I admit, I’m a bit biased in my assessment of Caitlin Moran’s Moranthology. First, because I am not Latin. Second, because I’m not very interested in popular culture or music. Thirdly, because I am not a woman. Caitlin Moran is clearly these three.
How do these hinder me? I have omitted quite a few pages. If you’re in English or popular culture or a woman (or even, like Caitlin Moran), you’ll enjoy this book more than I did. This is a good thing because I enjoyed it a lot, despite my disabilities.
Moranthology is a collection of essays from Caitlin Moran’s London Times columns. As with any collection, they will vary; I liked something a lot more than others. Almost all of them are funny, at least in part, and some are very funny. Others take on more serious issues like abortion and the welfare state. Here are some of my favorite quotes:
In the Prologue, Caitlin Moran says why, at the age of 15, she chose journalism, claiming to be a prostitute (she shared a bed with her refugee sister); then she describes her initial interview for a job – she brought them a cake because “the people cake”. you’re off to start rollicking.
The first essay in each of the four parts describes a conversation between her and her husband just before sleep. In each of them, one sleeps, the other wants to talk. The first of these, “Me Puffin” is about Caitlin’s attempts to get her husband to call her by her last name. Sweet are all the temptations that involve a man without wanting. It’s clear they love each other and she’s confident enough about it that you don’t have to butt heads with it.
Several of the installations cover Caitlin Moran interviewing someone famous (and often recently running). It features the Prime Minister, the cast of Doctor Who, Lady Gaga, Keith Richards and Paul McCartney. Of these, my favorite was with Lady Gaga, this interview included both popular aspects of Gaga and even more political stuff.
And some of the articles in moranthology are actually political. Caitlin Moran is a little liberal and a self-described “shriek feminist.” I agree with him. But I do not write equally. In This Is Not a Gift he undermines some of the arguments of the anti-choice religious people. In Unlike the Coalition, I was Raised with Benefits he gives an eloquent and vehement defense of the republic.
My favorite of all her essays is Libraries: The Cathedral of Our Souls’, in which she describes the local library means a poor, bright, home-educated 15-year-old who liked to read. He closes that essay with “The accounts of the libraries that survived the Blitz will be closed. A trillion foreclosures.”
Caitlin Moran was born in 1975. She writes three of seven columns for the Times. He won many prizes for his writing, starting in the 13th century for the essay “Why 1 Book”. She’s on Twitter @caitlinmoran.
