An Unexpected Life reads, maybe presciently, as a nudge to younger generations to keep up the good fight, to notice the wins where they happen, and to not get discouraged ... anyone already unimpressed by Steinem’s support of neoliberal men won’t be thrilled by the few pages in the book where she compares Ronald Reagan unfavorably to Bill Clinton, who she says 'brought his habit of empathy into political life' ... When women like Steinem die, we lose a leader of an unwieldy movement that we still desperately need. We’re left here trying to do the work in her absence. The grief is hard to fight off, but the best way to read Steinem’s final words is the way she wanted you to: with hope for the future.
It's a cracking backstory ... These periods of her life are well documented. What I found interesting in the book were Steinem’s asides about the cost of pursuing the life she chose ... As we enter the post-Steinem era – a statement that seems outlandish, given the length and ardour of her service – it’s a pleasure, simply, to spend time in her company, and her role as an elder is one she takes seriously.
The earlier Steinem, unflinching and dogged, can still be found in her new memoir ... We dearly need the guts and guile of Steinem’s younger self in our present day reality. But it is there that An Unexpected Life falls short. There are few mentions of Donald Trump, elected and re-elected since her last memoir, despite the dark moment his presidency has ushered in for women. In the book, Steinem seems unwilling to confront the messy and complex state of modern womanhood ... Sixty years after Bellow’s advice to her, it seems that Steinem has fallen victim to that temptation to be exemplary, too often stepping carefully where you hope she might instead tread boldly ... There may never be another Gloria Steinem, but her memoir holds on to the hope that something better can still come...By invoking the language of radical activism but without offering any truly radical suggestions, Steinem’s farewell message feels sadly like a stirring call for blind faith amid the dark.
