• Home
  • About
    • Privacy Policy
    • Write for Australian Women Online
  • Advertise With Us
  • Horoscopes
  • Style
  • Shoe Boutique
  • eFashion
  • Weight Watchers Australia

Australian Women Online

Business, career, health and lifestyle content for women

  • Home
  • BLOG
  • BOOKS
  • BUSINESS
  • CAREER
  • COOKING
  • HEALTH
  • LIFESTYLE
    • Automotive
    • Beauty
    • Fashion
    • Pets
    • Relationships
    • Your Home
    • Your Money
  • TECHNOLOGY
  • TRAVEL
    • Discount Holidays
You are here: Home / BOOKS / Book Reviews / Book Review: Searching for Women Who Drink Whiskey by Miranda Kennedy

Book Review: Searching for Women Who Drink Whiskey by Miranda Kennedy

26 September 2011 by Caroline Curtis

Share this:

  • Tweet
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
  • More
  • Share on Tumblr
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit
  • Click to print (Opens in new window) Print
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window) WhatsApp

Rating: ★★★★☆

Searching for Women Who Drink WhiskeyI was captivated by Miranda Kennedy’s account of her time in India, her experiences as a “feringhee”- a foreigner, and more significantly, as a woman on her own, living the life of a local in Delhi.

The window into the lives of the women who are an important part of her life there, reveal the limitations facing women in Indian society and how this limitation of mind, birth and opportunity ultimately determines their fate, if they allow it, and to what degree do they have any option. It is an interwoven story of many lives, of women in a chauvinistic male-controlled society, where their future and happiness is determined by the choices the men in their families make for them.

It is also about Miranda Kennedy’s own life, her compulsive need to prove herself to her then boyfriend and to her family, living the endlessly unsettled, adrenalin addicted life of a war correspondent in some of the most dangerous places in the world. India has proved a lesson to her, that Indian women, seemingly impotent in their own lives, perhaps show her the compromise needed to allow commitment and happiness into her own.

Miranda Kennedy is an engaging writer, a journalist with direct experience of conflict in Afghanistan and Pakistan, who has seen and reported first-hand, the unimaginable human suffering of the Boxing Day Tsunami in Sri Lanka. This hardened war correspondent writes an amazingly honest, yet engaging, account of the frustrations and fascination of living in such a contradictory yet alluring country such as India, with its injustices, poverty and charms. She provides an insightful report that draws you into the lives of the people, especially the women, she met there and through them, so much of the country, its culture and outlook, is revealed…the triumphs and trials of womenfolk in India, as defined by their mindset and the limitations imposed upon them by their culture, but also, the benefits and burdens of such close-knit family loyalties. It is a much more informative read than any travelogue on Delhi and India.

In the course of experiencing such entrenched differences in the attitude of, and to, women from her western viewpoint, Miranda Kennedy eventually discovers that there may be more similarities than she first imagined possible, and that the happiness that had eluded her in personal relationships may be found in learning to compromise her expectations and to accept that families, though stifling at times, have their compensations for even headstrong, wilful and independent women such as herself, who do not accept being alone as “loneliness”. I would recommend it as an illuminating read for women everywhere; after all, it is barely one hundred years since the suffragette movement was campaigning for women’s rights in England. It was after all, Australia and New Zealand which led the way for Europe to give women the vote.

You May Also Like:

Filed Under: Book Reviews, Uncategorized

Ads by Google
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

New Content

  • Women in Wagering: How the Industry is Finally Tapping Female Players
  • Demolition Safety: 10 Essential Safety Tips and Guidelines
  • The Best E-Scooters in Australia: Features to Look For in 2025
  • Tips for Lingerie Shopping
  • The Checklist: How to Maintain a Commercial Vehicle
  • Safe and Fast: Payment Methods Used by Aussie Online Casino Players
  • Shade Without the Struggle: The Pergola That Makes Sense
  • Creating a Supportive Work Environment with Mental Health and Wellbeing Services
  • 10 Questions You Should Ask to Find the Right Pop-up Camper for You
  • Kangaroo Island Volunteers Pursue Ambitious Dream to Recreate Historic 19th Century Sailing Ship

Popular Content

  • Moore Weekly Stars
  • Sexy and Stylish Short Hairstyles for Women Over 60
  • Write for Australian Women Online
  • Women Who Have Become Gambling Legends
  • Veronika Maine Linear Leaf Tiered Skirt
  • Entrepreneurial Sisters start up business to help pay grocery bills
  • The Best E-Scooters in Australia: Features to Look For in 2025
  • CHARLES & KEITH Large Geometric Handbag
  • Weight Watchers Australia coupons, flash sales and discounts on joining fees & plans
  • Zimmermann Peggy Embroidered Dress

Australian Women Online © Copyright 2007 - 2025 Deborah Robinson ABN 38 119 171 979 · All Rights Reserved