The Radiant Way by Margaret Drabble

[Dree]

Three women, who met as they began school at Cambridge, are now approaching their 50th birthdays. It is 1979 in London. And over the next 5 years their lives will be affected by the illnesses and deaths of partners and parents, by divorce and dating, by worry over their children as they begin their own lives, by the cuts of Thatcher's regime. And though they have wended their ways in and out of each others' lives over the past 30 years and will continue to do so, they are always there for each other.
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I had never heard of this book when it came up as one of "randomized reads" for a 1001 book list group. I was not sure it sounded any good. And maybe this is the female equivalent of the "grumpy old man reflects" book (Sense of and Ending; Gilead), but I loved this. Maybe because I am the same age as these women, and though my kids are on the young age of theirs (similar to Sam and Celia), I get their worries of parents' health, kids' futures, jobs, redundancy, legacy, and loss of worth. Of home, cats, and even plants. Of steep government cuts and privatized prisons. This book feels completely relevant in the US today, 30 years after it was written and published in England.

[Bryan--The Bee’s Knees]

Three middle-aged English women--friends since college--transition out of the 70s and into the 80s of Margaret Thatcher's England.

I nearly threw in the towel on this one early, because I was completely uninterested in the kind of domestic drama/snapshot of society tale that Drabble was starting--I told myself I'd give it 100 pages. By the time I reached that point though, I'd been drawn in enough to finish, and by the end I rather enjoyed it.

The lives of these women are not extra-remarkable, though one does seem to jet-set more than anyone I'm acquainted with. They are middle to upper-middle class women, with the pains, joys and problems that brings. What really started to interest me though was the struggle that English society was going through at the time and how oddly it paralleled contemporary US society. Agitation by some for a more socialist state, conflicted with a large conservative population, and where families met for holidays with nothing to talk about because everything was politicized and the only safe topics were banalities.

All this was oddly reassuring, in a way--I don't know how or if England made it's way out of the problems of the 80s, but the country is demonstrably still there, still existing, which is comforting since it can sometimes look like the US's future is uncertain. I think the takeaway is that things will change, and some will adapt and others won't, or at least won't want to, and our children and their children will live in their world, not ours.

Anyway--that's all a little beside the point. I was probably outside my comfort zone with this one, but I'm glad I read it. I wouldn't shy away from another by her, though I'm not crazy about her sister A.S. Byatt's writing.

[Gail]

This tale of friendships and relationships, which takes place largely during the early 1980's in a very politically polarized England, felt true to the times and also caught, for me, the interior dialogues and friendly banter of three well educated and intelligent women. The women are quite capable and it is a relief of sorts to read about women that are getting on with their lives rather than living only through their mothers, children, husbands and lovers. The women have mothers, children, husbands and lovers and they worry about them, shift their relationships to satisfy them and struggle to define themselves against them, but overall, I felt that they could each stand on their own. Plus their relationship to each other, which is a relationship of a long, forgiving friendship made them stronger and wiser.
I learned about 1980's economic and political struggles in England and was very satisfied with the book overall. I much preferred it to over The Red Queen.

[Amanda]

I gave it 3 stars. The characters and their lives come across as realistic, and I did like how it explored the lives and friendships between professional women and centered them. However, I did find the main character's a bit homogenous and the book didn't really pull me in to the extent that I wanted it to.

[Kristel]

A story set in the early 80s about 3 women, with college, career, family. It is a story of the 80s culture with social commentary. I enjoyed that the women were middle aged, they were all doing reasonably well in their careers; one married, one divorced (just), one never married. It also covers the aspects of right and left politics, miners strike, and serial killer. A lot happens but the emotional components don't really seem to match up so in that regard it doesn't feel quite real.

[Diane]

Rating: 3.5 stars


I went into this one with low expectations due to my experiences with The Red Queen, but found it enjoyable. I appreciate how professional female characters dominate the story in this novel.