The Whole Woman - Germaine Greer > Reviews (5)

For any woman looking for some answers (or just a glimmer of light) or any men who genuinely want to understand today’s ‘complicated’ female of the species, you could do much worse than read this brilliant book.

Germaine Greer must be one of the most underrated people of our time. I have nothing but respect and admiration for this woman who has always stuck her neck out and often been rubbished for it. Yes she can be controversial but isn’t everyone labelled this who is simply expressing a new idea, a different way of seeing how things are, or an opinion that people (mostly men) find hard to stomach and don’t want to hear. Why is she so threatening? Because what she does say rings true. And how she expresses herself! This book encapsulates her no nonsense, just tell it how it is views of what it is to be a woman in our society today.

While seeking nirvana we have managed to trap ourselves, our roles as daughters, lovers, wives, mothers has not changed by one iota but in our quest for equal footing and status with men we now have careers. So now we have work and the rest to juggle with. This is the essence of this book but this is not putting across the intelligence, humour and passion with which Germaine covers her subject. We know we are knackered but we don’t have the time to stop and question why, she has done this for us.

The book is presented in chapters Body, Mind, Love and Power with different topics covered under each. Always readable my personal favourites are those dealing with sorrow (anyone interested in depression has to read what she writes here) fear, sex, mothers. She illustrates her points by the inclusion of contemporary quotes and even Courtney Love finds voice here ‘Some day you will ache like I ache’.

Whatever your views on feminism and feminists at least hear her out before judging her. Germaine you are a diamond and I for one am glad that you got angry and wrote this book for us.