Nonfiction Annotation - Shrill by Lindy West

Summary
Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman is a memoir of often comic and always candid essays around the central theme of Lindy West’s life including the struggles she has faced as a woman, a writer, and an overweight public figure. At times laugh-out-loud funny, Lindy bares her soul regarding the difficulties of being female in the online environment of Twitter trolls and the scathing comments sections on her writings. Employed by media outlets such as Jezebel and The Stranger, Lindy became a well-known online public figure during the mid-2000’s. This journey is outlined in Shrill as the backdrop to Lindy’s internal efforts to come to terms with her body, her comedy, and her love life.

Lindy’s story is at once inspiring and jaw-dropping. Most of us have not endured what Lindy has in the world of cyber-bullying and trolling. This bullying by men, in particular, was constant and often consisted of very personal attacks on her size and gender. One troll even created an account under the name of Lindy’s deceased father and used the account to harass her. You’ll have to read the book to find out how she conquered that situation, but suffice it to say that Lindy has gone to bat for all women in the process of battling misogyny in many forms.

My biggest takeaways from Lindy’s pointed writing in Shrill include: … women are hilarious; men in comedy are intimidated by hilarious women; online trolling is out of control; our culture is obsessed with women’s bodies in unhealthy ways and needs to stop; and Lindy West is a brilliant writer and brave woman. A New York Times Bestseller and winner of the Stranger Genius Award, Shrill was such a success that Hulu turned it into an original series starring Saturday Night Live’s Aidy Bryant. It premiered this month with six, ½ hour episodes, (and I watched them all over the weekend.)

Note: If you are uncomfortable with a chapter entitled “Abortion Is Normal, It's Okay to Be Fat, and Women Don't Have to Be Nice to You”, this book will not be for you.

Elements of Nonfiction as outlined by Neal Wyatt in The Readers’ Advisory Guide to Nonfiction (2007):

Narrative Context -
Shrill has a medium narrative element, depending on the chapter. It is all told from Lindy’s point of view but woven in with anecdotes and interactions with others. It is not strictly narrative nonfiction, but more like interconnected essays that each have their own narrative elements.

Subject -
Shrill’s subject is Lindy’s life but in the context of feminism, her size, her age, her relationships, and comedy in general with emphases on being a women in comedy and how comedy treats women. When I looked up the cataloged subjects for this title I found Lindy West, Women - Humor, Feminists, and Women journalists. I don’t feel this is a comprehensive list of subjects, but it’s a start.

Type - Shrill is decidedly a memoir. It is also listed as “Humor” under genres in my library’s catalog.

Appeal - In Shrill this would be humor, real-life anecdotes, and the candid re-telling of difficult topics, a thought provoking look at her own struggles with her weight and online trolling due to the nature of her writing online.

Tone - Neither light nor dark...dark in subject sometimes (misogyny, rape culture) and lightened by humor

Pacing - Evenly paced, but a fast read due to the humor

Storyline- Somewhat non-linear, Shrill is more subject based by chapter (ie. chapters on her weight, chapters on women’s rights to reproductive healthcare, chapters on her work and online trolling/bullying, chapters on her family and their history, chapters on her relationships); but they all build and weave together, too.

Characterization - Strong female character, as a woman I can relate to Lindy,

Language/Style - Candid and journalistic (as one would expect from a journalist)

Setting - Seattle and LA, not always relevant since much of what she talks about is how she is treated in the online environment of blogs, Twitter and comments on her writing, but she details living in and attending comedy clubs in LA and that is relevant to the storyline.

Intent of author - Through her candid sharing, Lindy intends to shed light on the difficulties inflicted on women through our culture, both online and as a whole

Detail - I wouldn’t say this book has any extra amount of details, no pictures, maps, or illustrations.

Learning/Experiencing- Almost anyone can learn something from reading about Lindy’s experiences, so while this is not a book that was written strictly to teach the reader, it does just that.


Library Laura’s Top Takeaways Using Saricks’ Rule of Three:

• Strong Female Character
• Candid style and language
• Thought provoking subject matter

Read-alikes

The following are not memoirs… but they are nonfiction titles pertinent to the topics that Lindy covers in Shrill:

Bad Feminist by Roxanne Gay and consists of candid, clever essays on feminism and culture.

The Body Is Not an Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love by Sonya Renee Taylor which addresses indoctrinated body shaming and provides a compassionate look at liberation from the obsession over body image.

The Witches are Coming by … Lindy West! Coming in September 2019. This is not another memoir but a look at misogyny and patriarchy in American politics and culture.

References:


Saricks, J. (2009, October). Rule of Three. Booklist, 25.

The Secret Language of Books: A Guide to Appeal. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.ebscohost.com/uploads/novelist/pdf/NoveList_Appeal_2018.pdf

West, L. (2017). Shrill: Notes from a loud woman. London: Quercus.

Wyatt, N. (2007). The Readers' Advisory Guide to Nonfiction. Chicago, IL: American Library Association.