There is a good reason for [its success]: it is pretty phenomenal….[Moran] wrote the book in just 5 months….Chances are you’ll read it in far less time than that, turning down the corners of extra-resonating pages to come back to later.” — Jenn Doll, The Atlantic Wire
“If you haven’t heard of Caitlin Moran, I’m afraid you deserve to be publicly shamed.... [She’s] a hilarious, insightful feminist intellectual who writes about politics with the same clarity and ease as she does Benedict Cumberbatch.... This is a book that made me miss my subway stop in both directions.” — Dana Schwartz, Observer
“A fresh, funny take on modern feminism that shines a light on issues facing every woman, lovingly boiled down to the basics with insight and humor.” — Today Show
“The joy of Moran’s writing lies in how she combines thoughtfulness and intelligence with proper belly laughs.... It’s this clarity about how the world can be improved, how we can all be better at life, that lies at the heart of Moran’s writing. She may be funny, but she’s also right.” — Independent (London)
“No one tackles issues as big as income inequality and global warming or as small as bang trims and Benedict Cumberbatch’s ass quite like the wickedly funny Caitlin Moran.” — Cosmopolitan
“Superbly funny....The most obvious precursor to More Than a Woman is I Feel Bad About My Neck.... But where Ephron’s impulse was to chronicle the often inglorious slide towards old age, Moran’s is, where possible, to celebrate and find value in it.” — The Guardian
“One of the funniest feminist writers working today…. [More Than a Woman] asks new probing questions—with a wink and a smirk—that get to the heart of mid-life gender inequity.” — Bust Magazine
“Caitlin Moran is not only hilarious, sharply intelligent and so much more than a ‘shit Dickens or Orwell, but with tits’; she is one of the most astute social commentators hitting a keyboard today.” — The Independent
“A spirited memoir/manifesto….With equal amounts snarky brio and righteous anger….That such an important topic is couched in ribald humor makes reading about Moran’s journey hilarious as well as provocative….Rapturously irreverent, this book should kick-start plenty of useful discussions.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
2023-06-20
The "Woman Woman" turns her attention to the problems of men, particularly in their youth.
Moran is known for her nonfiction books about womanhood and feminism, including How To Be a Woman. Her latest is inspired by the notion, expressed by her teenage daughters' male friends, among other sources, that these days, it's easier to be a woman than a man. "If boys, and men, really feel this—if they observe that there is more discussion, support, cheerleading and belief in girls, and women—then I believe them. You have to believe people when they keep saying the same thing, over and over, more despairingly each time." In chapters with such titles as "The Conversations of Men," "The Cocks and Balls of Men," "The Friendships of Men," "The Oldness of Men," this very funny writer addresses the dearth of discussion and support for men's problems, applying a sympathetic eye, research techniques of the ask-around and Google varieties, and a conventional but still widely applicable model of gender. For example, men are apparently afraid to talk in detail about their penises, which is why "only 25 percent of men with erectile dysfunction seek medical treatment. Four in ten cases of prostate cancer are only detected when they reach stage three or four. Thirty percent of men are unhappy about the size of their penises." Maybe this wouldn't happen if they had learned to actually converse instead of banter and boast. Moran wants to put an end to the silence that surrounds boys' often traumatizing experiences with pornography, and she has sharp words for Neil Strauss, Jordan B. Peterson, and Andrew Tate. If you don't know who those people are, you are not the author’s target reader. In fact, it's not completely clear who that might be—boys? girls? parents? men?—and this is reflected in some fluctuations of tone, focus, and interestingness.
In the right hands, this book is reassuring, enlightening, and inspiring; in others, it’s OK to skim.