Free Women, Free Men: Sex, Gender, Feminism

Provocateur Paglia lends her voice to the audio edition of her latest collection of essays, which spans her career from her breakthrough 1990 study, Sexual Personae, to the present. Paglia’s croaky voice adds character to the reading as she spews contempt on a variety of topics, such as university culture, poststructuralism, women’s studies programs, and anything mainstream, while rehashing major moments of second-wave feminism. She overenunciates certain words and syllables while speeding past others; the combination creates a jolting rhythm with an air of pompousness. It’s oddly fitting for her style of prose, which has a tendency toward short declarative sentences and grandiose rhetoric. Listeners familiar with Paglia’s work will be neither surprised nor disappointed. [em]A Knopf hardcover. (Mar.) [/em]