Book Marks: Women who disrupt reality

08 November 2016 - 10:36 By Andrew Donaldson

FOR THE HOLIDAYS: The Girl From Venice by Martin Cruz Smith (Simon & Schuster) ALTHOUGH best known for his Arkady Renko crime novels, Smith has written a number of excellent stand-alone novels, and this, a quirky love story/historical thriller set in occupied Venice during the last days of World War 2 is no exception. Cenzo, a fisherman determined to stay out of trouble, is plunged into the treacherous world of wartime politics after a chance meeting with Guilia, an Italian Jew who has managed to evade capture and is trying to find her family.THE ISSUETo the US, and the elections - and a question that has intrigued journalist and feminist Sady Doyle: why is so much loathing directed at Hillary Clinton? Doyle has written a fascinating cultural history, Trainwreck: The Women We Love to Hate, Mock, and Fear . and Why (Melville House Publishing), which suggests the familiar female "trainwreck" - like Britney Spears shaving her head and her commando exploits, to the deaths in public of Whitney Houston and Amy Winehouse - is not necessarily a modern phenomenon, but one that is centuries old. Charlotte Bronte and Mary Wollstonecraft had their public meltdowns, too.Writing in The Observer, Doyle noted that aversion to successful women is not new - "It's baked into our cultural DNA" - but suggested that Clinton irritates people, not because of her gender, but "because we simply cannot process her narrative"."There are no stories that prepare us for her trajectory through life and, therefore, we react to her as if she's a disruption in our reality, rather than a person. We love public women best when they are losers, when they're humiliated, defeated, or (in some cases) just plain killed. Yet Clinton, despite the disapproval that rains down on her, continues to chalk up wins."Doyle suggests that, should she make it to the Oval Office, we look to the fate of former Australian prime minister Julia Gillard for an idea of the resentment in store for Clinton. Both have been the butt of the same puerile "KFC Special" joke: "Two fat thighs, two small breasts, left wing."A Clinton supporter, Doyle includes an analysis of the Monica Lewinsky scandal in Trainwreck. The connection is obvious. Some T-shirts and placards sported by Donald Trump supporters on the campaign trail bore the slogan, "Hillary sucks - but not like Monica." A charming business, politics.CRASH COURSEThere's a simple lesson in Peter James Carlin's eagerly anticipated biography, Homeward Bound: The Life of Paul Simon (Constable) about placing art well above politics, however well-intentioned - and that is be angry, be independent and don't listen to Dali Tambo.THE BOTTOM LINE"Most of the time I try to ignore other people's issues with my children's skin colour, but sometimes it really bothers me. And sometimes it just hurts." - Same Family, Different Colors: Confronting Colorism in America's Diverse Families by Lori L Tharps (Beacon Press)..

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