Three Women

Taddeo is a journalist and nonfiction writer, with work in publications such as New York Magazine, Esquire, Elle, and Glamour. Her nonfiction has been included in the anthologies Best American Sports Writing and Best American Political Writing. Taddeo was inspired to Three Women by the admissions of her dying mother which led her to become interested in the relatively secretive world of female desire. Taddeo undertook eight years of immersive reporting with her three subjects and their communities to capture the complexity of their experiences.

Lina is a 32-year-old woman who lives in a small town in Indiana. She has two children with her husband Ed, seven-year-old Della and two-year-old Danny. Lina feels stifled, restless, and unloved by Ed, and they separate. Concurrently, she resumes a sexual relationship with her high school crush, Aidan. Through Aidan and Lina’s relationship, Taddeo explores the overwhelming force of female desire. For Lina, Aidan is “an exalted being in the realm of lovemaking,” and their relationship pushes Lina towards a separation from Ed (177). Through Lina’s unsupportive female community, Taddeo explores the way that female desire is viewed as subversive and bizarre.

Taddeo also exposes and explores how in many heterosexual relationships men’s needs are given precedence.