I’ll hold my hand up to start with, I picked this book up mainly because the sub-title caught my eye, I’d never actually heard of Phyllis Chesler but born in the 1940s New York she has an incredible journey to share, and her new memoir A Politically Incorrect Feminist doesn’t seem to hold much back.
More than anything, I found this book genuinely interesting; it wasn’t always the most thrilling or compelling read but it was always interesting. Chesler was there to witness and play a large part in a part of feminist history I (embarrassingly) know very little about, so I am glad I’ve read it. It definitely accessible, I went into this pretty blank and didn’t feel like I was missing out by not being her number one fan.
There are a lot of names in this book, for people who have followed Chesler’s career or been around during the times she’s describing they may well be familiar to you but I found it quite confusing at times. There was also what felt like hundreds of references to her many previous works, obviously she’s written a lot of books and they have been a massive part of her life and career so it can be expected that they’ll come up but it started to feel a bit repetitive with the phrase “In my book…” appearing in every other paragraph; I ended up giving this three stars as I was quite lost in places.
A Politically Incorrect Feminist is currently scheduled for UK release on 28th August 2018. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.
