19 - Self-Made Man, by Norah Vincent
WHY I PICKED IT: Recommended by my friend Sean
ELAPSED TIME: 1 Week
RATING: Good
In the spirit of John Howard Griffin's Black Like Me, Norah Vincent goes undercover to see if she could view the world from a man's perspective.
Topics of interest are broken up into chapters:
a) Friendship - In her experience, men seem to assume another guy is a "good guy," unless they see evidence to the contrary. In her experience, women are more wary (of both men and other women) and less open to each other. Overall this chapter was warm and I enjoyed reading about her experience bowling with a group of guys.
b) Sex - A lot about her experience visiting strip clubs. This chapter was a very weak follow up, and (in my opinion) not a good representation of how men view sex.
c) Love - In this chapter, Norah does a lot of on-line dating... and listens to a lot of women talk a lot (and doesn't enjoy it). While it generally is true that women talk more than men, I'd be curious to watch this from the outside. How did Norah represent guys... or did she invite chatter in ways that a man may not?
d) Life - Norah goes and lives in a monastery, to see how men are when there are no women around (the other options, prison and the military seemed to be a stretch). This was another interesting experience to read. Not that it felt representative of "maledom," but a good experience with a lot of warmth.
e) Work - Norah tries to get "strong male" type jobs in sales, to see how the alpha male operates. Another weak chapter.
Overall, the two great chapters were enough to make the book enjoyable... with insights that I have referenced in my own life
This blog is a simple review of every book that I read... For all books I’ll tell you why I picked it, how long it took me to read it, and give it a rating (burn it, not good, meh, good, very good, and required reading). I ask (encourage?) all readers of my blog to post their thoughts of any of the books in my comments :). Thanks!
