Woman of a Certain Rage

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That’s a bit of a pity, made even more so by the fact that it’s a very enjoyable read, says a man of a certain age. I really enjoyed this book which has much that women in their 50s will relate to. Eliza is coping with a growing family, older relatives and as an actress, she was finding that work opportunities were becoming few and far between. Added to this, she was dealing with the many changes and hot flushes brought about by the menopause.

Eliza Hollander is fifty and is suffering the rigours on menopause. The use of that word alone will probably send male readers rushing towards their man caves to take refuge, but if you are male and still reading, I encourage you to continue. Among the 20 “life stories”, there were several that stood out for me. In “To Scream or not to Scream”, Olivia Muscat detailed how people’s reactions to her blindness were often reflective of their own fear of the unknown, that “they may end up like [her].” This prompted people to think they knew what was best for her, to single her out as an “inspiration” just for getting out of bed, and “making assumptions about [her]life.” Her rage was palpable. Nandi Chinna, in “The Thief”, wrote the most terrifying account of her rage, a life-long battle with mental illness, a psychosis initiated in her youth by taking LSD. I respected Chinna’s honesty and courage in her meticulous portrait of the rage within her mind, which overtook her every thought and breath. I refer to Lousie Hay's "Shoulding Exercise" which is in her book You Can Heal Your Life https://www.louisehay.com/I want to empower women and build confidence So they know, that whatever life throws at them, they can survive and even thrive The earliest Google Books match I could find for "[women] of a certain age" is from The Spectator, number 53 (May 1, 1711), and it takes the expression in an unexpected direction:

If you're looking for a specific age, which will make you either jump up to go to the night club and do flaming navel shots or conversely cry into your cold cereal late at night, there really isn't one. Yet Clark’s experience was a reminder of another unexpected breakthrough for middle-aged women in a different part of the world. The success of the so-called Teal independents in last month’s Australian election was predicted by almost no one. They were trying a Red Wall strategy in Australia,” says Elizabeth Ames, a former Australian diplomat at Atalanta, a London communications agency that works on female political campaigns. She thinks Boris Johnson’s UK government risks the same fate as Morrison if it ranks blue-collar men above professional women. Set off in the Leeds mail coach with a fair wind and a scowling sky ; our company consisted of my friend, a Sheffield manufacturer, a maiden lady of a certain age with a large band box, big enough to have purloined a Jemmy Jumps, but which we will suppose was better furnished with head ornaments to surprise a country village.This is a funny, honest and very realistic look at women of a certain age and all the horrors that come with it, I really felt for Eliza and she is typical of many middle aged women juggling many plates in her life. She feels like her marriage maybe in trouble and she is also in mourning for Arty her dog who she felt was the only one who really understood her. The book is well paced and it is very easy to engage with the likeable Eliza, who tells her story in the first person. Starting the book I was unsure that it was really something that I would enjoy, but several chapters later I found that I was wrong about that. Despite the difference in gender and the biological issues that creates, I was able to relate to quite a lot that Eliza was describing. I’ve not read many books of women at this time in life and dealing with challenges of menopause so definitely eye opening and engaging.

As it's written in the first person, her experiences and thoughts are clear and oh so familiar. Many of us will know the changes you feel as a parent of growing children, the fear of your own parents' mortality, and the way others see aging women. The motto of this book should be you’re never too old for anything. Age is just a number. Eliza is a mom, actor, and part-time estate agent. And she’s finding menopause incredibly difficult, they do not educate women enough on this (angry ramble on this later). She often presents on topics such as speaking up for oneself in other aspects of one's life including one's healthcare —covering areas mental, physical, and emotional — with providers, family members, friends and acquaintances. How to be still when you're proactive and a do-er, so you can create the space for new stuff to come in to your life.

Your heart may never be the same; the loss is always part of you, but you can find joy and happiness; you have to fight for yourself, and this group I am forming will be a great foundation to help you, and we can help each other as we stumble along the path – celebrating our triumphs and helping us struggle through the pain. My Story Reading the book I was remembering Jenny Lawson’s Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things and Nina George’s The Little Paris Bookshop. And through all the book I had the feeling that the BBC could make a wonderful short series out of it. This is an entertaining and amusing book with a strong female character who seems like she is having a bit of a mid-life crisis. I can’t say I relate to her problems of an unfulfilling and sexless marriage and how she is juggling the physical and mental changes of menopause but Eliza rants and raves in a very funny manner throughout this book, in a comical way that Bridget Jones would, feeling unsatisfied with life. Yet, as women, it’s likely we grew up internalising our anger, swallowing it down, because to be visibly angry is not considered feminine. When we did speak up, our voices were silenced, our experiences minimised, our reality dismissed. Is it any wonder we’re angry?