Books that explore the #MeToo movement

This is Pleasure — Mary Gaitskill

Mary Gaitskill’s most recent novella — based on an essay for the New Yorker, available to read here — perfectly distils the complexities of the #MeToo movement into a short account of an equally complicated friendship between Quinlan and Margot.

The pair take turns controlling the narrative as they reassess their relationship and place in the world when Quinlan is accused of sexual assault in the workplace. The story explores the ambiguities of the new #MeToo landscape with more nuance and clarity than we’ve seen portrayed anywhere else in fiction. How she does this over the course of fewer than 100 pages is nothing short of a miracle.

She Said — Jodi Kantor and Meghan Twohey

This is a book that goes behind the headlines and tells the story of how the two Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times journalists Jodi Kantor and Meghan Twohey broke the story of Harvey Weinstein that sparked the #MeToo movement. It’s a necessary addition to any bookshelf and is an eye-opening tale of the hoops journalists have to jump through to get a story as important as this through to publication.

What Red Was — Rosie Price

Rosie Price’s hotly tipped debut novel zooms in on the character of Kate, a shy young woman who is wooed by the very charming Max, who comes from a complicated family. As they are growing closer, Kate is sexually assaulted by someone Max knows at his family’s home.

What Red Was focuses on life after rape, examining Max’s family and how their relationship with Kate develops over time. Throughout the novel, we are shown vignettes of other instances of male aggression, giving a bleak overall impression that the circumstances that may lead to sexual assault are a lot more ubiquitous than we’d like to think.

Catch and Kill — Ronan Farrow

While Kantor and Twohey were working through the night over at The New York Times, across town at the New Yorker, Ronan Farrow was hot on their tails, also chasing the story. Catch and Kill is his account of what it took to break the story from his perspective, and how being the son of Mia Farrow and Woody Allen meant that he was both within and outside the Hollywood bubble.

It is this insight that sets this book apart from Kantor and Twohey’s, but both are worthy reads. Farrow’s also created an accompanying podcast, in which he interviews a cast of sources used to build a case against Weinstein. Plus, he’s one of the most articulate interviewers you’ll have ever had the pleasure of listening to. So even when the content’s dark, the soothing buttery tones will keep you going.

Promising Young Women — Caroline O’Donoghue

The debut novel from journalist Caroline O’Donoghue unknowingly landed in our laps just around the time that we were hearing rumbles from a burgeoning #MeToo movement, with the news of the Weinstein scandal still fresh in people’s minds.

The novel follows the life of 26-year-old Jane, who embarks on an affair with a married, much older colleague, while also running an online agony aunt blog and dishing out advice to strangers. The story inevitably descends into chaos, and we see a very realistic portrayal of the complications of city living as a twenty-something trying to negotiate the complexities of sexual politics in the workplace.