I am, I admit, somewhat handicapped in my appreciation of Caitlin Moran’s Moranthology. First because I am not English. Second because I am not very interested in popular culture or music. Third because I am not female. Caitlin Moran is, decidedly, all three of these things.
How do these handicap me? I missed quite a few references. If you are English or into popular culture or female (or even, like Caitlin Moran) you will enjoy this book more than I did. This is good because I enjoyed it a lot, despite my handicaps.
Moranthology is a collection of essays from Caitlin Moran’s columns in the Times of London. As with any such collection, they vary; I liked some a lot more than others. Nearly all of them are funny, at least in part, and some are very funny indeed. Others take on more serious issues such as abortion and the welfare state. Here are some of my favorite essays:
In the Introduction, Caitlin Moran says why, at age 15, she chose journalism over, say, prostitution (she shared a bunk bed with her sister); then she describes her initial interview for a job – she brought them a cake because “people like cake. We are off to a rollicking start.
The first essay in each of the four parts describes a conversation between her and her husband just before sleep. In each, one of them is sleepy and the other wants to talk. The first of these “Call Me Puffin” is about Caitlin’s efforts to get her husband to call her by a nickname. All of the essays that involve her husband are sweet without being cloying. It is obvious that they love each other and that she is confident enough of that to not have to hit you over the head with it.
Several of the essays cover Caitlin Moran interviewing someone famous (and often running late). She interviews 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 covers both the more popular aspects of Gaga and also more political stuff.
And some of the articles in Moranthology are overtly political. Caitlin Moran is an unabashed liberal and a self-described “strident feminist”. I agree with her. But I don’t write as well as she does. In This is not a Gift she undermines some of the arguments of the religious anti-choice people. In Unlike Most of the Coalition, I was Raised on Benefits she gives an eloquent and impassioned defense of the welfare state.
My favorite of all the essays is Libraries: Cathedrals of our Souls, in which she describes what the local library meant to a poor, bright, home-schooled 15 year old who liked to read. She closes that essay with “Libraries that survived the Blitz will be closed by budgets. A trillion little doors closing”.
Caitlin Moran was born in 1975. She writes three columns a week for The Times. She has won numerous awards for her writing, starting at age 13 for an essay “Why I Like Books”. She is on Twitter @caitlinmoran.
