The Women I Think About at Night

April 20, 2020
Finnish author Kankimäki profiles in this astute, entertaining work 10 daring female writers and artists who took risks in their quest toward fulfillment. At 42, Kankimäki sold her apartment and quit her job to travel and write (“I have no husband, no children... I’m free, but an outsider”), a decision she credits as being inspired by the women she writes about here. The women—all “guardian angels” who overcame sexism, oppression, or money woes to live out their dreams of traveling and creating art—include Italian Renaissance artist Artemisia Gentileschi, who was raped at 17 then became a renowned painter of “female-dominated” works; Isabella Bird, a depressed 19th-century British spinster who, at 40, revitalized her life when she took a trip around the world and wrote about her destinations; and Danish-born Karen Blixen, who started a coffee farm in British East Africa, lost her money, and moved in with her mother at 46 before writing the bestseller Out of Africa. Along the way, Kankimäki, a spirited narrator, highlights her own travels—to Tanzania, Italy, Japan—and shares advice (“Don’t give a damn what other people think”). This insightful book will appeal to adventure enthusiasts and be an inspiration for those with an eye on hitting their stride later in life.

September 1, 2020
A middle-aged writer sifts through history for other women whose lives matched her wanderlust. "I'm forty-two. I have no husband, no children, no job," Finnish author Kankim�ki writes early in this hybrid of history, memoir, and feminist essay. She feels a sense of liberation in that status but also a pang of isolation that draws her to "night women" who blazed their own paths. First and most prominent among them is Karen Blixen, author of the 1937 classic Out of Africa. As part of her research into Blixen's life, Kankim�ki chronicles her journey in her footsteps in present-day Tanzania. Both strip away the author's sense of romanticism; the present-day country is malarial, poverty-stricken, and overrun with tourists while Blixen suffered from sexism along with the case of syphilis her husband gave her. Still, Blixen's stubbornness is inspiring. Kankim�ki also writes pocket biographies of globe-trotters like Nellie Bly and Isabella Bird, who "seems like my doppelg�nger: a fortyish, depressed spinster who suffers from headaches and insomnia, but who is fed up with the narrow confines in which her society has trapped her"; Alexandra David-Neel, who infiltrated the sacred Buddhist city of Lhasa; painters like Sofonisba Anguissola and Lavinia Fontana, who navigated the masculine world of 16th-century Italian art; and avant-garde Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, who committed herself to a mental institution. Though the book has a clear organizing principle, its execution feels aimless. The livelier travelogues of Tanzania and Japan clang against the more studious essays on Bird and Bly, and the author's explanations of her subjects' difficulties make her concluding "night women's advice" feel thin or cloying ("be buoyant as hell"). Kankim�ki's repeated despairing that she's unsure where she's going with the book emphasizes the sense of disorder. However, the author engagingly maps her frustrations against those of her heroes, the "illnesses, self-doubts, weak moments...ordinary human reality" that echo her own. An enlightening if dense and patchwork study of the many hurdles women artists faced--and still face.

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October 9, 2020

Finnish author Kankim�ki, in her first English translation, finds inspiration and strength from women throughout history who broke with the expected norms of their times. To understand unconventional women who were world travelers in the 1800s or professional artists during the Renaissance, the author travels to Italy, Japan, and a few African countries, reading their writings and biographies, viewing what she can find of their artwork, and experiencing the places they lived. The retelling of this journey is interspersed with vignettes from her life as a writer making her own way. As she learns about these accomplished women, Kankim�ki writes them wry notes asking for help with her own travels; for example, while preparing for a prolonged trip, she asks journalist Nelly Bly, renowned for going around the world in 72 days with only a single suitcase as luggage, for advice on packing light. A poignant chapter reflects on the life of writer Alexandra David-N�el, most well known for her 1924 visit to Tibet. VERDICT A thought-provoking blend of history, biography, women's studies, and travelog, this should appeal to readers interested in any of these subjects, and those who love eclectic narrative nonfiction.--Laurie Unger Skinner, Highland Park P.L., IL

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