Three Women

I hadn’t heard of this book until I saw it all over bookstagram and I also listened to Taddeo speak at the digital Hay Festival in 2020, which made me more interested in checking out her book. It’s had a lot of mixed reviews and I can understand why. The book reads more like a novel than nonfiction, which helped me read it quickly but I can see why some may not like that with nonfiction.

It was interesting to read about each of the women’s lives and experiences, mostly as it relates to taking control of their sexuality. I felt a range of emotions while reading this book from being frustrated with their choices to feeling sad for them and women like them. Overall it was an interesting read that I enjoyed. But it would have been interesting if she also had some sort of analysis about women’s desires and sexuality. She researched and wrote this for 10 years yet she just repeated actions and words without looking any deeper into why it matters.

One thing to also note is the talk and praise for the three women being different or “diverse” as some have said, which is not completely accurate. They have different economic backgrounds but aside from this they are all still able-bodied, cis-het, white women, which makes it a small sample. It would’ve been interesting to see women from completely different walks of life instead of only sharing a difference in class. So although it’s praised for looking at “different” women and their sexual lives-they’re still benefitting from privilege most other women don’t have.