Look Both Ways, by Jennifer Baumgardner

"Part memoir, part pop-culture study, part feminist theory," enthuses the blurb on the back of the book. Maybe that’s the problem: Look Both Ways tries to do too many things at once. On one hand, it’s the story of the author’s bisexuality, her significant relationships, and how her identity tied in with her journey as a feminist. All well and good. The problem is when she seemingly extrapolates a one-size-fits-all approach from her own experiences. Even when she interviews other bisexual women, the feeling is that she’s selecting their responses to fit assumptions she’s already settled on: relationships with men are harder because they don’t clean up after themselves and they’re out the door as soon as they’ve had sex with you! Um, really? Add to this a couple of well-meaning but clueless references to trans issues that could easily have been left out, and you’ve got a gendered analysis that doesn’t quite match up to the diversity of people’s experiences. It’s an interesting read from the personal narrative point of view, but would have been richer had it just focused on that.