Rose: Love in Violent Times

I went to Crater Lake for the first time this summer (bad Oregonian!). In three days I swam in three waters: the Rogue River, Diamond Lake and Crescent Lake, and in each I was blessed with coolness, calm, clarity. It was a trip of goodbyes. It was beautiful, and sad, and right. While there, I brought the intellectually incompetent but thoroughly YUM sequence in the Sookie Stackhouse novels (if you don't know what those are, no way am I telling). My darling friend, who I've seen grow into the most beautiful person and feisty feminist brought 'Rose: Love in Violent Times'. A much more meaningful campfire-side read. It is by Inga Muscio (what a great name), the author who wrote 'Cunt'- which I have quoted onstage, but shamefully never read.

Although the advocate in me wanted to write a letter to the county library complaining that they don't have 'Cunt' OR 'Rose' on their shelves, I decided to simply not. Self-care assignment this week: Amazon.com it. :) Perhaps another tool? Certainly, I adore the cover. Looks like one of many tattoos I've admired in this, the Rose City. If you're thinking, 'shopping as assignment number 2? Jenny, lose the retail therapy', please know there's more on my mind; like cathartic Zumba classes, a thought provoking sermon at the First Unitarian Church I frequent and the desire (and fear) to get my "float" on- but there will be time for all this and more.

Are there texts that have moved you? Enriched your life, given you that- 'ahhh, I feel I am a better human for having digested this'?



Rose: Love in Violent Times

With trademark precision and razor-sharp wit, Inga Muscio explores the impacts of passive violence, abuse, war, and cultural trauma on our most intimate lives in order to uncover a path toward healthy and imaginative sex and love.

Rose breaks new ground in answering a fundamental question in most feminist and antiracist writing: how do we identify, witness, and then recover from trauma—as individuals, as families, as communities, and as a country? Muscio's ability to address dire topics with a unique freshness and bravery allows her readers to confront the true brutality of a violent culture, then to react powerfully with righteous rage and hopeful determination.

Chilling, eye-opening, and thoroughly enjoyable, Rose offers a fresh and exhilarating perspective on achieving empowerment and self-possession.

About the Author
INGA MUSCIO is the author of Cunt: A Declaration of Independence and Autobiography of a Blue-Eyed Devil. She lives in the Pacific Northwest and has an extensive lecture schedule across the nation.