The writing flowed well and kept my interest. I wanted to keep reading even when I had other things that needed to be done.
Now be warned, there is a section on rape and rape jokes. This won’t be for everyone. It won’t be. But she’s explaining her view and her thoughts. Comedy and jokes are in the eye of the beholder. She simply holds up the mirror to what some of us think is normal and whatever and to what other of us think are just wrong. I liked that she was willing to discuss the difference.
This book had funny moments, too–like when she’s talking about trying to fit in the airplane seats–not that she can’t fit, but the struggle being real and how she deals with it. There are moments that are just gut-wrenching–like when she defends herself against those who feel rape jokes are funny and should be told. She tries to get those finding the humor to see another side of the argument. Unfortunately, she ends up being the victim of internet trolls. I like how it empowered her. Many of us have been trolled and some want to hide. She doesn’t. She doesn’t take each one head-on, but she doesn’t let them win, either. It was refreshing, while being sad, too.
If you’re looking for a very meta book, then this might be the one for you.
There are LOL moments along with touching reflection. The author is unapologetic and open about who she is, and I love how she shows gratitude toward her family rather than treating them with blame and accusation as so many memoirs do.
Thoughtful, intelligent and moving while still managing to be hilarious – Lindy West is a hell of a writer.
Astounding book–you can’t read it without being transformed.