Carrying On by Kali Desautels; She is Woman, Hear Her Roar and See Her Write

 

Carrying On by Kali Desautels; She is Woman, Hear Her Roar and See Her Write 

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

This review is also on Reedsy Discovery.

Spoilers:In this day and age when women’s rights are being challenged and some like, reproductive choice and the ability to vote under married names, are being removed, it is important to remember how women in the past lived. How they struggled to make their voices heard and fought for those rights. These accounts remind us of what we didn’t have, what we won, and what we could lose. Carrying On by Kali Desautels is the type of novel that does just that

Carrying On is a sharp and brilliant character driven Historical Fiction novel about Peggy Brennan, a woman embarking on a journalism career in the mid-1960’s. Peggy is different from her more traditional mother and sisters. They have all been married and expect Peggy to do the same, but she has other ideas. The journalism career that they believe is only a hold over until marriage is Peggy’s ticket for living a professional self-actualized life. If a woman has to choose marriage or a career, she is going for the latter while the other women in her family went for the former. 

The book explores the changes that women encountered during the volatile 60’s. The traditional roles of a house, husband, and children no longer applied and were not looked upon as the sole aspirations for women. Books like Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex and Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique and noted events like the release of the Pill are referenced. They are also shown in how this time affected people personally.

One of Peggy’s sisters leaves her closeted husband and moves to San Francisco. Another holds to her values, but also has serious questions about her life. Peggy also asks her mother if she is satisfied with her life and how things turned out. This is a conversation that would never have occurred to her if she wasn’t surrounded by these questions and the decisions that many women of her generation took to answer them.

Peggy herself is surrounded by these changes in her own way. Her roommates struggle with their jobs, relationships, and expectations. At work, she is dismissed for writing important news articles and is worried that she is only going to write the so-called “women’s articles” about fashion, cooking, and childcare. Her contributions are disregarded because the men don’t take her seriously and the women think that she’s acting above her station. Her progressive views are demeaned and dismissed. 

Her new editor, John Grant however is one of the few men that are actually receptive to the idea of change. When he wants to create a woman's section, he doesn't want it to be the fluffy soft news that readers and advertisers expect. He puts Peggy in charge of it because he wants to focus on real news that affects women. News like politics, war, laws, education, work, the various movements, and changes. 

 This egalitarian view interests Peggy as much as John’s genuine interest in her work and opinions. Even though Peggy questions the division between marriage and career, she weighs whether it's possible for a woman to have both. Can she truly have it all with a man who is accepting of that possibility? 

This is a relationship of mutual respect and friendship. It's interesting that I am reading this book at the same time as The Girl From Melodia which also deals with a romance between two people in a similar field. However, The Girl From Melodia explores the concept of the Artist’s Muse and how the Artist is so self-involved in their own art and voice that they deprive the Muse of theirs. Carrying On is the opposite. Someone who is not threatened by their intended’s voice and actively encourages it making their relationship an equal partnership. 

As Peggy conducts interviews and leads focus groups, she sees women of different ages, statuses, political views, goals, and outlooks. They do have one thing in common. They are glad that someone is taking their voices and opinions seriously and they are being shared on a wider scale.

That is what the various feminist movements do. Take seriously the current concerns of women and work to improve them. Whether it's the right to vote, having educational opportunities, to have control over their own bodies, to earn the same amount as men, to stop being assaulted and harassed, or to do away with the patriarchal assumptions of men and women. 

Sure the names change, the specific causes might vary, and the means of sharing information and rebelling fit the era but they all boil down to one obvious function. Anyone who identifies as female fighting for the freedom of agency and choice over their own lives and futures.