Spinster: Making a Life of One's Own

Despite the subtitle, Bolick's (contributing editor, Atlantic) debut is neither a how-to nor a why-you-should. Rather, it's a thoughtful examination of the author's own desires and fears about living alone through her own history and the lens of the experiences of other straight, white women writers of the past. She seems to intend her example as emblematic of the broader cultural moment. On that level the account falls short, since it largely fails to engage with topics of race, class, public policy, and other major cultural influences on the changing role of American marriage. But Bolick owns her background and issues, and this book may be a sympathetic read for other straight, white, middle class, intellectual women of her generation who struggle to forge meaningful companionships without being defined by them. The author doesn't so much reach a conclusion as peter out at the present. A pat-sounding ending says the greater meaning of spinsterhood can be reached in or out of relationships, but it rings hollow in the face of the author's life history of fleeing otherwise functional relationships to attain this self-determination.