This is a story about love. Not just romantic love, although there’s plenty of that. But in her latest novel How We Love: Notes On A Life, Australian author, broadcaster and public speaker Clementine Ford dives into a pool of familial love, of good friends, of self and a life that doesn’t always return the favour.
In six meditative chapters, Clementine (“Call me Clem”) spills her guts about unrequited childhood crushes, her mother’s death from cancer, the roller-coaster of childbirth and separating from her son’s father.
It’s not a staple part of the 40-year-old’s routine, which usually scorches its way though feminism, pop culture and social issues. But we’re happy to tag along for the ride because, as with everything Clem writes, she does it so much better than anyone else.
Full disclosure: I’ve been a fan for years, ever since I stumbled across a in which Clem questioned the logic of changing one’s surname after marriage. “Women are treated as if the names we have are on temporary loan, given to us to use until another man bestows on us the one that will become our new and true identity,” she wrote in her searingly honest way. Here, I thought, was a woman not afraid to take a swing at issues that matter.
