Peering into the complicated nuances of womxnhood, relationships, and personal growth.
Female memoirs are a recent addition into my life (intern Harper Wayne speaking!) and I found that they have made quarantine a lot more self-serving than I thought it would be. I recently read Untamed by Glennon Doyle for my book club and I devoured it so quickly. The book is dense, but written in bite-sized chapters. I found the chapter length made it easier for me to indulge in Doyle’s thoughts and growth for my own individual knowledge and growth.
Before I read Untamed, I had never heard of Glennon Doyle but now that I know her, she is hard to forget.
The book covers so many topics, from addiction, motherhood, religion, marriage and love — but mainly it covers a forms of communication in varying relationships. Doyle mentions she is an introvert so much of her communication is influenced by that aspect of herself.
Some people from my book club have found it hard to align themselves with Doyle for this reason — they find her partner, Abby, more relatable and learn more “life lessons” from her as an extroverted person.
Although it was harder for me to relate to the mothering aspect of her memoir, it felt very applicable to how to go about handling the harder conversations. Specifically, I learned how to communicate effectively when asking someone to grow versus pushing upon them your beliefs.
As a womxn, the book opened up a narrative within myself and my relationship with womxnhood. It started a conversation about my relationship with other womxn that I find to be important for young girls and womxn.
Between the lines, I grew a lot through reading this novel during a time where our isolated, more quiet, and more home-bound lives can make us turn inward in positive and negative ways.
I passed the novel along to my own mother and I am excited to hear what she has to say about Doyle’s voice.
Some of my favorite topics and quotes:
Finding your knowing
“We can do hard things”
“Let it Burn!”
In the beginning of her book, Doyle relates being a human/being a womxn with being a cheetah.
If you would like to purchase Untamed or other works of Glennon Doyle’s, you can look online by searching the novel name and your zip code to see if a local bookstore or library has it available!