Glynnis MacNicol uses No One Tells You This to explore what it’s like being 40 in a society that tells women there’s only one way to do things: get married and have babies. Maybe you can go to school or have a job but — don’t let it interfere with marriage and babies. So if she’s unmarried and not a mother, then what does that make MacNicol?
Well, a damn good writer and story-teller for sure. I mean look at that cover. Don’t you want to get a drink with that woman?
“Every woman I knew seemed to think she was failing in some way, had been raised to believe she was lacking, and was certain someone else was doing it better. Had been told never to trust her own instincts. Taught to think of life as a solution when “done right”, when in reality we existed in a kaleidoscope made of shades of gray, able to be very happy and very sad all at the same time.”
She doesn’t just talk about her life in this memoir, she digs up every emotionally difficult aspect of her life and dissects it in front of us. She talks about love and sex and career and travel. The toughest chapters to read dealt with her mother, suffering from Parkinson’s and dementia. Her mother spent her whole life doing exactly what society demanded, only to have her mind erased towards the end of her life. MacNicol asks — so what was all that good behavior for? What does it matter?
I really enjoyed her writing style — it came alive in the audio version — and I plan to seek out more of her work in the future.