Trainwreck: The women we love to hate, mock, and fear, and why

by Sady Doyle Narrated by Alex McKenna

Overview

She's everywhere once you start looking for her: the trainwreck.*
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She's Britney Spears shaving her head, Whitney Houston saying, “crack is whack,” and Amy Winehouse, dying in front of millions. But the trainwreck is also as old (and as meaningful) as feminism itself.*

From Mary Wollstonecraft-who, for decades after her death, was more famous for her illegitimate child and suicide attempts than for*A Vindication of the Rights of Woman-to Charlotte Brontë, Billie Holiday, Sylvia Plath, and even Hillary Clinton, Sady Doyle's*Trainwreck*dissects a centuries-old phenomenon and asks what it means now, in a time when we have unprecedented access to celebrities and civilians alike, and when women are pushing harder than ever against the boundaries of what it means to “behave.”
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Where did these women come from? What are their crimes? And what does it mean for the rest of us? For an age when any form of self-expression can be the one that ends you, Sady Doyle's audiobook is as fierce and intelligent as it is funny and compassionate-an essential, timely, feminist anatomy of the female trainwreck.

Editorial Reviews

NOVEMBER 2016 - AudioFile

This intelligent audiobook is about the cruelty we heap on women celebrities whose misdeeds and even out-of-the-norm behavior are lambasted in the media. We find these women easy targets for hostility and judgment compared to men who are lionized for their misbehavior, even when it’s destructive. Likable Alex McKenna is clearly engaged with the truth in narrating this author’s message. McKenna has a rattle in her lower vocal register, but she’s so effective and authentic that it quickly becomes irrelevant. This sweeping audio blends centuries-old examples and pop-culture figures to bring home the injustice of our puzzling ideals and anger toward women. Expertly written and performed, it’s a wake-up call for us to examine the hidden assumptions and reflexes we have that unfairly denigrate women. T.W. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine

From the Publisher

Sady Doyle is a wonder. She writes personally about the political and politically about the personal in a way that makes both worth reading. She’s also incisive, surprising, and funny as hell.” —Clay Shirky, author of Here Comes Everybody

“Sady Doyle is more than a writer, she’s a force of nature—a mostly-benevolent one, like a cleansing forest fire that makes way for new growth. Her clear-eyed criticism, finely tuned prose, and always-questioning outlook combine to make hers one of the most necessary voices of our time. Plus she is very funny.” —Emily Gould, author of Friendship
 
“Sady Doyle is simply one of the smartest, funniest, most humane writers working today. In a time of too many takes, I always look forward to hers. If you agree with her, reading her work is cathartic; and if you don’t, take cover.” —Kate Harding, author of Asking for It

Product Details

BN ID:	2940169324709
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	09/20/2016
Edition description:	Unabridged

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