One of the big gifts of this book is the way the reader learns so many things along with the narrative: we of course learn about Gina the writer and we increasingly learn about Gina the human being (which includes Gina the daughter, Gina the mother, Gina the wife, Gina the ex-wife, Gina the friend, and a very close to fulfilled Gina who has achieved wisdom the hardest and most genuine way possible). At the end of this honest, brutal, beautiful memoir, Gina remains, like all real people, very much a work-in-progress.
Another thing I adore about this memoir is how unsparing it is: a book I suspect will resonate deeply with women, but is (also) exactly the type of book many men need to read in order to not only appreciate, but better understand the complexity of what it means to be a woman. Among many possible outcomes, it would be welcome for more males to understand the fact that even when women aren’t being watched they’re watching themselves in ways most men could never fathom. For sustained progress in the battle for the world we want and deserve to inhabit, we need not only recognition, but empathy, and not least, solidarity.
Two quotes that serve to summarize so many of the themes and takeaways from this work:
It is dangerous to be a beautiful woman, even when you are sober and relatively sane. It is dangerous to be a woman, even if you are not beautiful at all.
This becomes the moment…that I refuse to join the endless body count of women lost to History. This dark night, I resolve to believe, irrevocably and whatever the cost, that I deserve to live.
BLOW YOUR HOUSE DOWN would be an important book at any time, but it’s absolutely essential for 2021. As such I recommend it with enthusiasm, and encourage you to pick up your copy and support independent booksellers via our great partners at D.C.’s historic The Potter’s House.
Gina Frangello is the author of four books of fiction in addition to the memoir, Blow Your House Down: A Story of Family, Feminism, and Treason. Her novel A Life in Men is currently under development by Charlize Theron’s production company, Denver & Delilah. She has nearly 20 years of experience as an editor, and her short fiction, essays, book reviews and journalism have been widely published in too many places to count. Gina lives mainly in Chicago and occasionally in the California desert with her family and three gluttonous cats.
