Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Novelist and screenwriter Lehr (Wife Goes On) blends memoir, history, and cultural criticism in this witty and incisive look at American attitudes toward women's breasts. She tracks the evolution of her feelings about her own breasts from pubescence to flat-chested young adulthood, breastfeeding, plastic surgery (aiming for a B cup, she ended up size 32D), and surviving breast cancer. Lehr's appealing sense of humor runs throughout, as does her sharp analysis of broader social issues such as the messages girls receive about being smart versus being pretty, the "bro culture and tribe mentality" of the Senate Judiciary Committee during Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court confirmation hearings, the marketing techniques of lingerie brands, and the censorship of women's breasts in movies and on social media platforms. Digressions on her father's collection of Playboy magazines, the history of the Hooters restaurant chain, and the popularity of breast augmentation surgery in the U.S. mingle with frank details about Lehr's battle with breast cancer and the stresses in women's lives that contribute to the disease, which, she notes, kills more than 42,000 American women every year. Lehr's engrossing and empathetic account will appeal to women of all ages. (Mar.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
In this quirky book, Lehr encourages readers to think about the social construction of the breast along with the reality of how beauty standards and the facts and fictions of desirability have played a role in her own changing cup size--and in the lives of many others. She talks about beauty queens, cheerleaders, and the myriad narratives around female embodiment before turning to her own story as a mother, a single woman, a cancer survivor, and more, in stories that seamlessly blend social critique, humor, and pain. This social history spans the 20th century, from the golden age of the pinup girl during World War II to the onset of TV advertising in the 1950s and the launch of Playboy magazine in 1953. Lehr also includes a history of the bra, from its origins as a handkerchief to replace a corset in 1910 to the push-up bra in the 1940s to bras as high fashion in the 21st century. For Lehr, laughter and shame are irrevocably intertwined when talking about breasts or bras, especially her stories of breastfeeding and, later, undergoing chemotherapy after a diagnosis of breast cancer. VERDICT A unique blend of memoir and social history that should have broad appeal to anyone who has breasts or has ever worn a bra.--Emily Bowles, Lawrence Univ., WI
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A screenwriter and essayist argues that how Americans view breasts has defined life for generations of women. Lehr's book contains just about everything you would want to know about breasts. Pardon the pun, but it's not about titillation--though plenty of insight can be gleaned from her cultural history. The book is about fixation and awareness, the many ways in which life shuffles women a raw deal, and why we continue to fail to rectify the inequities. The author also examines marriage, motherhood, the writing life, and conflicting emotions. "As far back as I can remember," writes Lehr, "everywhere I've lived, breasts have been the Holy Grail, the quest for female perfection. I'm beginning to think breasts are more than a body part. They might be the whole game." That game, she demonstrates, has often held women back. Lehr is a smooth, eminently likable guide, and she elicits no small measure of sympathy for the trials she has endured, including her bout with breast cancer. She is thoughtful and honest about the push-pull of acculturation and candid about her own complicity in how societal attitudes often narrow women's status. Occasionally, the author engages in doctrinaire language and sweeping generalizations. Justified though she may be in her anger about certain cultural norms, the outrage sometimes gets overheated, undermining valid arguments with exaggeration. While many of the statistics buttress Lehr's views, numbers don't tell the whole story. She is at her liveliest and most convincing when she tempers rhetoric with personal anecdotes. The text also includes a variety of sidebars including "Bra Basics," a timeline of American beauty pageants (1998: "Forty of the fifty-one Miss USA contestants have breast implants"), and a list of American women who have appeared in Playboy, divided by decade. A serious and provocative book with enough lightness to keep the pages turning. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
