Book Review: High Heel by Summer Brennan

I have found these Object Lessons books from Bloomsbury intriguing yet somewhat uneven so far. This one, however, is without a doubt my favorite to date…

High heels are such an emblem of femininity – for good or ill – and their fetishization by men and women alike is a fascinating topic in and of itself. Add in the layered feminist and sociopolitical ideology that Brennan weaves throughout the narrative and you find yourself with a very intriguing book that covers a lot of ground in a relatively short time. The organization is interesting. There are not chapters so much as sections, some of which are long and some quite short, but all of which offer food for thought and discussion on the topic of women’s shoes – and their implications, which are surprisingly broad-based and startlingly impactful – throughout history.

The writing style felt vaguely reminiscent of that of a Southern preacher. There is a back-and-forth, almost call-and-response feel to it, with sections addressing a topic, moving on to another, then falling back into the rhythm of the first as though to remind the reader of where they’ve been. It’s an interesting choice in such a politicized book, and I found it occasionally to feel redundant and irritating rather than emphatic.

That point aside, overall the writing is clear and the points made resonated with me. I, too, struggle with the conflicting messages and standards that are wrapped up in women’s fashions and my own response(s) to them. For a topic that many deride as silly or frivolous, there’s a rather wild amount of serious politics and socioeconomics tied into women’s shoes and the choices we make about them, and Brennan does an admirable job at laying those out. Her perspectives on these issues are blatantly presented, but that contributed to my interest in the book. I didn’t want a wishy-washy bit of trivia; I enjoyed the give-and-take between observation and opinion and found it to hit a nerve more times than I thought it would.

Overall I think this was a great addition to the series.

Thanks to NetGalley for my review copy.