The Vagina Monologues (Paperback)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"I say vagina because I want people to respond," says playwright Eve Ensler, creator of the hilarious, disturbing soliloquies in The Vagina Monologues, a book based on her one-woman play. And respond they do--with horror, anger, censure, and sparks of wonder and pleasure. Ensler is on a fervent mission to elevate and celebrate this much mumbled-about body part. She asked hundreds of women of all ages a series of questions about their vaginas (What do you call it? How would you dress it?) that prompt some wondrous answers. Standouts among the euphemisms are tamale, split knish, choochi snorcher, Gladys Siegelman--Gladys Siegelman?--and, of course, that old standby "down there." "Down there?" asks a composite character springing from several older women. "I haven't been down there since 1953. No, it had nothing to do with [American president] Eisenhower." Two of the most powerful pieces include a jagged poem stitched together from the memories of a Bosnian woman raped by soldiers and an American woman sexually abused as a child who reclaims her vagina as a place of wild joy.

From Booklist

Ensler's powerful, funny, incisive, insightful meditation on one of the most proscribed, vilified, taboo-tainted, shame-shrouded bodily organs in our phallocratic culture is based on personal reminiscences and on interviews with dozens of women of various religious, ethnic, and racial backgrounds. Its topics include the many attitudes women have about their vaginas, ranging from fear to fascination, and the ways those attitudes reflect and influence attitudes about sexuality, health, body image, and even spirituality. Even in the wrong hands--say, of a dry academician--Ensler's material would be enlightening. Fortunately, Ensler is first and foremost a storyteller and has fashioned her material into a highly readable script in which interviews are distilled to pithy brevity or reformatted as emotionally charged prose poems. Reading it, it is not hard to see why the off-Broadway one-woman show Ensler also crafted from its material met with critical and popular success and won Ensler a coveted Obie award. Jack Helbig

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Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Villard; 1st edition (February 3, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375750525
• ISBN-13: 978-0375750526
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (112 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #591,671 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

67 of 73 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the most liberating books I've ever read., August 13, 1999

By	Rachel Gibson ([e-mail]) "foxglo... (Cleveland, Ohio) - See all my reviews

This book is a life changer. I read it six months ago and I cannot believe how much it has liberated me and my attitude towards my body. Like everyone says, you cannot put it down once you begin reading it. Ensler talks about the things I've kept hidden. I never knew just how central to my life my vagina is. A chapter about menstruation, my god, people talk about this? A chapter about orgasm and hair and the fear we have of our own body. The part we never like to talk about. The chapter on birth is amazing, and until then I never knew how complex the woman's vagina is. For a woman of 22, this is a very important read. If you ever get to see her read from The Vagina Monologues, go. She puts on an amazing show. Some people think it's simple but I feel it's life-changing. I would be a very different person without it and not many books can have that kind on impact.

42 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A surprising materpiece, August 24, 2000

By	E. Barteldes "jazzcritic" (Staten Island,NY) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I picked up the book in a local bookstore before the media here started paying attention to the play, which has recently opened in Brazil.

First of all, I was amused by the title. What would a vagina have to say? As a man, I could understand some female sensitivities, since men are a minority in my family. The Brazilian edition of the book has a microphone placed in front of a female pubis, and that surely looked funny to me.

I showed it to my wife, but she didn't have much of a positive reaction due to her conservative upbringing(she tries, though), but when I read her one of the stories she was amused

A few weeks later "The Vagina Monologues"was all the rage here. The Brazilian version of the play(directed and adapted by actor/director Miguel Falabella) opened in Rio de Janeiro, and suddenly everyone was talking about it. Even Eve Ensler, the author of the play, gave an interview to a local newsmagazine directed to the female public. One could not turn on the TV or open a newspaper without stumbling into a Vagina Monologues comment.

I havent (as of this writing) yet seen the play, but I found reading the book very enjoyable. It is a collection of very short stories related to various vagina-related subjects, such as the discovery of pleasure, childbirth, and even rape. There are also a few facts of the vagina world.

Personally, there are two favorite stories, in my opinion. The first is a married woman who dislikes having her pubic hairs shaved - she feels like a child when it is done to her, and the story on rape; the metaphorical description is so clear that brings tears to one's eyes.

As any other collection, there are also a bad moments - the introductiuon is sometimes annoying, for it reads like an outdated sixties feminist chant - but, all in all, the play, as a reading piece, is utterly enjoyable.

Bottom line: A good piece for both women and men, regardless of sexual option

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "What can you tell about a woman . . .", December 18, 2000

By	"kellyeleasure" (Silver Spring, MD United States) - See all my reviews

When I told my mother we were performing _The Vagina Monologues_ for V-Day 2000, she said, "What? What a disgusting thing to do!" That is exactly why _The Vagina Monologues_ must be read and performed -- to help us get over the disgust we have about our vaginas.

The variety of monologues in the book is incredible; Eve Ensler has created several personas that all tell you about their vaginas and their associated experiences. The monologues are well ordered -- the moods change from one to the other, with little overlap -- and you'll likely laugh, cry, squirm, cry, then laugh again.

Buy it, read it, share it.