It’s impossible to read this book and not feel inspired in some way or another. Gloria Steinem’s recently released memoir, My Life on the Road, is the work of a woman who has spent the majority of her life changing the world with other inspiring women. A feminist activist, lecturer, and journalist, Steinem’s memoir has the flair of a Joan Didion short essay—she tells her own story through her observations of the world and the stories of the people around her. She uses a journalistic style to recount key points in her life; from her involvement in the National Women’s Conference of 1977 and her experiences organizing campaigns for the Women’s Rights Movement, to a humble recollection of her childhood. Those who raised us often impact who we become, whether it be a positive impact or a negative one, and Steinem maps out her childhood observations of her parents and connects them to where she is today. My Life On the Road begins like an average memoir, providing the reader with a harmless and quiet description on Steinem’s love for travel and road trips she experienced with her parents as a kid. The first few pages give the impression that the rest of the book will be an almost disappointing one-sided recount of Steinem’s childhood and personal experiences. However, My Life on the Road takes a quick turn when Steinem sucks the reader into her life as an activist in the 1970s. Her memoir is quite literally a collection of vivid memories—many written in point-form. She spends pages upon pages introducing new characters, and tells their stories so intricately that we feel as though we personally know them. She tells stories about cab drivers in New York that, she explains, happen to be the most knowledgeable people in a city on current news and events (go figure). She describes interactions that she had with Native American women who, though greatly under the radar, are making huge differences in their communities. She describes women from different minority groups coming together and fighting for a common cause.
As a female activist, not every person Steinem has come into contact with has been friendly, and she describes these instances as well, though with an unmistakable air of wisdom and humility. Steinem also takes us into her personal encounters with tragedy, such as when she describes watching JFK board a helicopter to Air Force One from the window of the White House, the day before he was shot.
Along with journalistic accounts of major political events, Steinem also brings us into close relationships she had with good friends. She continuously references her deceased best friend, Florynce “Flo” Kennedy—an African-American lawyer, civil rights activist, and feminist. Her writing style is very similar to the oral telling of a story; her recounts are often nonlinear, and Steinem constantly references her friend Flo and others from her past, weaving them into stories throughout the book, actively making connections in much the same way that our minds do.
Reading Steinem’s memoir is like listening to a person work through a math problem and finally get it. As we read and learn, Steinem learns along with us. She actively draws conclusions from each memory, as if she were really sitting at her computer, typing her story and learning as she goes. Steinem ends her memoir by drawing conclusions and reconciling her own issues with her parents—leaving the reader with the feeling of having just undergone and completed an intimate journey with both Steinem and themselves.