Book Review: Three Women by Lisa Taddeo

RACHEL SOO THOW - 13 SEP 2021

PHOTO SUPPLIED

“Looking from outside into an open window one never sees as much as when one looks through a closed window. There is nothing more profound, more mysterious, more pregnant, more insidious, more dazzling than a window lighted by a single candle. What one can see out in the sunlight is always less interesting than what goes on behind a windowpane. In that black or luminous square life lives, life dreams, life suffers.” (Charles Baudelaire)

Finally caught the Taddeo train and I’m not looking back.

This novel has got to be one of the most incredible pieces of non-fiction I’ve ever read. In Three Women, Taddeo’s execution of these women’s profiles spans over the course of eight years - thousands of hours spent with these women over text, phone, email and even moving to the towns where they lived so she could understand their lives. I mean, this in itself is a fascinating excavation into the psychology of women and sex and I’m here for it. As she writes in the book’s prologue, “it’s the quotidian minutes of our lives that will go on forever, that will tell us who we were” - this very original construction of narrative manages to seamlessly weave together everyday details with intimate moments that reads just like page-turning fiction (insert *chef’s kiss here).

The women are not unusual in their sexual histories, what makes them ‘complicated’ is the exquisite candour with which Taddeo gives their voice. There’s Sloane, a glamorous and successful restauranteur whose marriage includes voyeurism, threesomes and guilt with every sexual encounter. Lina, a married woman, is stuck in a lifeless marriage where her own husband won’t kiss her. She reconnects online with her first love and there begins a tortuous love affair. Lastly, Maggie - unlike the other women, her real name is used due to the court proceedings that were taking place. Her relationship with English teacher Aaron Knodel is the epitome of love and desire - beguile and seduction.

Taddeo has successfully and breathlessly debated girls and women who dare to proclaim their existence as sexual beings. Female desire has long been seen as a problem and these challenging and heartbreaking stories are an absolute testament to what women really want.

---

---