The Thinking Woman

Though the description ‘partmemoir- part-philosophy’ may be a little hackneyed, in her new book, The Thinking Woman, Julienne van Loon has truly woven her personal experiences and insights into broader philosophical and feminist discussions with mastery.

She makes complex themes and discussions accessible to even those like me with a rudimentary grasp of such theories. In six chapters, van Loon addresses her key topics through dialogue with and discussion of the work of Siri Hustvedt, Rosi Braidotti, Rosie Batty, and many others.

The six chapters – Love, Play, Work, Fear, Wonder, and Friendship – could each function as standalone essays were it not for the threads from van Loon’s personal life and experiences that she pulls through them. This not only makes a more more cohesive text, but each individual topic far more approachable. Van Loon’s passion for cycling, for example, comes up in discussion of both Play and Fear. Here we see her father’s alcoholism frame the Wonder of her childhood; there, it stands next to Rosie Batty as both women experience Fear in a domestic context.

Proving that philosophy does not have to be the property of old white men (or centuries-dead Germans), van Loon’s book is an important achievement and contribution to the field and to how we can understand the world around us.

There is an illuminating anecdote about halfway through the book as van Loon is discussing Work with Nancy Holmstrom. She reflects, ‘I remembered the sight that had faced me a few days earlier as I stood before the central display table in the philosophy section of a major New York bookstore. There I counted 32 new-release philosophy books on display. Not one of them was by a female author or focussed on the work of a female philosopher.’

From a queer perspective, it was disappointing that the relationship between Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West was relegated to the Friendship chapter, and that its true status as a romantic relationship was only passingly and belatedly acknowledged. With this book, van Loon is helping to rectify that inequality, and to explore core areas of life in a way that is explicitly and directly relevant to, well, 51 per cent of the population.

She is bold in sharing the most private and unflattering stories from her life – of family violence, of her own infidelities and the relationship breakdown, of losing a close friend to severe mental illness. This incredible openness and honesty is the book’s great strength, and it creates a high level of trust and comfort towards our guide into (at least in my case) new philosophical worlds.

Julienne van Loon’s The Thinking Woman is a book for everyone, woman or otherwise, looking for a fresh discussion of what is at the core of our 21st century lives.

Reviewed by Gabriella Bate