I this book because...
I’ve been a fan of Orwell and his writings since early adulthood, enjoying both his novels and his non-fiction. I’m also aware of the hidden work that many women do supporting famous men.
So I was more than curious to read Anna Funder’s new book on Orwell’s first wife, Eileen O’Shaughnessy. The book did not disappoint. I loved the writing style, mixing actual letters O’Shaughnessy wrote to family and friends, with biographical information about their marriage and personal reflections by Funder about her own experience of marriage and that of all heterosexual women who put their male partner’s interests above their own.
I was deeply moved by it at times. It’s a book that all men should read to understand more about their own often unexamined sense of male entitlement.
5 authors picked Wifedom as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
At the end of summer 2017, Anna Funder found herself at a moment of peak overload. Family obligations and household responsibilities were crushing her soul and taking her away from her writing deadlines. She needed help, and George Orwell came to her rescue.
"I've always loved Orwell," Funder writes, "his self-deprecating humour, his laser vision about how power works, and who it works on." So after rereading and savoring books Orwell had written, she devoured six major biographies tracing his life and work. But then she read about his forgotten wife, and it was a revelation.
Eileen O'Shaughnessy married Orwell…