I believe that reading can change the way we live our lives. It can change the way we look at the world. Reading makes people more empathetic and open to new ideas.
This is why I am starting a new tradition of posting a book review on Friday or Saturday.
This first week, I will be reviewing a book that I read in April for the monthly book club that I am part of at my local library. It is called Butts: A Backstory by Heather Radke. It was published in November of 2022. It has 320 pages and is it is a non-fiction book in the categories of history and pop culture.
On Goodreads, I gave this book 3 out of 5 stars.
Here is my review.
Butts: A Backstory is a recently published history of the woman’s behind. Heather Radke, the author begins her history with the story of Sarah Baartman, an African woman who was transported to England against her will in the early 1800’s. Baartman was exhibited at the Piccadilly Circus because she had a large behind. According to Radke, this began the white Eurocentric fascination with behinds. The book then continues on its path to showing the reader our current fascination with female behinds in social and popular culture. There is discussion about the bustle (dress padding from the late 19th century), flapper styles from the early 20th century, eugenics, fashion, models, Sir Mix-a-Lot, and Jennifer Lopez. This book is a mixture of social history and pop culture analysis. Radke also interweaves her personal history, especially pertaining to her feelings about her backside, into the social history of behinds.
The Radke is a former historian who now teaches writing creative non-fiction at Columbia University and producing radio podcasts. She formerly worked on the popular RadioLab science history podcast.
My feelings about his book were very mixed. I primarily listened to the first half of the book and read the second half of the book. The author reads the preface but not the actual text of the book. I enjoyed the audio reader’s voice however, I found myself becoming less annoyed with various aspects of the book when I was reading it as opposed to listening to it.
What I enjoyed:
I enjoyed learning about the historical information in the first half of the book. I found it interesting learning about Sarah Baartman, the origins of twerk, sizing in women’s clothing and American’s interest in eugenics in the first half of the 20th century. These aspects felt enlightening.
I respected that Radke grounded this book in historical fact. There were many things I was able to take away from my read. I haven’t read a historical non fiction book in a while and I enjoyed learning about the attitudes and beliefs of the past. This book’s focus on sex politics and social mores reminded me of books by Peggy Orenstein about gender and sex.
What I Did Not Enjoy:
I also found Butts to be frustrating. As I mentioned, I enjoyed the historical information that I learned by reading this book. I did not however, enjoy the author’s personal narrative that was interwoven into the historical stories. It seemed that Radke injected her personal opinions into the historical facts that she was presenting. In a sense, all history is more or less an editorialization, I understand that history is in the eye of the presentor. However, Radke seemed to be editorializing her historical retelling a noticeable amount.
I read some Goodreads reviews about this book. One Goodreads reviewer mentioned that the author should choose a lane in regards to her approach. I agree. This is neither a memoir or a straight non-fiction book. It tries to be both. It is a historical-ish book with a lot of editorializing. I started groaning when the author would interject or interpret in the middle of a historical story. I almost quit at one point because I found her interpreting history in the middle of information to be condescending.
Long story short: Butts comes up a little lean in terms of complete satisfaction but there is still plenty to work with with. Perhaps if you are looking for a memoir with a little more meat on the bone, this book might be for you.
I would recommend it to readers who enjoy reading about social and pop culture history. It might also appeal to people interested in memoir, feminism, Chuck Klosterman fans, and fans of Radiolab.
Sounds like an interesting book that could have benefitted from a heavier editing hand. I like reading about what you’re reading!