Author: Eve Ensler
Publisher: Villard
Rating: WORTHY!
This isn't fiction, which is pretty much all I review on this blog, but it's something I read over Thanksgiving (what could be more important to give thanks for than the very means by which every single one of us came into the world?!) and it's worth more than a mention. It's Eve Ensler's paean to the female reproductive system, and while she's somewhat adrift in choosing to employ the word 'vagina' to represent the entire set of organs, I can see why she would do that, and I have to tell you that this 'story of V' is well-worth reading.
It's a really fast read, which was a bit disappointing for me. I was rather surprised by how little material there is. One quarter of the edition I bought was filled with material related to V-Day, and the rest was all-too-brief vagina monologue material - but then it was the V-Day edition, so duhh!
There wasn't anything in it which - in general terms - I'd never come across before (a fact in which I took shameful pride!), but in specific terms there are some hilarious stories and some saddening ones, and some educational ones and some entertaining ones. If you have not explored this subject, and especially if you haven't explored it first hand, then you need to read this whether you're male or female, or some other gender, but be warned you need to be prepared for the truth, the whole truth and even the uncomfortable truth, and you may not like it, but you do have to live with it.
The book is divided into several sections, some short, others longer, some merely lists of names and terms, others personal stories, others amalgams of many personal stories, and these are interspersed with 'Vagina Facts'. Some of the titles such as, for example, 'The Little Coochi Snorcher That Could' are hilarious, but rooted in the very anecdotes they head. Others, such as 'Hair' are more direct, but equally important. I rate this a worthy read and recommend it. And it's time for a new and updated edition!
