Product Description

'I decided to talk to women about their vaginas, to do vagina interviews, which became vagina monologues ...At first women were reluctant to talk. They were a little shy. But once they got going, you couldn't stop them. Women secretly love to talk about their vaginas. They get very excited, mainly because no one's ever asked them before.' Eve Ensler A poignant and hilarious tour of the last frontier, the ultimate forbidden zone, THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES is a celebration of female sexuality in all its complexity and mystery. Hailed as the bible for a new generation of women, it has been performed in cities and colleges throughout the world, and has inspired a dynamic grassroots movement -- V-Day -- to stop violence against women. Witty and irreverent, compassionate and wise, Eve Ensler's award-winning masterpiece gives voice to real women's deepest fantasies and fears, guaranteeing that no one who reads it will ever look at a woman's body, or think of sex, in quite the same way again.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5558 in Books
• Published on: 2001-05-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Review
'Laugh-out-loud funny and deeply poignant' INDEPENDENT 'A million women can't be wrong - it IS good!' Jonathan Myserson 'Fascinating ... I suggest you read it aloud on the Central Line and really wake people up' TIME OUT 'Filled with generous energy and delight' THE TIMES 'Ensler writes about vaginas as if about an unsung heroine, as if rescuing a subject from darkness' OBSERVER 'A wittily honest investigation about how women feel about their sexuality ... inescapably universal for women, it manages to be feminist without being man-hating, entertaining without being trite, and political without being earnest' EVENING STANDARD 'Fresh, funny and beguiling' DAILY MAIL 'Witty and provocative' INDEPENDENT 'Sex has never been funnier or more poignant' NEW YORK TIMES 'Women have entrusted Eve with their most intimate experiences, from sex to birthing ... I think readers, men as well as women, will emerge from these pages feeling more free within themselves - and about each other' Gloria Steinem 'Eve Ensler is the Pied Piper. She is leading women and the world to a different consciousness of the essence of women' Gillian Anderson 'Both a celebration of women's sexuality and a condemnation of its violation' NEW YORK TIMES 'Spellbinding, funny, and almost unbearably moving ... it is both a work of art and an incisive piece of cultural history, a poem and a polemic, a performance and a balm and a benediction' VARIETY 'I feel my life has changed. You don't just hook up with Eve, you become part of her crusade' Glenn Close 'Frank, humorous & moving, a compelling rhapsody of the female essence' CHICAGO TRIBUNE

Initially you might approach this book with a little squeamishness or trepidation. But these stories, which have been performed on stage worldwide, celebrate womens sexuality in a clever and shocking way. The vagina is the Bermuda Triangle of the body; it never sounds like a word you want to say and it exists in a darkness both cultural and personal. Ensler interviewed women from all backgrounds and ages asking them to give their vaginas a voice. She asked quirky off-beat questions: what would your vagina wear if it got dressed? Answers: a beret, a costume eye-mask, lace and cowboy boots. 'If it could talk, what would it say in two words?' 'Yum yum', or 'lets play'. Genital mutilation, menstruation and birth are here too. Women in their 60s and 70s, who had grown up in times less open about bodily matters, told sad stories. Ensler spoke to homeless women, to women raped in Bosnia, to lesbians, to women whose sexuality was both loved and feared by men. Abuse by parents, carers and others features widely. The stories are by turns funny, shocking, poignant and tragic. The spin-off from the monologues has been a revival in feminist politics and the creation of V-day a movement to end violence against women. With a foreword by Gloria Stenheim, the monologues are already a feminist classic. Contains explicit language and graphic description. (Kirkus UK)

Glenn Close
'I feel my life has changed. You don't just hook up with Eve, you become part of her crusade'

New York Times
'Both a celebration of women's sexuality and a condemnation of its violation'

Customer Reviews

Stunning !
Wow I absolutely love this play ! I'm planning to direct it and it gives men and women and insight on women like never before, for those of you that think it's anti male, your wrong ! its about the respect a woman should have for her body and men for women, as eve ensler says it's the "power of saying the unsayable", so what are you afraid of ?

Wonderful! Funny, heart rending, intense!
You are either going to love this or hate it! I loved it. I have it on Audio CD, book and have seen it live! I recommend it to all my friends, male or female.

It gives a unique insight into other women's thoughts about their own body and sexuality. Some parts are hilariously funny, others make me cry. It is not 'feminist' but FEMININE!

My advice is try it. If you don't like it then that's fine but you may find it changes the way you see women. If you get the chance see it live!

By the way, my husband is a 'Bob'!

Refreshing, articulate and funny
A must for every woman, even if only to read once. I bought this book on a recommendation from a friend who found it fascinatingly interesting. I couldn't agree more, and feel it is something I will re-read throughout my life.

Buy it.