"Why has all this focus on security made me feel so much more insecure? Nothing is secure. And this is the good news. But only if you are not seeki...
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reviews
Oct 20, 2010
Jami
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Titled her political memoir, Ensler shares thoughts and feelings about the world tragedies she travels towards; the tsunami in Sri Lanka, Hurricane Katrina’s devastation of New Orleans, the women’s camps in Kabul, Afghanistan, Kosovo. She hypothesizes that the hunt for security has instead led to a failure to protect people. I would recommend reading this book as both enlightenment of how other people live outside of our often isolationsist American lives, and how our fears of security only en
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Dec 16, 2009
kate
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This book tore my heart apart and put so much into perspective. In a world where women are being gang raped by their husbands and friends, where children walk the riverbanks looking for dead siblings, and women face public execution for eating ice cream, it is Americans who are paralyzed by their fears and insecurities. Eve Ensler has the amazing ability to poetically slap you in the face with the reality of matters.
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Aug 06, 2007
Eve
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Eve Ensler gets to the heart of issues of insecurity and unhappiness in the world today. She explores how fear, hatread, and discontent often stem from our own striving for security and prefection. OF course, no matter how rich we are or how big our house, or how loving our family, we are never, ever completely secure, and our striving just leads to misunderstanding and hate.
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Mar 31, 2009
Misono
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Each of the stories that Eve Ensler retold about women in these various locations was an eye-opener for me. You hear about the political turmoil, killings, and bombings on the news but oftentimes it just comes across as facts and numbers, and it's difficult to really comprehend the horrors that are taking place in these countries. I admittedly was - and still am - rather ignorant of the situations of the countries, so it definitely helped to put a human face to them so that I could actually get
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Jan 17, 2011
Jill
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Not what I expected based on the title and cover, but an eye-opening description of saddening mistreatments around the world. It puts some things in perspective and inspires me to help others.
"We get rescued by giving what we need the most. What we are waiting for has always lived inside us."
"Finding the place in me that connects with every person I meet rather than being different, better, or on top. Believing there is a power determining everything at the s More...
"We get rescued by giving what we need the most. What we are waiting for has always lived inside us."
"Finding the place in me that connects with every person I meet rather than being different, better, or on top. Believing there is a power determining everything at the s More...
Apr 07, 2010
Anne
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This book has a terrible title and a terrible cover (in my opinion, obviously). But, I picked it up because of Eve Ensler's Vagina Monologue fame. I completely misread what this was going to be about. I thought it was about living in an increasingly insecure world - and what to do when the fear of terrorists and WMDs and incomprehensible world-ending catastrophes overtake us. I assumed it would be only of these hysterical threats are all around us viewpoints, with the ultimate conclusion that we
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Feb 10, 2009
Christine
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I borrowed this book from my brother's girlfriend and well, let's just say, I finished it in one day and thought it was pretty brilliant! I'm not one for being super feminist by any means but this got down right to the core of all the horrible acts that are done against women every day and all over the world. This is not a book for those of you living in the dream world, it's real and it'll rip your heart out and open your eyes. I definitely recommend it if you're interested in equal rights and
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Jul 13, 2008
I am proposing that we reconceive the dream. That we consider what would happen if security were not the point of our existence. That we find freedom, aliveness, and power not from what contains, locates, or protects us but from what dissolves, reveals, and expands us. (Introduction)[return]Theater insists that we inhabit the present tense-not the virtual tense or the politically correct tense. Theater demands that we truly be where we are. By being there together, we are able to confront th
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Oct 11, 2008
Teresa
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This book made me think, it made me cry and it made me so proud. It was a very hard book to get through because every time I picked it up, I was in tears. Eve Ensler doesn't spare you anything, which was why I felt that it HAD to continue reading. I couldn't put it down just because the words were painful, because her words were true. Eve beautifully weaves together stories from her life with the stories of women all over the world. These stories are such amazing stories of strength. Eve t
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Oct 25, 2007
Jess
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Eve Ensler is a little much at times, but I think it's the right kind of "much"-- much outrage at the injustices of the world, much compassion for fellow human beings, much need to change it. This is her first book book, and it tells the story of her own activism and how she found herself and her beliefs in the world. Although the passion she feels has always been evident in her work, it's fantastic to really get to see what would motivate someone to live at such extremes and do so m
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Jan 27, 2009
Jess
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To be honest, I didn't finish the book. I'd picked it up hoping to find in-depth studies on women in war zones, but instead found a bunch of hyper-self-awareness in the first few pages. I think it's crap to say that you 'understand' what someone's been through when you haven't actually experienced it, especially things as horrifying as what these women have lived through. But what do I know; I haven't actually been to those places.
Sep 11, 2009
Joanna
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This book is part memoir and part political manifesto. The parts of the books that described the author's experiences around the world working with women to end violence and create community were moving and beautiful. Interwoven with these stories were the author's own story of putting her life together after having been abused by her stepfather when she was a child and having been a heavy drinker/meth addict as a young adult. These personal memoirs were compelling, but much less interesting
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Jun 02, 2010
Emma
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I think her books are powerful, a voice for all women, it forms a community for all females from different parts of the world.
She shows her fears and her insecurities and makes imperfections beautiful. She explains our needs to be secure everything from
our need to consume, self-hatred to be perfect and not to be happy with what you have.Wanting approval from others
as well as the struggle for power
Feb 24, 2011
Mati
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Ensler has done more than anyone in the world to bring an end to violence against women. She has and continues to plumb the darkest depths of the human psyche that give rise to this madness. "Insecure at last" recounts her life as a play write, the intensity of her abusive family life and the rise of her work as a global advocate to end violence against women.
Jul 25, 2008
Nicemarmot
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If we are willing to sacrifice anything in favor of this concept of security we'll stay in jobs that make us miserable but have good benefits, we'll stand for international policy guidelines that isolate us but don't actually make us any safer.
I don't necessarily agree with Ensler's point that personal security lies in the utter chaos of things- I do appreciate the bit of normalcy I can manage in my life. But there are precious few things in life that we have control over and there More...
I don't necessarily agree with Ensler's point that personal security lies in the utter chaos of things- I do appreciate the bit of normalcy I can manage in my life. But there are precious few things in life that we have control over and there More...
Nov 08, 2009
ben
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A super challenging book for anyone (which I think is everyone) who has ever struggled with the desire to be safe. She pushes the edges and I don't buy into everything she is suggesting but at the same time she caused me to see and think differently about the topic.
Oct 11, 2008
melissa/missy
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I read most of this book while riding a stationary bike at the gym, tears rolling down my face. I kept feeling like I was going to black out while reading the accounts of women who were raped and oppressed and beaten in Bosnia and Afghanistan; I've read about these things before, but I find it impossible to acclimatize myself to the violence of it. I kept looking up and around at the artificial light of the gym, feeling disoriented and confused about where I was and who I was. I kept remember
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Sep 22, 2009
S.
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This was a riveting book; true life at a break-neck speed. Eve Ensler tells it like it is for women all over the world. Not for the squeamish or faint of heart. A must read for anyone who has ever had anything to do with women. Yeah, that means all of us!
Nov 06, 2009
Janeen
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I loved this book. Quick and easy to read but hard to digest, due to the weight of some of the material. She pulls off a good balance of writing about personal matters and political ones, showing the connection between the two.
Jul 27, 2009
Jenny
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This is a bit of a review if you've read other Ensler books. I think she pulled her personal story together nicely and brought up a lot of things that really ring true for me, especially working around trauma so much.
Feb 23, 2011
Satia
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At a certain point, you have to wonder if Ensler really has anything to say or if she's being published because people think she's relevant. For more:
http://satiasreviews.blogspot.com/2011/0...
http://satiasreviews.blogspot.com/2011/0...
Sep 23, 2010
Athena
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This was ok but I don't really like the way she puts her books together. I get bored even though the subject may be appealing. Its too fake and poetic for me, though based on real tradgedies of femaninity.
Jan 28, 2009
I decided to delve right into another Eve Ensler original, after finishing Vagina Monologues.
I am enjoying this read tremendously. More later....
I am enjoying this read tremendously. More later....
Jul 17, 2009
Leah
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Bought this yesterday at B & N and I am almost done. What a life well-lived. To live in complete compassion and empathy--amazing and inspiring
Aug 17, 2010
Robin
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OK, this book is a bit all over the place, but the message is consistent - we are not looking out for each other like we should be. Horrific stories of women being abused all over the world are necessary to make us think.
Aug 22, 2008
Dani
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I checked this out because I thought it would be self-help. little did I know it would be the second book in my "war zone" double feature (along with _a hundred and one days_). This book is amazing. Really makes you think outside of the snowglobe of American privilege. And it's a self-help-ish/Buddhist theme tying things together: all security is really an illusion, everything is temporary, everything is changing, everything is uncertain. Clinging to security only blinds you to what ne
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Jan 28, 2009
Caitlin
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Probably the best book I've ever read. Seriously. Would recommend it to everyone.
Feb 11, 2008
Kristen
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You learn much of Eve's history in this book, as she takes you through her process of first obsessing about security and then finding what it takes to really lose it. She deals with very large picture securities, and only partially addresses those she deals with on a daily basis (not having a central 'home', how she travels without her son, etc.) I wish she would have brought it a little more family/person-level a few more times, though all her points at the society-level are extremely valid.
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Nov 28, 2008
Sigal
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Some very hard to read stories about war and oppression against women. Some stories about people who do amazing things in the face of hard things. I like what she has to say about how the more you strive towards security, in some ways, the less secure you are, and that true safety may come from risking a lot.
