“We pretend to want things we don't want so nobody can see us not getting what we need.”
— Lisa Taddeo, author of Three Women
Don’t judge a book by its cover, they say, but even more pressing is don’t judge a book by its marketing campaign.
Three Women has been billed as a “groundbreaking portrait of erotic longing in today’s America.” But that wasn’t my experience. Rather than a comprehensive examination of female desire, this work of literary nonfiction offers a deep and engaging view of three complex and frayed women. Taddeo is a journalist who writes like a poet, telling stories with extraordinary empathy and nuance.
This book wasn’t what it said it would be — it was better.