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Dec 17, 2009

Dottie rated it:

One of a circle of neighbors who for a period of months sometime in the seventies gathered nearly every afternoon to talk and have a drink before dispersing to prepare meals for families loaned me this book or recommended it - I think I went and bought my own copy to read. I began it about 4:30 one day and think there may have been pizza at my house for dinner that evening because I barely stopped reading from the moment I began to the moment I finished -- which was around 10:30 the next mornin More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Beth rated it:

An important book for me (and for more than a few women I know). The Women's Room is sort of Betty Friedan/The Feminine Mystique in novel form. The depictions of the middle-class lives of women and mothers in the 1950s and early 1960s are compelling. The stories of the women who moved in or into other realms in the later 1960s and through the 1970s show that sexism certainly didn't evaporate with feminism or with womens' moves out of an entirely domestic sphere.

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 14, 2008

Kayla rated it:

In retrospect, I can say that, while "The Women's Room" wasn't always an enjoyable book, it was an important book, a narrative worthy of my time and attention in that it is a significant perspective of the life of the middle-class woman pre- and post- second wave feminism. It is often difficult for young adult women to appreciate our nearness, in terms of decades, to an American system which legalized and regulated the condemnation of the single woman. However, Marilyn French creates More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Nov 21, 2008

Hannah rated it:

What can I say? The Women's Room was a rollercoaster ride of a book. It's unapologetically depressing from the very start, almost too brazenly in-your-face till midway, where Mira's life starts seemingly (dare I say it) comforming (!) to stereotypical feminists of the 70s. Then suddenly, about 100 pages till the end of the book, it's like one bomb drops after the other and by the end of it all, the reader is left as weary as Mira's narrative. I understand how this book would have been highly inf More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Mar 18, 2009

Gretchen rated it:

apparently my John Irving - Garp book experience did NOT cure me of my need to finish books i can't stand. because this was the other book i was trudging through at the same time, all 576 worthless pages that took up way too much of my time and left me with only a small grim satisfaction that at least i read the entire thing and can say with UTTER CONFIDENCE, that it sucked. maybe that is why i don't give up on books, because i don't want to find out later that i quit right before it got good. More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 08, 2012

Mandy rated it:

Plus ça change....I didn't expect this key text of the feminist movement to have the same impact on me that it did all those decades ago, but in fact it had even more of an impact on me this time, because I've now had children and a lot of the book - the best part of it actually - is about being a mother, and the conflicts that arise from that. But what really struck me was how little things have changed in women's personal lives. In theory we now have equality, and in theory can aspire to anyth More...

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Dec 11, 2011

Amy rated it:

My mother gave me 'the Women's Room' with the caveat that when she first read it it made her so angry that she wouldn't speak to my father all weekend (the poor man did nothing!). It is this brand of feminism that, as a practical but vocal advocate of women's continual advancement, thoroughly riles me up. The worthless proselytizing characters are barely more than two-dimensional; the plot conveniently buckles in order to ensure they receive the most punishment at the hands of their oppressors. More...

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Jul 07, 2011

Terri Lynn rated it:

I was 18 years old and just starting college when this book was published. That is when I read it. I was taking a course in cultural anthropology and my professor, a lesbian who was a strong feminist, had become something of a role model for me because I wanted to earn a doctorate myself though not in her field. I heard from so many males that they all knew we were there to earn our MRS degree and nothing more. As I read this book and examined how completely it rang true, I was so enraged, my pr More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Aug 05, 2009

Lorelie rated it:

Other than the coincidence how “toilet booth” let me see our local kasilyas as a bifurcation–an answer to my homework, Marilyn French made a catchy start here; otherwise, I won’t have checked out The Women’s Room for two weeks. The main one she named Mira, a straight A’s student, highly estimated by her teachers got married to Norm who’s graded C’s and found herself supporting him through medical school until she agreed to full-time domesticity when he earned his M.D. (half-way of a 686-page bk More...

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Oct 05, 2009

Maren rated it:

A feminist classic, no doubt, and one that I really enjoyed for about 3/4 of the way through. The last 1/4 of the book I barely skimmed so it technically should go into my "tried but failed" pile, though that's usually where I consign books that I can't even get past page 20 of.

So, this wasn't like that, though I do think The Women's Room loses its thrust around halfway through. In following a character named "Mira" and the group of women who come in an out of he More...

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Oct 07, 2007

Elyssa rated it:

I first read this in college and a few times after that. It really brought to life the concepts outlined in The Feminine Mystique. It illustrated the roots of the feminist movement, which were mostly based on women's discontent and emptiness about being limited to the role of wife and mother. The characters are pretty much middle class white women, which is not the voice of all feminists at that time, but still an interesting one.

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jul 12, 2011

Megan rated it:

In one of those odd synchronicities, I was midway through the first half of this book when my husband and I watched the second-to-last episode of From Earth to the Moon, The Original Wives' Club. What struck me about the women in the episode was that, although the show painted it as the extraordinary sacrifices these women made to support their astronaut husbands, most of what they showed was exactly mirrored in The Women's Room as the things that most suburban housewives did.

I have More...

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Jan 23, 2008

Louise rated it:

It had been a really shocking expreince for a girl of 16 in Tehran to read the story of a woman in the 60s who had almost the same situation the women today in Iran have.
I had read a room of one's own & so many other feminist (?) books by the time, but I can not say that they had that great effect on me... It was so awakening.

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Mar 11, 2008

Holly rated it:

I thought this book was amazing and eye-opening when I read it in high school (college?) Young and idealistic and raised ina conservative home and all that.

Now it just smacks of a brand and era of feminism that I can't relate to anymore.

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 08, 2011

Debra added it

I read this in the '70s and was quite engaged with it, but now I am rereading for a book group and struggling... It feels so dated/so far removed from where I am now. Hmmmm....

Ultimately gave up. Too many other books that call to me.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 16, 2009

J rated it:

Of the decidedly feminist literature,I've read, including The Awakening, The Story of An Hour, Wifey and Fear of Flying, this is my favorite. Unlike The Awakening, where the protagonist has plenty of money, buys another house and appears to abandon her kids... The Women's Room seems to focus on a wider array of aspects of Miri's struggle and life. She does explore freedom as a divorced woman, in her sexuality, and in dealing with her children and parents' reaction to her "unconventional" More...

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Jan 01, 2010

Melanie rated it:

This is truly one of the absolute best books I have ever read. Marilyn French is a genius. For any woman who has ever struggled with anything in her life, no matter how large or small. This book should be a must read. Read with an open mind and the whole book takes on a different tone. It is so powerful to know that the messages in this are timeless. I ran across a quote and this book in college and then saw in in a used book pile in the library several years ago. My copy is bruised and scarred More...

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Aug 24, 2011

Kit rated it:

This is a book about the life in the 1950's and 1960's through the eyes of one woman, Mira. In a way, this is a book about all women. As we read this book today, almost half a century later, we learn what it was like then. And we realize that the now is much less different than we would like to believe. Marilyn French is not a poet, her words are those of a scholar. Without trying to make it pretty, the novel keeps putting the facts in front of us, over and over - and we cry, and laugh, grind ou More...

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Apr 02, 2010

Hannah rated it:

I think this is a book everyone should read, especially given the current 'trend' for idolising the lifestyle of the middle-class 50s housewife. It's a relentlessly depressing book which made me incredibly angry in parts and to some people it might seem slightly OTT at a time when women do, in theory, have more freedom. But it's also a valuable insight into a way of life from not too long ago that caused so much pain, misery and destruction. Furthermore it shows us how the women of the second wa More...

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Nov 01, 2009

Kristie rated it:

The writing is this book wasn't anything special and the story was a bit like a soap opera, but it had a great impact on me and I think it would on any one who read it, especially women. This is considered one of the quintessential books of the feminist movement and I can see why. It made me think and question how much things have actually changed since this book was published in 1977 and how these issues affect my own life. In all honesty, it was difficult to read because of these questions and More...

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Jun 13, 2011

Lisa rated it:

Wow! What a book. I have been puzzled and bothered about the way men and women relate to one another all my life. Having been a married woman for 20 years, I have experienced or witnessed equivalent scenarios to several of the characters in the book. The book takes the reader through stages of life. That is realistic. The characters are each like people I have known or would like to know. That is reassuring-my experience is shared. Relationships are hard. Life is challenging. The book ma More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 17, 2009

Bruce rated it:

When this book was current, late 1970's when I was just past college age, it seems every woman in my age group was carrying this book around. Who am I to say, but it most likely informed the early feminist thinking of many young women. Now that we all are solidly entrenched in middle age I though it might be interesting to read it and see how the philosophies and attitudes, worldviews, and conditions between the genders have progressed...or not. It's a novel and the characters are compelling More...

1 comment like

Aug 19, 2007

David rated it:

Even as a teenager, I knew dreck when I saw it. Gaah!

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Jul 22, 2009

Rhonda added it

This book was awesome. I decided to read it since in skimming the first few pages of the book in the store that I could learn about the atmosphere for being a young married woman in the 1950's and 1960's which would give me insights into what my own mother went through. The book was compelling and rich in the character development and I can understand how it influenced a generation of women who read it when it was originally published in 1977. I only wish I had discovered this book sooner. More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 01, 2011

Ronald rated it:

This novel has been in my personal collection since 1981, when I first read it and was deeply touched by certain scenes, but had since forgotten most of it. Reading it 26 years later brought back some of the earlier memories, but now through an awareness of how my perceptions have changed since then. Perhaps no longer directly relevant to the feminist cause today, this book is still a powerful overview of women's issues from my and my parents's generations. This one has re-emerged near the top o More...

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Feb 26, 2010

Heather rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

1 comment like

Nov 22, 2009

Jessica rated it:

This book has gone to the top of my favourites list. I have never read anything like it. Published in 1978 this book still has the power to move and inspire and filled me with hope, sadness, rage and happiness at various times. When we talk about 'post-feminism' or people query why we are feminists I would direct them to this book. Thirty one years down the line women are still faced with many of the same issues and problems as addressed in this book.

Never before have I read a book c More...

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Jan 16, 2008

Lacey rated it:

The narrator comes right out and says that this book doesn't have a plot (and the narrator's "veiled identity" is actually one of the failures in this book, as it feels rather gimmicky). But this book spends its 600 + pages zooming in on a few specific women's communities that serve to illustrate most of the issues second-wave feminism attempted to tackle. The book's protagonist, Mira, ties the various threads together, as she's the one that the "camera follows" most closely. More...

1 comment like

Oct 05, 2007

Tani rated it:

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.
More...

1 comment like

Feb 21, 2011

Erica rated it:

Highly Recommended

"Fairyland as it appeared in the books was the place I wanted to live, and I judged my surroundings according to how well they matched it. I used to try to concentrate hard enough to make fairyland come true in my head. If I had been able to do it, I would gladly have deserted the real world to go there."

"The sheer naked power of those great waves constantly rolling up with such an ominous rumble, hitting against the rocks and sending up s More...

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