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kuromiss's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
mchllsdl's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Loveable characters? Yes
5.0
krobart's review against another edition
2.0
See my review here:
https://whatmeread.wordpress.com/2018/04/17/day-1204-the-1977-club-the-womens-room/
https://whatmeread.wordpress.com/2018/04/17/day-1204-the-1977-club-the-womens-room/
tani's review
5.0
It's difficult to know what to say about this book. It took me a long time to read this, not because it's long or difficult, but because I could only read so much without needing a break from it. I was a little unsure what to expect when I started reading it, so the first third of the book went quickly for me. Things slowed down when I was forced to acknowledge that yes, it really was that bleak and everything was not going to just magically get better, no matter how hard I wished it would.
I think the thing that made this book the most powerful for me was the link between things I have noticed in my own life and the things that were portrayed in the book. It might be easy to look at this book and, "Oh, she's blowing things out of proportion. Things are different now. Things are better now," but are they? Right now, having just finished reading the book, a big part of me wants to deny the things that happened in it. However, I can't do that. I can't because I know people who think that way, who are that way. I can see hints of that kind of thinking in my own, no matter how hard I try to change it. There is truth in what Marilyn French has written in this book.
Despite all that, I can't think of this book as only depressing. I keep thinking of an exchange near the very end, where Bart says, "Nothing really changes." Mira replies, "It does, it does. It just takes longer than we do." I know it's trite of me to say, but hope is eternal; change is occurring even now. We just have to keep going on. As Gandhi said, "You must be the change you wish to see in the world." Change is inevitable, and where there is change, there is always hope.
I think the thing that made this book the most powerful for me was the link between things I have noticed in my own life and the things that were portrayed in the book. It might be easy to look at this book and, "Oh, she's blowing things out of proportion. Things are different now. Things are better now," but are they? Right now, having just finished reading the book, a big part of me wants to deny the things that happened in it. However, I can't do that. I can't because I know people who think that way, who are that way. I can see hints of that kind of thinking in my own, no matter how hard I try to change it. There is truth in what Marilyn French has written in this book.
Despite all that, I can't think of this book as only depressing. I keep thinking of an exchange near the very end, where Bart says, "Nothing really changes." Mira replies, "It does, it does. It just takes longer than we do." I know it's trite of me to say, but hope is eternal; change is occurring even now. We just have to keep going on. As Gandhi said, "You must be the change you wish to see in the world." Change is inevitable, and where there is change, there is always hope.
irreverentreader's review
5.0
I took several women's studies courses in college...how did I never hear of this book until now?
Perhaps more raw and unfiltered than The Second Sex or The Feminine Mystique, Marilyn French uses her unparalleled powers of storytelling to showcase some of the most uncomfortable truths that women and society have tried to bury and ignore, simply because they are so deeply distressing to look at with a critical eye.
This book follows the character Mira through her late teenage years into her early 40s and details all the typical life stages that a woman experiences throughout: dating, marriage, motherhood, divorce, as well as chronicling the natural progression of upward mobility that is both expected and sought after in white, middle class, nuclear families. But what this book does so beautifully, so painstakingly, is delve into the deep emotional, mental, and spiritual aspects of women moving through these pre-determined life stages and quietly asking themselves, is this it?
This book weighed heavy on me throughout my reading because as far as we've come in the feminist movement, it shows how insidious our culture still is at keeping women in a box. It shows us that the freedom of movement we have now isn't because we've broken free--we've just been given a bigger box. I have never highlighted a book so vigorously; I have never felt so understood as a woman--to have someone put words to the vague feelings of entrapment and unease that so many of us feel on a daily basis. And French also does an amazing job of crafting her characters--they were as real as any living, breathing human I've met. I wish I had friends like Val, Iso, Kayla, Mira, and Clarissa.
I think this should be required reading for anyone who considers themself a feminist. I think it should be required reading for anyone who doesn't. By no means is this an easy read, but my god, it is worthwhile. I'm not sure how it has gotten quietly buried by the ages, but it should be resurrected. French asks all the hard questions, and by the end, the reader is asking them too.
Perhaps more raw and unfiltered than The Second Sex or The Feminine Mystique, Marilyn French uses her unparalleled powers of storytelling to showcase some of the most uncomfortable truths that women and society have tried to bury and ignore, simply because they are so deeply distressing to look at with a critical eye.
This book follows the character Mira through her late teenage years into her early 40s and details all the typical life stages that a woman experiences throughout: dating, marriage, motherhood, divorce, as well as chronicling the natural progression of upward mobility that is both expected and sought after in white, middle class, nuclear families. But what this book does so beautifully, so painstakingly, is delve into the deep emotional, mental, and spiritual aspects of women moving through these pre-determined life stages and quietly asking themselves, is this it?
This book weighed heavy on me throughout my reading because as far as we've come in the feminist movement, it shows how insidious our culture still is at keeping women in a box. It shows us that the freedom of movement we have now isn't because we've broken free--we've just been given a bigger box. I have never highlighted a book so vigorously; I have never felt so understood as a woman--to have someone put words to the vague feelings of entrapment and unease that so many of us feel on a daily basis. And French also does an amazing job of crafting her characters--they were as real as any living, breathing human I've met. I wish I had friends like Val, Iso, Kayla, Mira, and Clarissa.
I think this should be required reading for anyone who considers themself a feminist. I think it should be required reading for anyone who doesn't. By no means is this an easy read, but my god, it is worthwhile. I'm not sure how it has gotten quietly buried by the ages, but it should be resurrected. French asks all the hard questions, and by the end, the reader is asking them too.
sere_rev's review
4.0
I am convinced that, at the heart of every woman, is rage. We have entered the game of life being dealt an unfair hand, and as we grow and become aware of it, the feelings of unfairness and humiliation and rage lodge inside ourselves and cannot be carved out.
It was both beautiful and terrible to see the women in The Women's Room progressively peel back the layers of conformity and obfuscation to reach their pulsing, raging core; and it was impossible not to feel that core within myself beat in unison, too.
This novel should be highly encouraged reading for every woman, and most importantly, for every man too.
It was both beautiful and terrible to see the women in The Women's Room progressively peel back the layers of conformity and obfuscation to reach their pulsing, raging core; and it was impossible not to feel that core within myself beat in unison, too.
This novel should be highly encouraged reading for every woman, and most importantly, for every man too.
se_wigget's review
5.0
This is such a depressing book—well, for the first half. If Mira hadn't been sexually attracted to men, she wouldn't have dropped out of college, gotten married to an asshole, and gotten unwillingly pregnant. Failing that, if she had been in college at a time and place where birth control and abortion were easily accessible and legal, she wouldn't have married at the age of nineteen and completely lost control of her life. She would have stayed in college, gone straight to grad school, and gotten that Ph.D. before she hit thirty.
But... she was sexually attracted to men and in college in the 1950s.
Occasionally I'm struck by how little I truly relate to straight people, and this book brought that up. It also got me wondering, not for the first time, how it's possible that anyone female is heterosexual. It's quite baffling.
But… it takes quite a shift later in the book, and the protagonist isn’t as hetero as she seemed earlier. The feminist community she finds is delightful.
There’s a lot of realism, and it’s a wordier book than something publishers would accept and publish today.