 |
|
|
 Entertainment | Books | December 2006 
Author Takes an Honest Look at Global Insecurity
 Stephanie R. Olson - Associated Press
| Insecure at Last: Losing It in Our Security Obsessed World
by Eve Ensler
Villard, 202 pages, $21.95 |
Reading Eve Ensler's "Insecure at Last" gives you the feeling that she is drawn to disasters like a moth to a flame.
She interviews victims of ethnic cleansing in Bosnia, researches how Sri Lankan victims of the 2005 tsunami grieve and travels to such global hot spots as Afghanistan and Kosovo.
She is in Ciudad Juarez on the U.S. border to investigate the rapes and murders of young Mexican factory workers, and she visits communities in New Orleans torn apart by Hurricane Katrina and government neglect.
Ensler feels compelled to explore abuses wherever she finds them.
The genesis of this need becomes more clear as Ensler relates her life's work to her experiences of her father's emotional abuse. Taking to heart the feminist adage "the personal is political," she deftly weaves together her explorations, her experiences and her hard-earned wisdom.
What ties her disparate interests together is her desire to make sense of the cruelty in the world rather than accept it, ignore it or cope with it through a quest for security.
However, disaster is not the theme of the book: America's obsession with security is. Opening with the question, "Why has all this focus on security made me feel so much more insecure?" Ensler guides the reader through this paradox.
Although her efforts are somewhat scattered, Ensler is such a captivating writer that this shortcoming is easily forgiven. And rather than being depressing, "Insecure at Last" is motivating and even somewhat uplifting.
Ensler's focus is on overcoming the personally and culturally damaging effects of our new age of anxiety and insecurity. However, she does contend that we are no safer — and perhaps even less safe — than we were before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
At the heart of Ensler's book is the idea that security is a myth and that instead of fruitlessly searching for it, one must let go and accept uncertainty and the inevitability of change.
Ensler's book is honest, emotionally gripping and inspiring. |
| |
|
Vallarta Weddings
Tell a Friend
Site Map
Print this Page
Email Us