Catherine Driscoll's 2002 book, Girls (Driscoll, C (2002). Girls: Feminine Adolescence in Popular Culture & Cultural Theory. New York: Columbia University Press) would have been a really good and enjoyable book had it not been A book. Had it been in three volumes, instead of being in three parts, it would have been fantastic! There's no question of doubting the scholarship of this woman; but the book is crammed with names - names of people, theorists, theoretical positions and perspectives, films, books, you name it. And none of these are really explained or elucidated in the context of girls and girlhood.
I mean, I am new to this field (haven't had really read any of the theorists Driscoll refers to) and I am trying to gain an understanding of the issues, concerns and scholarships in the field through this book. Now, that's in my opinion is a bad idea; the book only manages to throw me off. I mean, imagine having to read a book where in every 10 words, you come across a word (a name, a term, a concept) that makes absolutely no sense to you. I really struggled through this book and wouldn't recommend it to a beginner like me.
But I got to hand it to Driscoll for managing to cram a 3000 page multivolume work into a 300 page softcover book, and still make some sense!
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