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103 of 109 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Scientific poetry of the body, October 23, 1999
By A Customer
Woman: An Intimate Geography is the most delightful and informative book on the physiology of women I have ever read. The range of Angier's research leaves almost no aspect of the female body unexplored or unexplained. Even, for example, such barbaric rituals as infibulation and clitorodectomy (still shockingly practiced in as many as 28 countries) are depicted for us in a rare combination of absolute fidelity to scientific detail, and with a moral outrage that is paradoxically spiritual. WOMAN, throughout its nearly four hundred pages, is exquisitely written. By brilliantly blending her scientific data with acute personal insights and by her expert use of language--exuberant and optimistic when the message is merry, solemn and meticulous when the message is most serious--Angier manages to create for her reader a kind of scientific poetry of the body. Ms. Angier's book should appeal to women of all ages: to adolescents for whom she lucidly illuminates the lovely tapestries of their bodies; to women of child-bearing age whom her encyclopedic information will help in making the difficult reproductive decisions of our era; and it will appeal to older women who have lived through so much feminist history (and turmoil)since Simone de Beauvoir first expelled us from the Garden of Ignorance. Angier's stylistic eloquence bathes us all in her affection and respect for women; she blesses us with the strength and resilience of her language; she nourishes us, evoking our most primordial response even as we absorb her intellectual richness at their source--giving us what every human needs--affection and knowledge, from our stem cells to the final Silence.
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96 of 103 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Woman, An Intimate Geography, January 30, 2000
This is one of those books that I am considering buying for every woman I know: young, old, of all creeds, races, and religions.... even after completing it I am STILL floored by its appropriate, humorous, scientific, lyrical, and profound words. It is empowering without any negativism. There is not a shread of male-bashing in this work of art. Natalie Angier is a science writer for the New York Times and her work is infused with just enough science to make all the fascinating issues she covers comprehensible to any and everyone who reads this book. She covers the female body like no one ever has, and I don't just mean the chapters on breasts, the uterus, and the ovaries, but the hormones, the menstrual cycles, nursing babies, menopause, exercise, chemistry, and the psychology of being a woman. I wish so much that this amazing piece of work had been around when I was 18 and wondering what the hell was WRONG with me! (nothing. apparently. But who can tell an 18 year old anything.... maybe if I could have read it.....). Angiers carefully weaves together the myths, the legends, the cultures, and even the misogyny from where we ALL come and gracefully and humorously meshes them with the studies, the sciences, the theories and the facts, and gives the reader an entire body of work on all of the issues about ourselves we are curious about. It is book that teaches you something fascinating about how and why you are and work and play and love. One of the themes that surrepticiously repeats in this book is the completely normal, completely natural, "you are SO ok - it's laughable to think otherwise" theme. Women are complex and complicated creatures and we owe that to this magnificent temple called the body and we now have all the evidence and joy in this book to know that.
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81 of 92 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Bad Science from a Good Writer, June 3, 1999
By A Customer
I am writing this review as a warning for non-biologist readers. I am a biomedical researcher and someone who believes that the biology of gender is fascinating and important. I am also a big fan of Ms. Angiers writing. I can't tell you how many times I've started in reading a Science piece in the New York Times, smiled at a delightful paragraph, and then looked up to see the Angiers byline. I was thrilled when I heard about this book and really wanted it to be good. Reading it and hearing Angiers talk about it, though, was deeply disappointing. This book could have been a brilliant and profound exposition of the biology of femaleness but instead it is a sloppy tirade where accurate science usually takes a back seat to getting off a good quip. Time after time she misrepresents or misunderstands the biological research, twisting everything into the narrow confines of her "Grrls Rock" manifesto. It's a good manifesto but it is only undercut by sophomoric misreading of the science. The book is entertaining if read as standup comedy, full of scattershot zingers with little regard for accuracy. I am concerned that it will end up being quoted endlessly by legions of Women's Studies majors with no notion of how badly the science is muddled. Readers should know that the book has been panned in the scientific press (by feminist scientist reviewers) for its many errors. Many of the examples she cites are deep and deserve greater attention from the public but Angiers gets them backwards as often as forwards and ends up doing more damage than good. On the off chance that the author ever reads these reviews: Please, this is a topic that really needs doing right. Sit down with some real biologists with a critical eye and get the science done well. Not cheerleading but rather a thougthful examination of the issue. It's not too late to do it right in a second edition.
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