![]() ![]() ![]() Spinsterhood, for Bolick, is not simply being an unmarried woman. In my mind’s eye, the spinster wish was the shape of that small, steel sylph gracing the nose of a Rolls-Royce, arms outstretched, sleeves billowing, about to leap from her earthbound perch and soar. I preordered Spinster as soon as I heard about it: I was eager to read something about being a woman that wasn’t about getting married, leaning in, or having it all.īolick’s book was inspired by something she calls her “spinster wish,” which is “shorthand for the extravagant pleasures of simply being by myself.” A fragment she quotes from her diary describes “a long, perfect spinster wish of a Sunday, read all day, took two naps.” But despite all the lounging, to Bolick the embodiment of a spinster wish is not a couch potato but an Art Deco sprite: After all, I’m someone who sometimes identifies as a spinster, who reveres “spinster” as a cultural category, and who was clunkily complimented by a fellow grad student when I was 29 for “the bold way you are resignifying the term.” I love personal narratives laced with historical research and cultural criticism, and Bolick’s 2011 piece “All the Single Ladies” was my favorite of the many viral- Atlantic-stories-about-women-turned-book-deals. I would certainly seem to be its ideal reader. I EXPECTED to like Kate Bolick’s recent book Spinster. Members who join this month will receive a limited-edition LARB hat in addition to other perks, including a subscription to the LARB Quarterly Journal, a LARB canvas tote bag, a discount card good at our network of partnering indie bookstores, and invitations to our members-only events throughout the year. If you've enjoyed reading LARB, please join us this June at /join during our summer membership drive and help us keep delivering on LARB's mission of providing the very best in criticism, poetry, fiction, and more. Los Angeles Review of Books is a reader-supported literary non-profit, publishing essays like this one from our archive for free to the public every day. ![]()
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