Three Women by Lisa Taddeo Review

Title: Three Women Review
Author: Terrence L. Brown

Three Women

by Lisa Taddeo

Gray Planet Commentary

• Compelling narrative of three women and their desires

Gray Planet Indices

• Good Book Index: 93/100
• Literature Index: 91/100
• Magic Factor: 65/100

Three Women by Lisa Taddeo is the story of the sexual desires of three women (Maggie, Lina and Sloane) told by Taddeo in narrative form based on extensive interviews with the women and their friends and relatives.

The book is an impressive piece of journalism. Taddeo handles her material with confidence and the result is an involving set of stories.

There is little commonality among the three women. Maggie is in her early twenties, but was in high school when the defining moments of her story occurred—she had a consensual affair with one of her teachers. The affair left her distraught, not because it happened, but because she was devastated by the loss of her lover. A few years later, Maggie files sexual abuse charges against the teacher. The resulting trial is, in some ways, even more devastating for Maggie than the affair. Maggie’s inability to understand the depth of what is happening to her during the affair, her immaturity and her romantic misinterpretation of the events, make the reader realize the necessity of laws and systems that try to prevent this kind of exploitation. But the trial explicates the danger women face when pursuing any remedy after they have been abused like this. It emphasizes the apparent inability of our judicial system, and of our culture, to take seriously the emotional damage done to women in these circumstances. Maggie’s story is powerful and sad.

Lina has two children by her husband but considers her marriage loveless and her husband distant and cold. Lina defines her marriage and her life through what she sees as the lack of passion, respect, and love from her husband. She just wants to be physically loved. Desperate, Lina seeks out Aidan, her boyfriend from high school. She leaves her husband and devotes her time to arranging trysts with Aidan. Lina’s needs are simple, but they are intense, and when unsatisfied they threaten to destroy her. Her story is one of desperation that she cannot avoid.

Sloane is unique—a woman born with means, a woman who controls her own destiny through the power of her personality, but who suffers from deep conflicts and uncertainties. Sloane is beautiful because she makes herself beautiful, powerful because she refuses to be otherwise, but strangely passive as a result of two past events that changed her life and left her malleable, looking for love. In the end, despite her personal power, Sloane is manipulated by her husband’s desires.

What stands out in all three of these narratives is the detail that Taddeo brings to the inner stories of her subjects. Although common in fiction, this type of narrative detail and power is not common in non-autobiographical nonfiction simply because it is nearly impossible to know such detail about another’s inner life. The three stories read like individual memoirs, the voice is different for each, and the detail is memoir-like.

Taddeo spent eight years researching this book and, as she says in her author’s note “I have spent thousands of hours with the women in this book”. Taddeo “based my selection of these three women on the relatability of their stories, their intensity, and the way that the events, if they happened in the past, still sat on the women’s chests.”

Indeed, Taddeo has created a work that lays bare the innermost desires, thoughts, and feelings of Maggie, Lina and Sloane and allows us to understand the stories of their lives with a depth and closeness most of us rarely experience with others even in our own lives.

This is a powerful and revelatory work, but it is not for the faint of heart. The sex is raw and startlingly frank at times. But it is also real, and fraught with feeling and meaning. Even though we may be shocked by it, we also realize its power to transform the participants, although not always for the better.

Taddeo’s work brings these women to life. She makes us think of each woman individually, to consider that we know them. This is a powerful narrative that gives us a unique perspective on the lives of these women.