The Hamilton Spectator

A voice you just can’t ignore

- MARCIA KAYE Toronto Star Moranifest­o, by Caitlin Moran, HarperAven­ue, 352 pages, $19.99

Here’s a voice — a fierce, bingedrunk, entertaini­ng, intelligen­t voice — you can’t ignore.

British journalist Caitlin Moran (author of “How to Be a Woman” and “How to Build a Girl” and creator of TV’s semi-autobiogra­phical “Raised By Wolves”) has come out with “Moranifest­o,” a collection of some of her re- cent columns from the Times, interspers­ed with a few longer original pieces.

“Moranifest­o” shows a little more of Moran’s serious side.

Despite its share of lightheart­ed and sometimes hilarious bits, the running thread is her outrage at the world’s inequaliti­es.

In sum, it’s the personal manifesto of a self-described “strident, forthright, and notoriousl­y ‘oversharey’ rogue suffragett­e.”

Moran has divided the book into thirds: musings on modern life, issues concerning women and the future.

Moran, 41, is at her most powerful and authentic when she writes about women and the annoyances and horrors we shouldn’t have to put up with, from cystitis and our “monthly faultiness” to female genital mutilation and the fear of rape.

But she also celebrates women, including herself.

She’s wildly passionate about motherhood and the adventure of giving birth to a “homunculus” who “will effortfull­y punch its way out of your ‘special flower,’ a tiny, screaming, ungrateful creature who resembles an enraged otter in a jumpsuit.”

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