Will Sargent reviewed The Unmade Bed by Stephen Marche
Review of 'The Unmade Bed' on 'Storygraph'
2 stars
This is not a great book. It’s supposed to be a book about feminism and gender equality from the perspective of a married man, with his wife providing notes.
Instead, it’s a collection of magazine think pieces. And what I mean by that is that the author is more interested in his sentences and his soundbites than in his thesis. His chapters on patriarchy and fatherhood are solid, where he talks about money and jobs and status... but it goes downhill very quickly in his chapter on porn (Dworkin? Really? Male sexuality fundamentally about brutality and power?) and cribs from Christina Hoffman Summers on his son... and then collapses completely with his utterly banal observations on housework and standards of personal cleanliness.
At no point does he attempt to go out and talk to other men and try to get other perspectives. It’s him in a room, and whatever books …
This is not a great book. It’s supposed to be a book about feminism and gender equality from the perspective of a married man, with his wife providing notes.
Instead, it’s a collection of magazine think pieces. And what I mean by that is that the author is more interested in his sentences and his soundbites than in his thesis. His chapters on patriarchy and fatherhood are solid, where he talks about money and jobs and status... but it goes downhill very quickly in his chapter on porn (Dworkin? Really? Male sexuality fundamentally about brutality and power?) and cribs from Christina Hoffman Summers on his son... and then collapses completely with his utterly banal observations on housework and standards of personal cleanliness.
At no point does he attempt to go out and talk to other men and try to get other perspectives. It’s him in a room, and whatever books he can get. His wife’s footnotes are actually the best bit as they provide much needed relief to listening to this man’s voice.