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anniewill's review against another edition
3.0
I started off not enjoying this book at all. I thought it was pretentious and self-important. I don't even know why I continued reading except for the fact that it is a library book and I was on the waiting list for awhile!
About mid-point, after continued consultation with the lineage chart and the table of contents to keep track of who was who, I really started enjoying the book. I grew fond of a few of the characters (mainly the husband, Charles, which I'm sure the author would not approve). I found it difficult to like or understand the original suffragette, Dorothy Townsend, who starved herself to death, but I was moved by her story.
I found the connecting thread for all the women to be a sense of dissatisfaction and unhappiness or frustration with their lot in life. By the end of the novel, I was a bit frustrated myself with this thread. Is this "problem"...this "woman problem"....specific only to women or is it a human problem? Life is often tedious and full of drudgery, and as Caroline wrote, it is often difficult to lose the forest for the trees.
Perhaps I misread the novel and was looking at it from my modern perspective and not the perspectives of the various women written about. Maybe a further, more in-depth examination of the historical women and their lives would have made a difference.
I would give this 3 1/2 stars. Because of the slow beginning and lack of depth I've rated it 3 stars.
Favorite quote:
I find it is the dark of the night when you least expect it- whatever this thing is- regret, perhaps, but not, it is bigger than that, more epic, somehow, padded and full and weirdly hysterical: this restlessness, this discontent. You've done it wrong, again, and you were going to do it perfectly. You've lost the forest for the trees. Now it rises up to knock your breath out. Was this what you felt, DT, when you sat on the edge of our beds? Is this the same feeling for any of you? (page 222)
About mid-point, after continued consultation with the lineage chart and the table of contents to keep track of who was who, I really started enjoying the book. I grew fond of a few of the characters (mainly the husband, Charles, which I'm sure the author would not approve). I found it difficult to like or understand the original suffragette, Dorothy Townsend, who starved herself to death, but I was moved by her story.
I found the connecting thread for all the women to be a sense of dissatisfaction and unhappiness or frustration with their lot in life. By the end of the novel, I was a bit frustrated myself with this thread. Is this "problem"...this "woman problem"....specific only to women or is it a human problem? Life is often tedious and full of drudgery, and as Caroline wrote, it is often difficult to lose the forest for the trees.
Perhaps I misread the novel and was looking at it from my modern perspective and not the perspectives of the various women written about. Maybe a further, more in-depth examination of the historical women and their lives would have made a difference.
I would give this 3 1/2 stars. Because of the slow beginning and lack of depth I've rated it 3 stars.
Favorite quote:
I find it is the dark of the night when you least expect it- whatever this thing is- regret, perhaps, but not, it is bigger than that, more epic, somehow, padded and full and weirdly hysterical: this restlessness, this discontent. You've done it wrong, again, and you were going to do it perfectly. You've lost the forest for the trees. Now it rises up to knock your breath out. Was this what you felt, DT, when you sat on the edge of our beds? Is this the same feeling for any of you? (page 222)
flowerwineandbooks's review against another edition
3.0
Very entertaining going through the lives of all these related women, though the writing style made it a bit clunky for me to read. I also wish there had been more depth in more of the characters, rather than just Dorothy and Charles.
The overarching theme of the "women question" through time was refreshing yet depressing to read about, especially with the first Dorothy and Evelyn; in fact, I think it would have done better to just focus on these two women (a sequel could have adequately tackled the other Dorothy's perhaps?).
If only Evelyn's relationship with Stephen Pope in their later years could have been more present rather than just alluded to, I would have felt that making her character stronger.
I did really enjoy how the book looped back around to Evelyn's character, and how the ending offered a weird mix of open-ended closure with here, and even with Caroline and her mother a bit.
The overarching theme of the "women question" through time was refreshing yet depressing to read about, especially with the first Dorothy and Evelyn; in fact, I think it would have done better to just focus on these two women (a sequel could have adequately tackled the other Dorothy's perhaps?).
If only Evelyn's relationship with Stephen Pope in their later years could have been more present rather than just alluded to, I would have felt that making her character stronger.
I did really enjoy how the book looped back around to Evelyn's character, and how the ending offered a weird mix of open-ended closure with here, and even with Caroline and her mother a bit.
cdale8's review against another edition
3.0
The thread throughout the book of suffrage/revolution/going-against-society's-norm was interesting, and right up my alley, but the characters were drawn such that I really couldn't FEEL anything for them. This is coming from someone having had a decision-changing ivy league experience almost exactly as described by one of the characters in the book, so I should have been eating this stuff up. Maybe it was the erratic timeframes, the just-short-of-explicit conversations between the women of differing generations, or perhaps just simply my inability to bond with the characters. Whatever it was, I came away from the novel with the feeling of having "gotten" the big hit-you-over-the-head idea but not the nuanced reasons/emotions behind the women's motivations for their decisions to act or not to act (or, rather when to act). I assume that the author had some vision of this undercurrent and was conveying it, but I just didn't grab on for that part of the ride. Or, maybe I was just hoping for a more moving experience than was to be delivered. If I had lower self-esteem, I'd be feeling too stupid to have read the book. I hate coming away from books thinking that my intellect was not up to the challenge of the author's writing.
sujuv's review against another edition
4.0
A very unassuming book, "A Short History of Women" kind of sneaks up on you. At least it snuck up on me. Tells the stories of different generations of women in one family and through these glimpses into their lives the reader gets a sense of how much the world has changed over time but at the same time how people - and in this case women, especially - still have very similar issues to deal with. It really stuck with me in the end.
mawalker1962's review
4.0
This book was beautifully written, compelling, and joyless. I wanted to find out what happened to the well-drawn characters, so I kept reading. And I’m not sorry I did. But it was sure a depressing view of how much and how little women’s lives have changed over the past century.
zach_collins's review against another edition
4.0
A Short History of Women is a surprising transcendent novel. Despite the suggestions of the title and the protests of the characters, this is not a political statement, nor is it an academically detached study, but a stirring, thoughtful story of uncertainty, desperation and identity.
Though the narrative is non-linear, often jumping between characters at different points of their lives, never once does the narrative feel haphazard; instead there is a natural motion, a movement toward a point of understanding, a moment of clarity that stretches over five generations of independent women, though the moment is not always recognized for what it is, much like the women in the novel, each constantly struggling to identify who she is as a mother, a daughter, a wife, a protestor, a student, a mentor, a capitalist, an idealist or some bizarre combination of all of them.
This is not a novel exclusively for feminists or stay-at-home moms or any other particular group of women; A Short History of Women is written for anyone, woman or man, who cares about the decisions and relationships that define us.
Though the narrative is non-linear, often jumping between characters at different points of their lives, never once does the narrative feel haphazard; instead there is a natural motion, a movement toward a point of understanding, a moment of clarity that stretches over five generations of independent women, though the moment is not always recognized for what it is, much like the women in the novel, each constantly struggling to identify who she is as a mother, a daughter, a wife, a protestor, a student, a mentor, a capitalist, an idealist or some bizarre combination of all of them.
This is not a novel exclusively for feminists or stay-at-home moms or any other particular group of women; A Short History of Women is written for anyone, woman or man, who cares about the decisions and relationships that define us.
steller0707's review against another edition
3.0
A fictional "history" of women in one family, from the early British suffragist to the modern American college student. Although the issues the women grapple with through the generations ring true, because the "history" is short there is not space for depth or resolution. A fast read with interesting character sketches.
abbeybrooke's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0