I requested this because of my interest in female mystics and Hildegard in particular and that was most certainly the most interesting and best part of this memoir. I've never read anything by this author before and while there are quotes and sections that resonated, overall I found it a bit verbose.

Febos combines personal narrative writing with well-researched historical and literary analysis. The book is a cold splash of water to the face any other serial monogamist that come across it. It should go without saying if you enjoyed any of Febos other work, especially Girlhood, then you will love this book as well.

Melissa Febos gives us quite a bit to chew on in her memoir about a year of celibacy--Dry Season. The courage and honesty it took to write this book is quite admirable. Her life, her relationships and her failures are all out in the open. Febos decides to abstain from sex basically because she is an addict and she sees that this is one more of her addictions. But it is more complex. She says: "It was easy to frame my relationship to romance within the paradigm of addiction, but I knew it was more complicated...[there was] an underlying relationship to power, escape, and that bottomless need my old therapist had been so sure I possessed." Then she inventories her relationship as well as her forays into other women's lives who have chosen celibacy or who have struggled with their sexuality. She becomes more centered on herself and begins to feel more wholeness within herself and not dependent on someone else's attentions. And the ancestors helped her.
"My attempt to replace dependence with independence and interdependence, to share my questions and answers with the women who came before and after me, was the radical basis of all feminisms. It was the basis of all freedoms. It was my inheritance."
The book is not only an inventory, however. Her mix of travels to ancestors' homes and a rich feminist and lesbian history makes the book an interesting read. She discusses many famous figures--Virginia Woolf, Emily Dickinson, Robert Gluck, Margery Kempe, Hildegard of Bingen, and a group of 13th century lay religious nuns called Beguines who promised not to marry and advocated celibacy. She also includes experiences of friends and acquaintances. It is a fascinating journey.
Melissa Febos is a writer and writing professor who was a heroin addict and a dominatrix. She is the author of four memoir/essay books and has won many awards. I read her recent book Body Work which was thought-provoking and very much aimed at writers. She identifies as queer and is now in a relationship with the poet Donika Kelly.

An odd book that was sometimes puzzling and sometimes thought provoking

(I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review)