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Are Men Necessary?
by Maureen Dowd


5.3

based on 13 reviews
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based on 13 votes
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The New York Times columnist and author of "Bushworld" returns with a humorous look at gender issues.

Putnam, 352 pages
11/08/2005
$25.95

ISBN: 0399153322

Nonfiction
Current Events & Politics
Essays
Humor
Social Sciences

All reviews are classified as one of five grades: Outstanding (4 points), Favorable (3), Mixed (2), Unfavorable (1) and Terrible (0). To calculate the Metascore, we divide total points achieved by the total points possible (i.e., 4 x the number of reviews), with the resulting percentage (multiplied by 100) being the Metascore. Learn more...

Booklist Brad Hooper

Dowd is hilarious, cutting, and provocative--in other words, perfectly willing to express her vision of the truth without an ounce of reservation.

Kirkus Reviews

Her heart's in the fight place, but she really should get out more. [15 Oct 2005, p. 1121]

The Nation Katha Pollitt

Dowd is such a credulous audience for backlash propaganda it doesn't occur to her that she is promoting, not reporting, the problem she describes.

The New York Times Book Review Kathryn Harrison

Consumed over a cup of coffee, 800 words provide Dowd the ideal length to call her readers' attention to the ephemera at hand that may reveal larger trends and developments. But smart remarks are reductive and anti-ruminative; not only do they not encourage deeper analysis, they stymie it.

New York Observer Suzy Hansen

A very odd, occasionally entertaining mish-mash of politics and sex, biology and Cosmopolitan-ology, gravity and wit, insight and carelessness. [14 Nov 2005, p. 7]

Publishers Weekly

It's intermittently entertaining, but neither sharp enough nor sustained enough to work as a book. [26 Sep 2005, p. 74]

Washington Post Carolyn See

Maureen Dowd is funny and smart, but most of what she tells us here--sieved through dozens of other articles and sound bites and sitcoms from Pop-Culture-Land--turns out to be, literally and figuratively, yesterday's news.

Daily Telegraph Frances Wilson

Ironically, given that this is precisely her criticism of women today, [Dowd] is more interested in the wrapping than the content of her writing.

Village Voice Joy Press

AMN? reads like a glib, deja vu compendium of every Newsweek-style pop-science zeitgeist piece of the last 15 years.

Entertainment Weekly Jennifer Reese

To observe Dowd at her coquettish, stiletto-wearing worst, crack her new book, Are Men Necessary?, a hodgepodge of recycled columns, Dorothy Parker quips, and peekaboo glimpses into the glam journalist's personal life.

Los Angeles Times Susan Salter Reynolds

Columns are one thing. But books are different. And with "Are Men Necessary?" Dowd has made a book-length mistake. [8 Nov 2005]

Wall Street Journal Meghan Cox Gurdon

Unfortunately, it's a stinker.

The Guardian Carole Cadwalladr

Some books are bad and others are just plain crappy. This, sadly, is one of the crappy ones.

The average user rating for this book is 5.3 (out of 10) based on 13 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Justyna C gave it a10:
This book is incredible and everybody should read it, i feel so enpowered. it explains womes lives and focuses on how society is changing it's views, i completly agree women are taking for granted and disregarding what women in the past have done

Diva gave it a1:
'The man in drag' speaks again . Not even deemed worthy of bathroom reading.

Rel P gave it a10:
i loved the book and i think that all the people who say that maureen dowd is just a bitter feminist who cant get a date need to check on thier own love lives. i believe that she is an extremely insightful and intelligent author who deserves all the praise she recieves.

Rob M gave it a10:
Maureen O'Dowd treats the opposite sex in the same vitriolic manner she skewered "le dauphin" in Bushworld. Some may find her rhetorical excess on this topic harsh, but if it helps this pundit keep her game on, that's fine by me.

Devin B gave it a2:
Unbelievably trashy and utterly worthless. Hey, look on the bright side, though...Stephen Colbert did have her on to ridicule her and she seemed utterly unaware of his intentions.

John B gave it a0:
I think the person who gave me this book, really doesn't like me, no matter what they say. It is, simply, terrible.

A P gave it a10:
I think this book is very humorous and makes people think about their positions about the issues that Dowd brought up in her book. It is a great conversation piece among friends of both sexes

Are Men Necessary? by Maureen Dowd

Are Men Necessary?
by Maureen Dowd