LIVING WEST AS FEMINISTS

A feminist odyssey introduces readers to new landscapes, new friends, and new questions.

Comer, author of Surfer Girls in the New World Order and Landscapes of the New West: Gender and Geography in Contemporary Women’s Writing, tackles her subject as a never-ending project rather than an ultimate guide to the complexity of Western feminism. Using the metaphor of travel and road trips (à la Thelma and Louise), she guides the reader through different interviews with prominent feminists. Comer does not look at Western feminism as necessarily a sector of feminism that upholds Western ideals, but more as a geographical location with many different ideas and perspectives. Topics such as “The West Coast Women’s Music Festival,” circa 1981, at which naked women dance, swim, and sing with glee, give the book a down-to-earth vibe. Comer adds photos of the natural world—explaining how each person she interviews connects with the environment. The reader is taken on a trip through North America, mostly in the Southwest. At a certain point in this adventure, Comer realizes it has become exactly that. She writes about “slow scholarship,” which contradicts capitalization’s fast-paced culture. “I am good at being a grown up, the oldest child, the mother who balances, the university citizen,” she writes. “It’s time to figure out an alternative that is not a Band-Aid, figure out something real.” Somewhere during this feminist road trip, the reader sees a woman free herself. Comer presents the reader with the list of questions she asks her interviewees, urging us to engage thoughtfully. The reader isn’t just a silent spectator, but a mindful participant.

An introspective memoir full of love and meditation.