The Accidental Feminist: The Life of One Woman Through War, Motherhood, and International Photojournalism

From WWII-devastated Rotterdam to the comforts of Sag Harbor, N.Y., photojournalist Molenaar travels through an extraordinarily wide world in this always absorbing memoir. Readers will: visit Mallorca, Brazil, Tanzania, and Delhi; witness the Bengal Lancers charge; spend time with the prostitutes of the Crepuri (Brazil) gold miners and the burqa-covered women of the Pathans; travel along China’s Silk Road and the pilgrimage path to Santiago de Compostela; meet poet Robert Graves, and novelists Lawrence Durrell and Joseph Heller; and see “one of the world’s most extraordinary galleries of pre-historic art” while traveling with the Spanish Foreign Legion. In between, Molenaar shares stories about her three husbands and blended family, as well as her working life as a writer-photographer, making award-winning documentaries (Memories of Monet). At the book’s core is Molenaar’s curiosity and learning about this wide world—a crafty and engaging way to teach the reader. Reading her is like meeting a new acquaintance with an abundance of pithy and marvelous tales. Photos. (June)