Shrill
2016
- conduct of life
- biography
- feminists
- humor
- women journalists
- women
- nyt:culture=2016-06-12
- humor, form, essays
- women, united states, biography
- journalists, biography
The story
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.
What it’s like
Sharp, conversational first-person essays that read like a late-night phone call with a very funny friend who has been through a lot. The voice is quick and unpolished on purpose: short punchy sentences, sudden detours into absurd anecdote, and then a turn toward something raw that catches you off guard. It is a book for a rainy afternoon on the couch or a long train ride where you can dip in and out of a chapter at a time without losing the thread. The mood is warm and bracing, funny in a way that stings, with a current of anger and grief running under the jokes and a steady insistence on self-acceptance. Its arc follows a woman moving from hiding and self-doubt toward speaking up loudly, and the emotional register swings between belly laughs and genuine tenderness. Content is frank: rape jokes, online harassment, abortion, body shaming, and sexual experiences are discussed directly, though nothing is graphic in the way of gore. It suits readers who want honesty about womanhood, fat acceptance, and internet cruelty, delivered with humor and heart.
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