Growing up in Detroit in the 1950s, and going to college when the first seeds of sexual freedom are being sown, Jill and Donna are coming of age in...
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reviews
Jan 04, 2009
Leah
rated it: 
Marge Piercy is working-class feminist gritty real lady book comfort food. I think reading this book when I was 14 showed me how you become a writer when you don't have a trust fund, and how you live through this as a no money girl writer- love, life, fucking, danger, solo apartments, stealing paper from work.
Sep 22, 2009
Roki
rated it: 
A bit dated but still enjoyable read about women's relationships with each other and with men with a background theme of what happened to women when they didn't have access to safe and legal abortions.
Dec 12, 2009
It's the 1950s and Marge Piercy's main character doesn't want a man to posses her. Hmmm. Good luck with that. Having just read her memoir, I can tell that large portions of this novel are inspired by her own life. It seemed like things were going to be grim, and so my attention waned. Also? Horrible 80's-esque cover. So bad it is almost good.
Jun 28, 2009
I always had the impression 'Vida' was somewhat autobiographical; I liked that aspect of it, but not it generally that much. This sounds similar.. looking forward to it..
Oct 04, 2007
Kira
rated it:
A life changer. I credit this novel and a steady diet of Ani DiFranco right around 1995 with turning me into the man hating evil feminist I am today. In hindsight, not the greatest novel - like most 70's era second wave feminist literature, it's heavy handed and the story and characters take a backseat to the political agenda. Every horrible thing that could happen to middle class white women in the 60's happens to these characters - rape, incest, coat hanger abortions, abusive "activist
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Apr 22, 2009
Kerry
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I read this over and over. Piercy has caught my college experience in this novel, 25 years before it happened
Sep 30, 2010
Auntjenny
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This book helped me see things from a different angle. Maybe the book is dated, but nevertheless a great book.
Jan 08, 2009
Tricia
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My favourite book ever. I first read it 25 years ago (eek) and have reread it at least yearly since, and I get something new out of it each time. It speaks to me more than any other book, and I read all other books hoping to get the same thrill from them. The main character, Jill, is so real, which may be because the book is partly autobiographical, as confirmed in Marge Piercy's autobiography, Sleeping with Cats, also well worth reading. Her description of first love is amazing, as well as the
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Dec 27, 2008
Lisa
rated it:
This was the first book of Marge Piercy's that I read. I just stumbled on it accidentally in the Bryn Mawr library. I remember getting the book and not doing anything else until I was done reading it. Part of the reason why it was so powerful was because it's about a young woman in college, so I could identify so closely with it. Anyway, it turned me into a huge Marge Piercy fan, though I would be the first to admit that her books are of uneven quality.
Dec 16, 2009
Juli
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This was my first Piercy book, and I think this one and "woman on the edge of time" are the best by her that I have read. "Gone to Soldiers" was fantastic, but there were so many characters in such a huge novel that at times I wanted to diagram the plot to make sure I was thinking of the correct story line. In these two, she gets it just right, and the stories are compelling and fabulous.
Maybe a little too "neo feminist" for some, but i love her work.
Maybe a little too "neo feminist" for some, but i love her work.
Feb 26, 2008
Donna
rated it:
A college novel regarding a woman undergraduate from a working class background at University of Michigan in the 1950s. Good insight into the challenges of a first generation student, and sexism in the 1950s college dating scene. Scenes of campus life at UM will be familiar to anyone who has visited or gone to school there.
Feb 01, 2008
Miquette
rated it:
one of the many books that changed my life at the time that i read it, which was when i was working for planned parenthood as a teenager. it's images of the women's rights/reproductive rights movement are beautiful, the prose is fluid and the story is unforgettable.
Nov 27, 2011
Monica
rated it:
I really liked this book when I read it back in 1991, but when I tried to re-read it recently, I wasn't that into it
Jan 19, 2012
