An examination of the solitude, freedoms, and feminist heroes she discovered during a year of celibacy and a thoughtful look at relationships and self-knowledge.
When Febos stops looking through the keyhole and turns around, she finds that being single feels like anything but a dry season; it’s the most emotionally and spiritually fertile time of her life ... I want to believe this is enough: that if you’re intentional, you can be someone’s partner without losing any of yourself. I’m not sure I do ... Thoughtfully argued.
Febos’s great power as a writer is pairing structural rigor with emotional disclosure ... Febos has venerated literary ancestors while scrutinizing her own choices. Some might deride attention to personal experience and sexual pleasure while our democracy disintegrates around us, but sex and love are energies that turn us toward each other in an era whose ravages are designed to create lasting isolation.
Febos is far from the first woman to have pledged celibacy, and she structures her memoir round stories of those who came before her ... Less welcome, though, are the metaphors ... Becomes too theoretical ... However, in the dating apps era when the taunting promise of romance is ever present, it’s always refreshing to read about someone who turns away.
