Review: How We Love by Clementine Ford

Love her or loathe her, there is no escaping the fact that Clementine Ford has started a very raw and real conversation on what it means to be a feminist in twenty-first century Australia. In How We Love she offers readers an honest and tender memoir about her own experiences of the many different types of love she has experienced in her lifetime--from her relationship with her mother, to the idolisation of a predatory manager, to her friendships, to various romances, to her ex-husband and, finally, to her son. Each is a unique story and the reader learns how love can shape a person.

This was an interesting memoir on a number of levels. Like me, Clementine Ford spent her adolescence in the outer suburbs of Adelaide albeit at the very opposite end of Adelaide. In the same way, her experiences of life and people have been very different to my own. Yet there were many things that felt so universal--as though in telling her own story, the author was in a way telling the story of what it means to be a daughter, to admire people who are bad for us, and how vulnerable we can be in our personal relationships. Parts of the narrative were incredibly intimate especially for a memoir.

Overall, How We Love is an insightful read and an interesting reflection of the times we live in. Recommended. 

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