Random Things Tours: Open: An Uncensored Memoir of Love, Liberation and Non-Monogamy by Rachel Krantz

´Writing a memoir is by necessity an act of approximation´. 

So far, 2022 was for me a year of unforgettable memoirs, written by women on a journey of self-discovery. Open: An Uncensored Memoir of Love, Liberation and Non-Monogamy, the debut by the investigative journalist Rachel Krantz is a different kind of testimony though, if compared with the books I´ve had the chance to read. 

By putting herself ´ín the naked examination´, she is exploring her various identities, sexual identities but also what does it mean for her being a woman, a Jewish woman, not looking to settle down, exploring the non-monogamous realm. Some people may be content with a monogamous setting, some not and this was always like this. What I am happy to observe during our contemporary times that we are offered the chance to openly discuss and write about it.

Rachel Krantz is carefully taking notes about her life, and the memoir is mostly built around diary entries. It is like a life account of her curiosities about exploring the limits of relationships or window shopping for relationships, particularly beyond the usual monogamous expectations. And we are taken with on this journey that has all the ups and downs of such an existential challenge. Rachel Krantz has the courage to fully expose herself, her failures, dramas and sexual curiosities, in such a throughout way. Only for that, and there is a lot to discover by reading this memoir. But there is also the self-reflexive, feedback approach that pushes you to reconsider, ponder and reanalyse some of your relationships and love stories. There is no pressure to change anything and personally I am happy the way my life and relationship feels right now, but as usual, being part of another human´s experience enriches you automatically, in terms of mental experience but also because it offers you insights into a different life choice and lifestyle, otherwise completely sealed to the outside world. 

But there is also something else that one may be curious to read about in this memoir: the Brooklyn/NYC relationships - of any kind - places of exposure, mostly under the curious public eyes. Therefore, I´ve read this book also as a testimony about the life beyond the life of and in a restless city. 

There is a new way to talk about relationships and sex in the last years, and Open: An Uncensored Memoir of Love, Liberation and Non-Monogamy by Rachel Krantz is an example in this respect. Unashamed, curious, open. There is such a normality in this new way of exposing natural things, timelessly hidden under the carpet for prudery evolutionist reasons. 

Rating: 4 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the book tour but the opinions are, as usual, my own