My Life on the Road by Gloria Steinem: book review

My Life on the Road (2015) is dot-point memoir of American writer, founder and editor of Ms. magazine, and feminist activist Gloria Steinem.

Steinem commences with her father – her main influencer, for the things he said and did, but mainly for his itinerant lifestyle. And that is the premise of the memoir – she states that for people to be led out of denial and into reality they should travel. She attributes travel as the reason for her energy, optimism, understanding, listening skills, social activism, and advocacy of racial and gender equality. And she encourages everyone to do the same – to go beyond one’s comfort zone to actively seek the road less travelled.

The memoir is divided into seven chapters (and main themes): her father; community development (and the importance of listening); why she doesn’t drive; university campus activities and activism; the personal in political; surrealism; and finally – what once was can be again.

Steinem’s personal history resonates with me, as does her many anecdotes – but I felt that this was not her best work. Her thoughts are disorganized and randomly selected – not chronologically but thematically – which means that she tends to meander, punctuating her chapters with dot points.

Her first two chapters set the scene and are more organized, and the rest taper off. For me, reading her book was like a lucky dip – a few pages of succinctness amongst the chaotic disconnected rememberences. Less rush, less about taxis, and more of her well-defined, well journalled experiences would have increased my interest in her memoir.

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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