Review:
Readable, witty and insightful
All right – hands up all those who are mad keen to read a
book about attitudes to men and how they damage society? Well, quite.
I braced myself slightly before starting this, but I actually found it
an excellent and – amazingly – an enjoyable little book. It is readable, witty and very insightful.
Grayson Perry is a very acute observer of society. He is intelligent and thoughtful and his (to
use his own word) "other" status as a transvestite gives him an
excellent viewpoint. Here he talks about
masculinity; how it is perceived by men and women and how those perceptions may
shape the way in which men behave. He
analyses attitudes very shrewdly and says some very interesting things about
how those attitudes influence and often damage society, leaving both men and
women worse off.
Perry is perhaps not saying anything remarkably new here,
but he says it with a clarity, humour and an often self-deprecating honesty
which makes it easy and enjoyable to read.
This isn't and anti-men diatribe about how we're all dreadful people,
but a recognition of how things are – including in his own behaviour both past
and present – and how trying to change some ideas and expectations may make
everyone rather happier.
I actually read a lot of this for enjoyment rather than as a
book which I Ought To Read Because It Is Good For me, which is rather what I
expected, and I can recommend it very warmly.
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