The Bitch Is Back

Book excerpt: More than a decade after the New York Times bestselling anthology The Bitch in the House spoke up loud and clear for a generation of young women, nine of the original contributors are back—along with sixteen captivating new voices—sharing their ruminations from an older, stronger, and wiser perspective about love, sex, work, family, independence, body image, health, and aging: the critical flash points of women’s lives today “Born out of anger,” the essays in The Bitch in the House chronicled the face of womanhood at the beginning of a new millennium. Now, nearly fifteen years later, editor and author Cathi Hanauer has compiled a new batch of passionate, enlightened, often hilarious pieces that are less bitter and resentful, and more confident and content—a provocative and compelling companion collection that captures the spirit of postfeminism with authority, acumen, and panache. Having aged into their forties, fifties, and sixties, these “bitches”—bestselling authors, renowned journalists, and other extraordinary yet also ordinary women—have brilliant and bold things to say. In The Bitch Is Back, Cathi Hanauer, Kate Christensen, Sarah Crichton, Debora L. Spar, Ann Hood, Veronica Chambers, and twenty other powerful writers offer unique views on womanhood and feminism today. Some of the “original bitches” (OBs) revisit their earlier essays to reflect on their previous selves. All reveal how their lives have changed in the intervening years—whether they stayed coupled, left marriages, or had affairs; developed cancer or other physical challenges; coped with partners who strayed, died, or remained faithful; became full-time wage earners or homemakers; opened up their marriages; remained childless or became parents; or experienced other meaningful life transitions. The Bitch Is Back includes: bestselling novelist, memoirist, essayist, food blogger, and OB Kate Christensen on leaving her husband and starting a new life with a much younger man; pseudonymous novelist and OB Hazel McClay on her low-sex marriage (and how she and her husband continue to be happy with it); bestselling novelist and poet Julianna Baggott on life as the sole breadwinner in her family of six; power publisher Sarah Crichton on the joy of sex again after sixty—after being dumped for a younger woman; memoirist Lynn Darling on dealing with sex and sexuality in midlife, after beating breast cancer; bestselling author—and former skinny girl—Ann Hood on not caring about her weight anymore; and nineteen more eye-opening, jaw-dropping, truth-telling, no-holds-barred essays about what it really means to be a woman of substance today. As a “new wave” of feminists begins to take center stage, this powerful, timely collection sheds much-needed light on both past and present, offering understanding, compassion, and wisdom for modern women’s lives, all the while pointing toward the exciting possibilities of tomorrow.