A funny, heartwarming book

This book made me cry. Based on the play of the same name, it is a series of vignettes based on hundreds of interviews with women from different backgrounds about their vaginas.

The most moving ones for me were "The Little Coochie Snorcher That Could" about a girl's heartbreaking memories involving her vagina (her "Coochie Snorcher"), and "My Vagina Was My Village" about the sudden contrast in a woman's thoughts about her vagina (and her whole life) after her brutal rape in war-torn Yugoslavia.

As well as transcripts of the individual monologues which make up the performance, the book also has an introduction by Gloria Steinem, and a large section about V-Day, the related movement which raises awareness of violence towards women, and raises funds for grass-roots organisations which work in these issues.

I read The Vagina Monologues in almost no time at all this morning, and I only wish it had been a longer book.