This is a DNF book for me, and you should know that going into the review. I did not DNF because the writing was poor, it was in fact very good. I did not DNF because the information was not well-sourced or in some other way in deficit – everything laid out was well placed and well investigated. The book describes the ubiquitous experience that women have with being taught to tamp down their anger and presents the research on the racial and cultural differences in how women are taught to process anger. This is good, important stuff that needs to be read by many.
I did not finish this book because the reading experience spiked too much rage in me for all that we know, and have known, and how little has changed. I think if I had read this earlier in my own therapy journey, I would have continued but I could feel my blood pressure rising as I read and there was no rational thing to do with how my body was feeling, and the feeling was bad – as is often the case when my emotions run amok. I know now what I didn’t know then, that just feeding the anger monster in me doesn’t serve me, and as the book rightfully argues our anger and rage is good for us when we are able to interpret it and do something with it, not when we just let ourselves stew in in, or worse – ignore it and shove it down where no one else can see it.
Which is one of the important things the book talks about and why it is still important for me to review it even though it is not the book for me right now. But maybe it is for you, and you need the nudge to pick it up.
Bingo Square: Rage. It is right there in the title, but also in the big emotions I felt while trying to make my way through.
