E. Jean Carroll

I decided to read this book, which came out five months ago, at a fortuitous time since just yesterday, Trump filed a petition in the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse the second conviction in his long-running battle with the author, E. Jean Carroll. If his record continues, he’ll get a brisk denial of the petition from SCOTUS. This book elicited just about every emotion a reader could possibly have from laughter to tears and everything in between. Those who had any sympathy for Trump before show more reading Carroll’s story about her rape at by Trump and the two trials that followed: one for the sexual assault and the other for defamation of her character by Trump, would surely lose that empathy fairly quickly. About as quickly as the two verdicts came back with $83.3 million in damages being awarded by two different juries. Carroll’s writing at first put me off with the constant descriptions of the fashions of virtually every character in the memoir. Then it dawned on me: she was doing this to show her courage in the face of this heinous crime committed by a president of the United States, a man who was used to stripping people, usually women, of their dignity. Carroll would have no part of that. She even referred to the aisle in the courtroom as the “runway” as in a fashion show. I felt pretty stupid that it took me about a fourth of the book to realize what she was doing. The woman is brave, courageous, smart as a whip, and a flat out masterful writer. After all, though, that’s how she earned her living-writing for the best publications in the world. The only disappointment after reading Carroll’s memoir is the fact that this man went on, AFTER THESE TWO CONVICTIONS, to become president again. And, as such, continues to spread his wrath wherever he goes. And don’t let the phrase “liable for sexual assault” throw you. Presiding Judge Lewis A. Kaplan filed an opinion about the verdict saying that what Trump did is, in fact, “rape” as commonly understood. show less

This book left me with a little hope that we're not all going to drown in Maga. Carroll is a narcissist but she's an optimistic, head cheerleader kind of narcissist, and I guess she's just what we needed to smack down our sadistic narcissist in chief. She's fashion-obsessed and very much a Manhattanite (though she lives in a cabin), but she's very forthcoming about what it takes to fight against trump with his battery of attorneys. Turns out, by now, he's scraping the bottom of the lawyer show more barrel while she had the dream team. She describes trump's lead lawyer, Joe Tacopina, as kind of a pit bull in $6000 suits who enjoyed berating grandmothers and Alina Habba as beautiful, exquisitely dressed, full of confidence, and ignorant of the law. This ended up being my feel-good book of the month. show less

I'm going to return this book to the library and then go purchase a copy so I can reread it at my leisure.

This is the way it is. I read it in a day. When I finished I wrote E. Jean Carroll an email. I have only ever once before written an author, Howard Bahr after The Widow of the South. I told Auntie E that I believed her and had her back.

Funny how I related to this travel book slash memoir. Funny, the book was genius funny for being able to put you at ease while describing some horrible show more occurrences in her life. And relatable because as a woman, who of us has not been on the receiving end of 1) female discrimination 2) misogyny 3) unwanted sexual advances?

I related to Ms. E. In so many ways. I lived in Ft. Wayne, I have been to many of the towns she traveled to, I too have a Kitty with my last name, I too have laughed off very serious situations because laughing helps tap down the terror.

Anyway, a memoir that is entertaining, funny, compassionate, eye opening....name 5 woman who could be President?

Name 5 female movie stars you admire? show less

E. Jean Carroll beat Trump in court and for a change, held him accountable for his criminality. Not once, but twice. And she did it with flair and humor and I thoroughly enjoyed her account of the two trials. This is not in any way to diminish the serious harms he caused her since that day in 1996 when he assaulted her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room. I hope that soon she will be joined by scores of his other victims in her victory.