It works like a charm. Naomi Wolf has been basking for weeks in the white heat of media publicity, as everyone dips into her long-winded tome expecting some perceptive (and saucy) insights into the much-loved female orifice.
Unfortunately a bevy of reviewers and commentators seem agreed that far from yielding shrewd insights, the book is disappointingly conservative and anti-feminist. For example:
"Much of the book boils down to the not-exactly-radical idea that a woman just needs a good seeing-to." Anna Carey, The Irish Times
"....insisting that women have a physiological need to take delivery of flowers, to sleep with powerful men, and to receive large amounts of semen...." Rachel Cooke, The Observer
"Wolf specifically disqualifies masturbation as a method of achieving high orgasm." Zoë Heller, New York Review of Books
"Vagina, then, is that very modern thing: a handbook for priggish sexual conformity masquerading as a manual for erotic liberation." Laurie Penny, New Statesman
Not that any of the brickbats will bother Naomi overmuch. No doubt thousands of women (and men) are flocking to snap up the controversial text and see what all the fuss is about, proving once again that all publicity is good publicity.
It may be full of misunderstood science, mystical gibberish, slavish heterosexuality and trite platitudes, but what the hell? Everyone wants a "Vagina" on their coffee table.
What's the book actually about? Have a look here
Pic: Naomi Wolf
