This book was a real disappointment. The excruciating detail in which the author indulges cuts off all imagination on reader's part. It creates a distance, as though the reader were an uninvolved observer, which prevents any kind of identification with the characters. The structure is lopsided - sometimes a personal account, sometimes a long-winded narrative. It's neither an essay nor a novel. The great cast of characters is difficult to follow - people drift in and out. Each woman seems to be a "case" or political example rather than a person.
The politics themselves are virulent and outdated. Certainly a reflection of the times but today unconvincing. The story is too one-sided.
Frankly, there is not much to redeem this book. I recommend Betty Friedan's Feminine Mystique instead. ( )

I read this book in the 1970s and was profoundly affected by it. ( )

The book that made me a feminist. The movie was pretty good too

This book is a novel about one woman, Mira Ward. But it is almost like two separate stories involving many women.

Mira grows up in the 1950's in a typical American household, in a town with typical cultural standards. Men were the "bread winners", the caretakers, and the primary decision makers. Women were the "childbearers", the housekeepers, and usually (for the most part) subservient to their husbands. Mira married young and moved to the suburbs with her new husband with the full intention of living up to the expected social standards. She settled into the routine, had children, and made neighborhood friends. The first half of the book is the 15 years of Mira's married life. It is also the story of several other women who became Mira's dearest friends during those years. It is a heartrending, emotional narritive of the ordeals these women suffered......unhappy marriages when divorce was still an unacceptable solution, too many children when birth control was not yet available, unfulfilled ambitions, smothering social standards, and insensitive demanding husbands. I give this half of the book 5 stars for the reality it portrayed in dealing with the issues women faced during that era. It is the most honest, impassioned, comprehensive book I can recall ever reading about women in the 1950's.

The second half of the book is life for Mira after the divorce. It is now 1960 - 1970. Everything is changing. Mira is now a divorcee college student adapting to the campus life and making new friends. New environment, new priorities, new social standards! This half of the book was a little too over the top for me. The women Mira chose to befriend ranged from crude and obnoxious (foul language and poor parenting) to whiny and ineffectual. The main theme seemed to center upon hatred of men, and hatred of the social structure designed by men. Personally, I know that a whole generation of women was struggling to liberate themselves. I was there and lived through it myself. And fortunately, I managed to find a happy balance. But these women were the extreme of radical conduct, from cheating on their husbands (with a lesbian), to physical violence. Perhaps the authors intention was to show that Mira's' bad experiences with her friends in the first half of the book affected her so seriously that she went to the opposite extreme in choosing friends in the second half. I don't know. In any case, I rate the second half 4.0 stars.

Overall, the book conveys an important message, and documents a historical time; the metamorphosis of the traditional American wife to the liberated independant woman. ( )

I read this book in college and at the same time my mom was getting divorced and reading it. I'll never forget the conversations we had about it, and how empowered this book made me feel. I should it again now that my 24-year marriage is over and I'm finding myself again. ( )