How the worst people think

For the politics book club we read a very influential but also very upsetting book: Lundy Bancroft’s Why Does He Do That?: Inside the Minds of Angry and Controlling Men, which came out in 2002. We talked it through very thoroughly on Sunday and also it’s been about a week since I finished reading it, so I haven’t really wanted to write this review but I feel like I should knock it out so it stops hanging over my head.

Reading the book was actually a similar experience. I kept reading like half a page and then mysteriously finding myself on my phone, even though when I could make myself focus and actually read the thing it was very good. The audience for most if it was squarely women who are in bad romantic relationships with men and it has thankfully been many years since I was in any sort of romantic relationships with men, but it was still nonetheless very useful to read the whole book itself and not just disjointed bits of it that get quoted in advice columns. It is definitely a pre-social-media book but I can’t expect it not to be. I have some actual nitpicks and I don’t want to go over them again. Anyway, I do recommend it with the big caveat that it’s not remotely enjoyable to read.