Insecure at Last: Losing It in Our Security-Obsessed World [Hardcover]

Eve Ensler (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 3, 2006

“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 seeking security as the point of your life.”–Eve Ensler

When her stage play The Vagina Monologues became a runaway hit and an international sensation, Eve Ensler emerged as a powerful voice and champion for women everywhere. Now the brilliant playwright gives us her first major work written exclusively for the printed page. Insecure at Last is a timely and urgent look at our security-obsessed world, the drastic measures taken to keep us safe, and how we can truly experience freedom by letting go of the deceptive notion of vigilant “protection.”

Ensler draws on personal experiences and candid interviews with burka-clad women in Afghanistan; female prisoners in upstate New York; survivors at the Superdome after Katrina; and anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan–sharing unforgettable snapshots that chronicle a post-9/11 existence in which hyped obsession for safety and security has undermined our humanity. The us-versus-them mentality, Ensler explains, has closed our minds and hardened our compassionate hearts.

Provocative, illuminating, inspiring, and boldly envisioned, Insecure at Last challenges us to reconsider what it means to be free, to discover that our strength is not born out of that which protects us. Ensler offers us the opportunity to reevaluate our everyday lives, expose our vulnerability, and, in doing so, experience true freedom and fulfillment.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. I am worried about this word, this notion—security," writes the renowned author of The Vagina Monologues at the beginning of this extraordinarily compelling, if somewhat scattered, memoir; "Why has all of this focus on security made me feel so much more insecure?" Ensler recounts her attempts to make sense of a war-ridden world in which "security" becomes both unimaginable and dangerous. Weaving together personal history (about her childhood relationship with her father, who would choke her in drunken rages and not remember the next morning), with a panoply of violent political scenarios around the world: the Serbs' use of rape to subdue Muslims in Bosnia; the public execution of women in an Afghan stadium; the unsolved brutal murders of more than 370 women in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. Ensler aims to explicate the moments when we, often unwittingly, implicate ourselves in this violence through our need for an illusory "security." She has a vivid, startling style that is both direct and poetic, and she is able to make chilling connections—she writes that the dust that covered New York on 9/11 was the dust that she had seen "in Kabul, in Bosnia, in Kosovo." This is an important work by a major American writer. (Oct. 3)
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From Booklist

*Starred Review* Ensler, most famous for The Vagina Monologues (1998), has audaciously confronted misogyny and violence against women not only as a playwright and a performer but also as the founder of V-Day, an international philanthropic organization. Ensler now proves to be as galvanizing an oral historian and essayist as she is a dramatist in this forthright inquiry into our obsession with security both personal and national. Forging a potent brew of candid memoir and hard-hitting reportage, she considers the harsh reality that security is nothing more than an illusion, and that, perversely, the pursuit of security actually increases threats against our well-being. Ensler discovered the myth of security as a girl, when she endured horrific abuse from her alcoholic father within the precincts of a seemingly safe middle-class home. She has subsequently sought out sister survivors, and recounts with lucidity, empathy, and respect her conversations with Bosnian rape victims, Afghani women tyrannized by the Taliban, women prisoners, and mothers of some of the hundreds of young women killed in Cuidad Juarez, the hellish factory zone south of El Paso. Keenly aware of how catastrophes undermine our sense of security, Ensler also writes incisively about 9/11 and the aftermath of Katrina. Through carefully listening and clarion analysis, Ensler reaches the conclusion that grasping for security isolates us and denies opportunities for dialogue, hope, and change. We're told that war is necessary to ensure security, Ensler muses, "when really it is kindness we are after." Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Villard (October 3, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400063345
• ISBN-13: 978-1400063345
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.8 x 8.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,019,199 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Eve Ensler is the author of THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES, a theatrical and publishing sensation that has sold over half a million copies worldwide and has been translated into twenty-seven languages. Winner of a Guggenheim and Obie award, she is co-founder and guiding spirit of V-day, an international movement to fight violence against women (see vday.org). She lives in New York City.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Miracle of Human Connection, October 4, 2006

By 

a reader - See all my reviews

This review is from: Insecure at Last: Losing It in Our Security-Obsessed World (Hardcover)

This is the most honest, open and at the same time powerfully revolutionary book I have ever read. Not only because of the masterful truth-telling that leaps from its pages, but also because of the unique weave of Ensler's deeply personal story with her experiences from around the world. It is a moving convergence of emotional nakedness, fierce and factual reportage and the pure wonder of witnessing the miracles created by those who have learned, as Eve says, "to find freedom, aliveness, and power not from what contains, locates, or protects us but from what dissolves, reveals, and expands us." This book is one of those miracles.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Soul baring, September 7, 2008

By 

Jennifer J. Timmons "womanwarrior007" (Princess Anne, MD, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Insecure at Last: A Political Memoir (Paperback)

Eve Ensler bares her soul in this book. Weaving her personal history and thoughts about her abusive father along with interviews with women from around the world who have been violated, you get a sense of the magnitude of the problem of violence against women around the globe. Her writing is so vivid that you feel like you are there with her or with the women she has interviewed with respect and compassion. It is difficult not to be affected: you can almost see their pain, fear, rage, and hope.

She explores the subject of security, via her reporting of the women whose stories you read, who have been violated, either individually or their loved ones. From Bosnia to Pakistan to Mexico to our own US prisons, Ensler brings you into the lives of women who've been violated, often with little or no safety net. She also shares the stories of Hurricane Katrina survivors, as well as activist Cindy Sheehan, who lost her son in the Iraq War. All are equally compelling stories, combined with Ensler's own thoughts on her relationship with her father and the notion of security. Or insecurity.

Like The Vagina Monologues, this book has ignited my indignation at the ongoing problem of violence against women. Thanks to Ensler, TVM and V-Day have awakened the world to stop the violence. She has inspired many activists and activists-to-be, such as myself, to bring about change in small and big ways. Her work is for everyone who respects and values the women in her/his life.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Everyone should read this book!, February 18, 2007

By 

Pegi L. Chesney (California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Insecure at Last: Losing It in Our Security-Obsessed World (Hardcover)

Based on a true story this is a phenomenal book and educates the reader on the injustices of our world. Eve's descriptions of her experiences make one want to go and contribute to those way less fortunate than ourselves. It is definitely a worthwhile read.