The Female Persuasion: A Novel

I've read one book by Meg Wolitzer before, but hoped for more from this one because of the good reviews and the potential of an interesting theme and plot. Sorry. I just don't get it. Another reviewer, Avid Reader, wrote that Wolitzer had 'a concept still searching for characters and a meaningful story.' Exactly. I just don't think that she's a real writer. She doesn't have an interesting view of the world and she doesn't know much about how to express what she does know. Given the mostly glowing reviews, I think that what she does have is connections. Sorry, Meg.

I was born in 1946, the first of the baby boomers. I became a lawyer in 1969, one of 12 women in my class in law school, and the first woman to hold the post of 1st Vice President of the Student Bar Association, having been told had I been a man I would have been President. In 1981 I became a U.S. Administrative Law Judge in the Social Security Administration, again one of 12 women in the corps, and in 1983 I became the first woman to serve on the board of directors of the Association of Administrative Law Judges, Inc. I realize that this information may let some folks know who I am, and that’s alright. It is important to know in the context of my review of this book. As a young woman and young lawyer I was firmly of the belief that we women could change things from the inside out and as a consequence I never joined a women’s bar association, NOW, or other only women’s organizations. I was WRONG! This book is about women, some strong, some not so strong, their stories, and in large, the women’s movement both in my time and now.
This is a book about right and wrong, and all the grays in between, in the context of the Feminist Movement of the 60’s through to current times. Greer Kadetsky, Zee Eisenstadt, & Faith Frank are the protagonists. One additional important character is Cory Pinto, Greer’s childhood friend, later boyfriend. We follow Greer and Cory through childhood both being raised by very different parents on the same street in a small Massachusetts town. Greer’s parents are 1960’s hippies who never really found themselves even though they purchased a house and raised a child. Her mother worked as a clown performing in libraries for children and her father sold protein bars. Greer and Cory both over achievers were planning on going to Yale but Greer’s father was too lazy to properly finish her financial aid application and so she ended up at a somewhat third rate college while Cory went to Princeton. It was at college that Greer met Zee, (born Franny Eisenstadt). Zee, also raised in a somewhat dysfunctional family in Westchester, NY, (both her parents were Supreme Court, Westchester County judges). Zee, never comfortable as Franny, is a gay woman who idolizes Faith Frank, a famous feminist. When Faith comes to the college to speak, she entices Greer to go hear her. Greer and Zee meet Faith in the ladies room, where Faith gives Greer her business card. From that point on we follow the lives of these characters through their struggles with self, with giving to the world, with life, and with death.
The book is a powerful story of the feminist struggle, friendship, betrayal, and recovery from betrayal. To go further in the description would be to say too much. You just have to read it to learn how these characters interact, and to learn the lessons this author would have you learn.

SPOILER ALERT BUT IF YOU CAN'T FIGURE IT OUT AT THE BEGINNING, I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO TELL YOU. I found this book predictable, boring, and tedious. A brilliant, studious, pretty suburban girl whines that her parents aren't mainstream enough for her, don't pay enough attention to her, and that they screw up her chance to go to Yale (because this otherwise brilliant person couldn't have looked over the paperwork herself). The book spends way too much time explaining why the characters are important and why everything they do is important. We hear how videos of them speaking go viral, how the world hangs on their every word, and how their lives are documented in newspapers. It is over-the-top self-important. I didn't think anything the characters said or thought was original or interesting. I wanted the writer to stop interjecting that it was all so fascinating.

The characters were stereotypical. We had the brilliant older feminist; the brilliant younger feminist; the perfect feminist boyfriend; and the queer best friend. The worst part was the billionaire donor who was obsessed with the older feminist. Was she really that good in bed? And what is this? Fifty shades? I just didn't buy that they had a one-night stand and this married billionaire just couldn't get her out of his head for 40 years. Give me a break.

It is the young feminist's story primarily and I found it brutal. She gets the exact job she wants in New York (which is at a non-profit but thanks to the donations of the billionaire seems to pay well), loses it when she stands on principle, and goes on to write a best-seller (because everything she says is fascinating) and become rich (because to make this story work she needs a brownstone in Brooklyn). She also marries her high school sweetheart and has a baby. Of course. This character and husband are such fabulous people that instead of renovating their brownstone, they support their aging and fairly incompetent parents. And just when I thought the characters couldn't get any more wonderful. There was nothing interesting in this for me.

The story dragged. The last few chapters took me weeks. I liked the message bc it’s very empowering. But the characters kept boring. Then random stuff would happen that felt so sudden it didn’t fit

The problem with “the book of the moment” these days is that a moment lasts only 30 seconds — and then the next “book of the moment” comes along, and the next and the next, and as you start to lose track, you have to ask why you should care about any of them.

Meg Wolitzer’s “The Female Persuasion,” much anticipated and just published, is very much “the book of the moment.”

But I’d bet my hands: It will last.

It’s funny that I should say this, because I vastly prefer short books, and “The Female Persuasion” has 464 pages. Another negative: it deals with male oppression and female subjugation, female friendship and female ambition, youthful Idealism and adult careerism, and every other #RightNow topic that has provided full employment for pundits. And then, what could easily be a third strike: it is almost entirely about privileged white people.

And yet I opened “The Female Persuasion” in the morning and didn’t put it down until I’d finished it — the ultimate compliment. The reason has nothing to do with politics and issues and everything to do with the people. Simply, I fell in love with them. I felt I knew them. And I wanted to know them better, even when their foibles and flaws made me want to yell “Turn back!” at them, as if they were characters in a horror movie.

This is a richly populated novel, but it’s basically the story of two women: Greer Kadetsky and Faith Frank. We meet Greer as a freshman in the class of 2010 at a Connecticut college that’s far from her first choice. Faith is a feminist magazine pioneer and icon, still sexy in tall suede boots at 63. When Faith comes to speak at her school, Greer will fall under her spell; she’ll move to New York and join Faith’s cause. A dozen years later, she’ll write a book and her own fame will begin.

When I open a thick novel, my first thought is to find the 75-to-100 pages I wouldn’t miss if they were cut. Here those pages are front-loaded: Greer’s romance with “the Portuguese kid with the house-cleaner mom and the upholsterer dad” who goes to Princeton, and her betrayal of a close friend. I was antsy: I wanted to get to the Faith/Greer story — the interview, the mentorship, Greer’s rise and rise, how Faith made her way when she was Greer’s age, how Faith found the money for her foundation and how, as it usually does, money changes everything — and that doesn’t start until page 112.

But as Wolitzer explains in a New York Times profile, "This is a moment where everything’s just being shaken up, realigning and changing really fast, like in a snow globe. There’s such heat around everything, and it’s really hard, at least for me personally, to work in that kind of state. But as a novelist, I feel lucky that I can traffic in nuance. I’m more interested in looking at how things change over time, at how people try and sometimes fail to make meaning out of their lives. In this moment of the hot take, I’m the master of the warm take.”

Oh me of little faith! Everything that annoyed or bored me in the beginning came to be important toward the end. Along the way, Wolitzer tuned me to the rhythms of triumph and defeat — to the rhythms of life. Like the way in offices your colleagues are “people with coffee on the breath and personal habits that you would learn, as though you were lovers and not just people who worked in the same place.” How “men give women the power that they themselves don’t want.” How even the most famous and fabulous become “fragile and bony as anyone, and as mortal, and as compromised.” How maybe we come to see there are two kinds of feminists, “the famous ones and everyone else, all the people who just go quietly and do what they’re supposed to do, and don’t get a lot of credit for it, and don’t have anyone telling them they’re doing an awesome job.”

As you get deeper into the book, Wolitzer’s panorama expands, becomes vast. In the 20s, there are “crowded lives.” With age, a broken-hearted man finds a “replacement” woman. Self-preservation becomes as important as generosity. And, in the end, we replace each other. “That’s what we do; and we’re supposed to do it, over and over.”

I’ve taken some care here not to spoil your pleasure by saying who and what and why in the story of Greer and Faith and the women and men in their lives. I leave those discoveries to you… and to the people you will tell to read “The Female Persuasion” when you finish. It’s that kind of book.

Much has been written, especially lately, about the generation gap between second-wave feminists (the generation that fought for abortion rights and the ERA, among other things) and today’s crop of feminist activists, who are much more concerned with the intersectional nature of identity and who have been known to call out the second-wave movement’s leaders for being exclusionary and unaware of their own privilege.

Many of these debates reside, implicitly or explicitly, in the background of Meg Wolitzer’s new novel, THE FEMALE PERSUASION, a complicated but richly told story of women’s mentorship, disillusionment and recovery, all told in the context of the evolving feminist movement over the past 50 years.

The book centers on two activists: Faith Frank, editor of Bloomer magazine (sort of a scrappier Ms.), and her protégé, Greer Kadetsky, a studious but quiet young woman who is spurred to activism when her much more outspoken friend, Zee, drags her along to an appearance by Faith on their college campus during freshman year. A chance encounter with this accomplished, charismatic woman inspires Greer --- who harbors ambitions to become a writer --- to reach out to Faith after graduation and land an interview at Bloomer.

Little does she know, though, that Bloomer is about to fold, and instead Faith offers Greer a position at her new project, a foundation called Loci that’s funded by a private (and ethically ambiguous) investor. Faith promises that it will help raise the profile of women’s issues and take action on some of the most pressing topics affecting women’s lives worldwide, from education to sexual violence to human trafficking.

At first Greer loves her job, not to mention the opportunity to interact daily with Faith. But soon, the evolving organization has affected not only Greer’s self-image but also her relationships with Zee, her longtime boyfriend Cory, and Faith herself. In narratives that travel forward and backward in time --- including Faith’s own start in the women’s movement, as well as Greer’s childhood and adolescence, and Zee’s post-college disillusionment and eventual redemption --- Wolitzer offers a rich and nuanced portrait of the complexity of women’s lives, particularly their personal friendships and professional mentoring relationships.

At times, Wolitzer seems to be trying a little too hard to engage with real-world events, however flippantly (a clear spoof on Jezebel.com is called Fem Fatale; Loci’s high-end, celebrity-studded events are clear jabs at the much-maligned Goop Summit and its ilk). But overall, THE FEMALE PERSUASION has much to offer to readers --- especially those who will have seen this evolution in the feminist movement play out in real time, in their own lives. The personal is political, as they say --- and in the case of Wolitzer’s latest, she adeptly illustrates how the two overlap, sometimes messily.

The novel’s final chapter --- which resolves a romance plot and reveals both Greer and Zee’s ultimately hopeful outcomes --- is set in the near future, in a world where the feminist movement is, as always, adjusting to the ever-changing shape of women’s lives and the political forces that mold them.

Reviewed by Norah Piehl

I'm not as gaga about this book as everybody else.

The Interestings had something this book didn't .... Interesting people. Set with the same structure as The Interestings, several people meet in college and this book tells their individual stories over the years.

Greer is the center of the tale who is a young woman finding her way in the world, and she meets Faith Frank who is a famous feminist lecturer and after 22 seconds in the bathroom together, Faith gives Greer her business card and ultimately a job. This starts Greer out on a path to do meaningful work in the world.

In the mean time, her boyfriend Cory has his life all figured out until an event you see coming a mile away changes the trajectory of his life.

We also learn about Faith Frank's benefactor and Greer's lesbian best friend, Zee.

The story had a relatively decent pace, the plotlines were interesting enough and Wolitzer can tell a good story, but the people never really grew on me. Greer was fine, if a little boring (but sometimes funny, which was much needed!) Faith was a construct to inject feminist ideas into the story and everybody was so far up her butt it was painful. Cory was a martyr and Zee was a shell of a caricature.

This took me far longer to read than it should have, and that probably didn't help. Just didn't have time, but also, nothing grabbing me back to it. I did like the end better than the earlier parts, and thought Wolitzer had some keen observations on today's youth, but that was a small part of the whole and not enough.

It wasn't "bad" but it wasn't great either.

3 Stars!

This may be an unpopular opinion but I had some issues with this book. I ended up reading it because of the hype. This was also the Barnes and Noble Pick for their book club so I really read it for that.

The book has so many points of view I'm not even sure where to start. We meet Greer in the beginning: she's a scholastic girl who likes to read a lot of books and definitely different from her parents who do odd jobs and don't even make dinner for her. Greer has a boyfriend named Cory who is the 2nd smartest person in their school. They come together since they are both at the top of their class but soon they form a romantic relationship. Sadly, Greer's family drops the ball on college applications and Greer is forced to her safety school.

One night Greer's friend, Zee, forces her to go to a lecture by Faith Frank. Faith is the face of women empowerment and Greer is overwhelmed by how inspiring Faith is to her. Greer runs into Faith in the bathroom and receives her contact info. From there a journey starts. Greer ends up reaching out for a job and we watch her go through ups and downs and make choices in her life, both good and bad. I have to say at the end, when the characters true colors come out, it may really surprise you. It did for me anyway.

What did I like? 1. I thought Greer was relatable. I'm 27 and I think that some of the struggles she faced I and/or people in my life have too. 2. I think the female ambition in this book was inspiring at times.

So why the 3 star rating? Well a few things: 1. This was hyped as a #metoo movement book. There wasn't much of that. 2: This was told from a lot of points of view yet only 10 chapters so within the long chapters it bounced around a lot. 3. I thought this would be more of a story about female empowerment and honestly it felt to me like this was about how someone who is your mentor may not be all that they seem. 4. This book was simply too long. It could have easily been cut back 100 pages.

I know some may love this but sadly it was just OK in my eyes. Not every book can be a 5 star winner!

I bought this today, or it downloaded onto my reader today- and seven hours later I finished it. That's how good it is, and how good Wolitzer's writing is. I have to admit, I read the review in the New York times by lena Dunham, which made me think it might be one of those earnest, kind of good-for-you books, one of those books you SHOULD read, for the betterment of the planet or something, versus the kind of book you almost want to read in the shower and while you are eating food (I did not take it into the shower but I did read it during breakfast and also lunch) - it definitely belongs to the last category. Wolitzer is funny, lyrical, sharp and writes about these people with a lot of compassion and understanding. I would have to say it is one of those rare books (I mean once a year, once every two years books) that is both really GREAT and that you also can't stop reading. I think that is probably harder than it looks

I do not understand all the good reviews of this book. I have read the author’s other books, and I do like her. I had doubts about buying this one, but picked it up anyway. I should have listened to my gut. This book is so BORING. Nothing happens! I could care less about any of the characters. I keep plodding through in hopes I’ll start to care. Nope! Not happening! Save your money on this one!!!

Two stars for the excellent turn of phrase throughout the book..

Three stars withheld because with each new page came a ham-fisted proclamation of how incredible, how awe-inspiring, how charismatic both Faith Frank and even Greer were in their speaking. Do we ever see this in action? Is either character charismatic, awe-inspiring, novel in her ideas, radical in any perceivable way? You'd think four hundred and fifty pages would be enough to allow for any one of those things to actually happen but no.

The author relies, continuously and exhaustingly, on telling us (ad nauseam) how amazing Faith and Greer are - but she completely falls down in her ability to actually show us. The nuggets of wisdom imparted by the two women throughout the book read as though they were lifted from the Goop blog, or sometimes even smack of an Ivanka Trump truism. "Because if you don't preserve yourself, keep enough for yourself, then of course you have nothing to give." is one such stunningly average piece of insight Greer doles out at the end of the book, when her Outdoor Voices book has stayed on the bestseller list for over a year and she herself is a famed feminist literary voice.

Characters wildly undeveloped, ironically the male character's struggle is possibly the most interesting and his choices are made for the reasons that are the most dynamic.

The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer tackles the evolution of contemporary feminism through the experiences of fictional 20-something Greer and 60-something Faith Frank. It’s a riff on the old theme of A Star is Born where the veteran is overtaken by her protégé. We’re introduced to Greer as a young girl being raised by seemingly indifferent parents. Her neighbour Cory becomes her best friend, lover and hoped-for life partner. Both Greer and Cory are gifted students with great futures predicted for them both at high-end ivy-league universities. Cory successfully qualifies for a scholarship and attends Princeton while Greer grudgingly attends a lower echelon college because her parents couldn’t master the scholarship application forms.
During her first year of college, at the urging of a friend, Greer attends a presentation by a famous early feminist, Faith Frank. During a post-speech encounter in the ladies room, Greer scores a business card from empathetic and powerful Frank which Greer uses when she graduates to land a job at Faith Frank’s feminist foundation. In the meantime, after graduating from Princeton, boyfriend Cory’s career in business takes him to Manilla. During his overseas assignment, Cory receives devastating news that results in his returning home to take care of his mother. Complications naturally arise and the characters’ career trajectories are diverted. As Greer and Cory’s individual lives evolve, their personal relationship evaporates.
There are many reasons I looked forward to reading The Female Persuasion:
I enjoyed Wolitzer’s earlier book, The Interestings.
The plot focuses on the evolution of feminism, an issue of deep interest to me.
When I saw the author interviewed on The Social I was impressed with her intelligence and powers of observation.
The book is a New York Times best-seller and film rights have been optioned by Nicole Kidman.
However, just because all these criteria come together in The Female Persuasion it doesn’t necessarily mean I loved the book. I found the plot to be a tad cliché and the story didn’t keep me strongly engaged. It’s only because the book was a best-seller and I held out hope that it would get better that I kept going. Parts of it were crushingly boring and could have used further editing. I’d call it light reading and more about love and romance than feminism. I disagree with New York Times’ readers. I’d be interested in knowing what you think. Rating: 5 out of 10.

I really wanted to like this book more than I did. And it was well-written with very well-developed characters ***except*** for the blue-collar/working class characters who were lightly touched upon (if at all) and when they were, were almost always portrayed as all bad or all useless/helpless. It's ironic: the book makes mention of "white-rich-lady feminism"; annnnd guess what? That's describes the theme of, and almost all of the main characters in, this story. Maybe the author was trying to get that point across, that feminism, to survive, will have to be more inclusive of feminists who are not all white, cis-gender, middle-class or higher; but if so, she needed to give a *lot* more voice (like, any) to the *few* working class characters in this book.

The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer is a highly recommended coming-of-age novel that follows a decade in the life of a young woman and explores friendship, relationships, ambition, and mentors.

Greer Kadetsky is a freshman at Ryland College who is trying to keep a long-distance relationship going with her high school boy friend, Cory Pinto, who is attending Princeton. She has always been a bookish, intelligent, independent girl with parents who were more self-involved than parental. She was also accepted at and planning to attend an Ivy league school with Cory, but her parents messed up the financial aid form, which Greer still resents. When Greer gets groped at a frat party during her first weekend at college, she is hesitant to report it. Her politically savvy friend Zee urges her to, but she doesn't until other girls go through the same thing. When the university hearing on the matter results in no sanctions or actions, Greer and Zee are angry at their inability to address the actions of this young man.

Greer and Zee are still angry when they go to hear the famous, charismatic feminist Faith Frank, sixty-three, speak on campus. Greer is mesmerized by Frank, asks her a question related to the groping incident, and the university's empty response to the charges. Later the two continue their discussion in the bathroom. Faith is taken by Greer, talks to the young woman and gives her her card. This leads to an opportunity after Greer graduates to work for the feminist icon at her new foundation, Loci, which sponsors conferences about women's issues.

The writing is excellent. I loved this: "You know, I sometimes think that the most effective people in the world are introverts who taught themselves how to be extroverts." It is clear from the beginning that Wolitzer knows how to tell an entertaining and engaging story while keeping her plot moving forward. The Female Persuasion really becomes a saga as it follows Greer and the others through the decade. The narrative follows Greer, Cory, Faith, Zee, and another male character. These are all well-developed but flawed characters, with strengths and weaknesses. The characters are all distinctive and have their own individual voices. While Greer is the compelling central character, in some ways Cory is actually the more sympathetic and humane character.

Is this the feminist blockbuster of our times? Well, I'm not convinced it is, but perhaps I'm too old for it. It is certainly a very good novel and I was engrossed in the story. I would agree that it explores embracing womanhood, yet also suffering because of it. All the young characters start out emotional, wanting to change the world, striving to make their mark on the world and do something. They are also can be a bit entitled, naive, and sometimes, well, whiny. I realize that they don't feel the need to acknowledge what women before them have experienced, how many of us have been groped, or worse long before they came along, but they also seem to want all women to be pigeon-holed into walking lock-step with a set list of ideals.

"'Sisterhood,' she said, 'is about being together with other women in a cause that allows all women to make the individual choices they want.'" Although this sentiment was shared, it was never really embraced in the novel and perhaps that is what is bothering me. As women, we fought for the right to be individuals and to be able to voice our own opinions and be in charge of our own bodies. We don't need to throw that away by insisting that it means only these ideals or only a specific stand on certain issues. Sometimes I see women destroying our own freedoms by not allowing others to have their own views and opinions based on their experiences.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of the Penguin Publishing Group.

This book was a slogging, boring hulk of a thing touted as being relevant to today's world. In some cases, I could agree but the way the book was edited/put together was disappointing on so many levels. I didn't care for it at all.

This book sounded great on paper and I was so excited to start it. Unfortunately, due to multiple issues it fell short on expectations. It was a much fluffier read than I imagined it would be. Reading all the reviews on it, I thought it was going to be a strong, deep, and moving novel about feminism and the women/relationships in our lives that help shape who we become. Overall, it is more like a light beach read and if you are in that mindset, it is interesting and an engaging read. But if you are expecting something deep and meaningful I think you will be disappointed like I was. I would give it a B- but really expected more from this one overall.

The good: The novel has an interesting plot that keeps a good pace throughout. The story is centered around several characters that are strong feminists and it explores their different relationships, lives, and paths. The characters are engaging and have moderate depth and development to them, and overall I liked them each in their own way. The novel focuses a bit on the relationships between women, especially the role and importance of a mentor in shaping the younger character into who she becomes. I thought this was going to be the majority of the story, but I felt it barely glanced the surface on this important topic.

The bad: The book is very superficial overall. It has great potential to explore some important topics and themes but I feel it barely touches the surface. My other major critique is the overall structure. The novel is in the point of view of four separate characters and follows them over time. It felt very disjointed to me and a lot of the extra back stories did not do much to strengthen or move the story forward.

Favorite quotes:

"I think that's what the people who change our lives always do. They give us permission to be the person we secretly really long to be but maybe don't feel we're allowed to be."

"There are some people who have such a strong effect on you, even if you've spent very little time with them, that they become embossed inside you, and any hint of them, any casual mention, creates a sudden stir in you."

{My Thoughts}
What Worked For Me
A Timely Topic – How lucky was Meg Wolitzer that the #MeToo movement and other women’s issues moved so firmly to the forefront of our world these last six months. Could she have asked for a better lead-up to a book featuring characters in the center of the feminist movement? It may have involved some luck on Wolitzer’s part, but I can’t help believing that she had to see some of this coming. It’s time. The Female Persuasion does a beautiful job of framing the history of the women’s movement, while at the same time moving it forward in a world rife with instant access, blogs, and social media. The historical review Wolitzer slipped into her novel leant context to all that is happening today.

Mentor/Mentee Relationship – Looking back on my own life I can find mentors here and there for short bursts of time, but nothing like the relationship Greer had with her mentor, Faith Frank. When Greer reluctantly agreed to go hear Frank speak on a rainy fall evening during her freshman year, she had no idea the lasting impact Frank would have on her. At the end of that evening, Frank slipped Greer a card and though it took her years to use the contact information, just having it brought Greer strength. Later, both women were clear with and comfortable in their roles with one another. Greer wanted to think of herself as more to Frank, but realized there had been others. Frank valued Greer and understood Greer’s needs, but limited their relationship. Faith speaking to a friend about mentoring:

“Showing an interest is only one part,” she said. “You also take them under your wing, if that’s what they seem to want. But then there’s another part, which is that eventually you let them go. Fling! You fling them away. Because otherwise they think that they can’t manage on their own. Sometimes you fling them too hard. You have to be careful.”

The Telling – I appreciated the way Meg Wolitzer chose to structure The Female Persuasion. In addition to the two central characters, Greer and Faith, she used Greer’s boyfriend, Cory and her college best friend, Zee, to fully flesh out the story. Almost all chapters were told from the perspective of one of these four. As expected, those revolving around Faith were powerful and those around Greer propelled the story, but those centered on Zee and Cory were surprisingly touching. In many ways their chapters felt like the heart, the emotional side of this book.

Cory – Some might disagree with me here, but I loved the character of Cory for so many reasons. First, even as a teenager, he so clearly saw the world around him. When Greer’s parents diminished her worth, he was incensed for her. He struggled with high ideals versus paths more easily taken. And when tragedy struck his reaction was far from what might be expected of a man in his early 20’s. In some ways Cory’s part of this story speaks the loudest for feminist ideals.

What Didn’t
An Ending That Went Too Far – The last chapter of The Female Persuasion wasn’t called an epilogue, but it felt very much like one. Like most epilogues, I didn’t think it was necessary. Almost everything that the reader learned in that last chapter had already been hinted out earlier in the book. I’d have been perfectly happy had the last chapter been completely eliminated and I was left to fill in any small gaps myself.

{The Final Assessment}
Make no mistake about it, I loved The Female Persuasion. No one is quite like Meg Wolitzer when it comes to developing a rich story over a span of years. From the history lessons, to the vivid characters, to the variety of conflicts, to the women’s movement today, this book had it all. One less chapter might have made it perfect, but I still highly recommend The Female Persuasion. Grade: A-

The book title comes from a manifesto called The Female Persuasion written by Faith Frank, a Gloria Steinem style feminist and mentor to Greer Kadetsky whose story this is. Faith is driven to improve the plight of women worldwide and when Greer goes to work for her right out of college, this becomes her holy grail as well.

Wolitzer has written an epic, smart and timely book at a time when it seems that the clock is being turned back on everything women have worked for since the 1960s. The news is filled with accusations filed years after the fact, years after the women have silently endured the humiliation of unwelcome sexual advances. Greer smolders helplessly after being assaulted as a college student. Years later she reflects, “They always get to set the terms. I mean, they just come in and set them. They don’t ask, they just do it....But it’s still true. Because otherwise, it’s like we’re going to keep repeating this forever.” And to many of us helplessly watching women’s rights under assault and being rolled back, it feels like we’re going t have to keep repeating our work over and over again.

I struggled at times with the multiple storylines which are all fully fleshed out but they make the reading all the more satisfying. There really aren’t that many characters and they all matter.

Greer and Zee, her best friend, imagine a world where a woman “wouldn’t have to think anything physical or sexual about herself at all unless she wanted to. She could dress the way she liked. She could feel capable and safe and free, which was what Faith Frank had always wanted for women.” This is an essential read.

Meg Wolitzer’s The Female Persuasion gets off to a rather weak start, and for a while I thought I was going to have to hang it up. It was too much like reading a young adult novel, complete with “lessons,” or an unfortunate cross between a novel and a New Age self-help book.

I never succeeded in getting past those misgivings, but I did stay with the novel, and as it goes along it occasionally takes on limited interest. I even ended up intermittently caring about Greer, who had initially left me cold.

It is, however, pretty clear that Wolitzer will never be regarded as a prose stylist. This is the flat, standard expository prose of popular fiction, designed for readers who are carried along by characters and events and couldn’t care less abut language.

Too often, the language simply seems wrong:

“At Princeton, Cory was given a job in the Firestone Library, checking out books in an enormous, grand room; he ate his meals in another enormous, grand room.” Wolitzer hits us with “enormous, grand,” which doesn’t land well, and then repeats it. “Enormous” and “grand” are not synonymous, but they’re too close in meaning on one level not to seem redundant. Eliminate one word or the other, or replace “grand” with something like “elegant,” “imposing,” or “intimidating.”

At one point, the expression “continues on” even got by. Where was an editor?

Nitpicking? Perhaps. But similar and worse infelicities occur throughout the book. In another passage, while Greer is helping in the preparation of a meal: “Faith handed her a mesh bag swelling with onions.” Swelling? Have the onions gone bad, or what?

During Zee’s (Franny’s) first sexual encounter: “Above her, Alana crossed her arms and lifted off her own shirt, revealing small, slightly pessimistic breasts.” Excuse me — did some function like SpellCheck butt in there and do something absurd?

Here’s a particularly hard-to-swallow passage:

“The sex with Faith had been snappingly dynamic, revelatory.”

You wince at that “snappingly dynamic," and then Wolitzer pulls out all the stops, making you wish she’d get back to her characteristic flatness: “He had ached for her throughout their dinner at the Cookery and during the cab ride to her little apartment; and then in her bed the ache was furiously resolved, the tip of his long penis touching the depth of her, as momentous to him as if it were fingertip meeting fingertip in the Creation of Adam on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.”

Fueled by her own excess, Wolitzer gushes on: “He pictured her brain packing her beautiful head, rendering her inquisitive and sharp and exquisitely attractive.”

Although she has no gift for comparisons, Wolitzer nonetheless drops them on us shamelessly. During Greer’s job interview: “A tea ball lay on its side with sprouts of used leaves poking through the holes like hair in old-man’s nostrils.”

At Zee’s bat mitzvah: “ “Congratulations, Franny,’ said Linda that day, and during the obligatory hug it almost seemed as if the pressure made Linda release a very female perfume, the way a sofa cushion, when sat on, lets out air.”

I did laugh out loud when Greer tried to explain to Cory a certain sexual reserve: “A nun and a mouse had a baby, and that’s me.” Now there at last is something that works, and it’s pretty damned funny.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss.

Meg Wolitzer is one of my very favorite authors, so I’m not entirely surprised that The Female Persuasion is my second 5 star book of the year! I’d be shocked if you don’t see this one pop up on tons of Best Books of 2018 lists come December. In a letter to the reader at the beginning of the book, Riverhead’s Editor-in-Chief (Sarah McGrath) says The Female Persuasion is a novel about “female power, ambition, leadership, and mentorship […].” And it is, but those issues are secondary to what is ultimately a story in which the characters are the stars: Greer, her boyfriend (Cory), her best friend (Zee), and Faith Frank. We follow these people through their evolution into adulthood (in the cases of Greer, Zee, and Cory) and a second act (in Faith’s case). I was completely enmeshed in these people’s lives and the issues this book addresses fit organically around the characters’ stories without overwhelming them (like An American Marriage and The Mothers). The sparkling writing you expect from Wolitzer is there…

"So Faith Frank hired me, originally, based on nothing. She took me in and she taught me things, and more than that she gave me permission. I think that’s what the people who change our lives always do. They give us permission to be the person we secretly really long to be but maybe don’t feel we’re allowed to be."

And, though this is a character-driven novel, there are definitely a few surprises in the story that felt like cherries on top of an already delicious sundae. After finishing the book, I realized it was 464 pages and was shocked by how long it was. I read it in a few days and I was always itching to get back to it when I had to leave it for some real life. If you loved The Interestings (and maybe also if you didn’t, per Annie Jones of From the Front Porch podcast), I think you’ll like The Female Persuasion, but you’ll certainly if you love character-driven stories with great writing. And, it’s ripe for great book club discussion!

Check out my blog, Sarah's Book Shelves, for more reviews.

Hmmmm.......had to digest this inaugural Barnes Noble bookclub pick for a bit; had my ups and downs with it to be honest.

While THE FEMALE PERSUASION alternates between the lives of four characters, the main focus is on a young adult, Greer about to graduate high school, her relationship with her boyfriend, lesbian best friend, unusual parents and a woman who turns out to be her mentor.

For me, the best and most significant story belongs to Corey....how he handled shocking loss and took charge of a difficult situation for someone so young and in the prime of his life. (Oh Slowy)

In contrast, for me, Greer, ok....notably "uncomfortable in the world", searching for direction and purpose in life, showed ambition as well as selfishness in the form of betrayal as she continued along the cure misogyny path.

Unfortunately, for me, I became bored with her job, her connection to women's activist Faith Frank and the whole women's rights movement....not that it's not important....its just old news that was (whew!) drawn out way beyond my allotted attention span for this novel.

Using books as an antidepressant though....that's a good one Greer!

Well developed characters, yes; and "The meaning and uses of power"....I get that, but the overdone subject matter.....that turned THE FEMALE PERSUASION into a long, average ho-hum read for me. Perhaps I'm missing some important message here?

I thoroughly enjoyed becoming immersed in the lives of a large cast of interesting characters in Meg Wolitzer’s novel titled, The Female Persuasion. Protagonist Greer Kadetsky follows a path through life that aligns with what most of us experience: highs, lows, and a road that meanders in directions we never imagined. It’s easy to spend time with Wolitzer because her sentences are finely crafted, and her insights into human nature are revealed in every character as they emerge as complex and true to life. Central to the novel are two significant relationships: Greer’s longtime friendship with the smart neighbor boy, Cory; and the ways in which a feminist leader, Faith Frank, becomes a mentor to Greer. Wolitzer allows us to meander forward and backward in time as we get to know the complexity in the lives of Greer, Cory and Faith. As Greer matures and finds her voice, she uses it ways that she never imagined.

Rating: Five-star (I love it)

I am a total fanboy of Meg Wolitzer's novel The Interestings. And while I can readily admit that The Interestings is not without flaws, I'm still dazzled by what it achieved: an astonishingly true-to-life examination of how a group of friends progresses over time.

The Female Persuasion's publication was like an event for me. I snagged a copy from the library very close to the publication date and immediately dove in. But two weeks later, when the book was due, I had only progressed roughly fifty pages. I kept the book another few days but despite the urgency to return it, I only progressed another twenty pages. So I gave up and returned it.

I couldn't quite put my finger on why it was so difficult for me to get into this book at the time. All I knew was that I couldn't get passed Wolitzer's tendency to describe things in an odd way (this was one of the flaws of The Interestings, but I was able to overlook it there). It's almost as though Wolitzer is trying so hard to describe things in an interesting way that it ends up coming across as contrived. Like when Greer, our narrator, describes the smell in a room by using the chemical name for movie theater butter, then awkwardly defining what that is for the reader, instead of simply saying it smelled like movie theater popcorn and moving on. You could argue that this overly-complicated description is indicative of Greer's need to impress people when she arrives at college, but it seems quite clear that it's actually a tic of Wolitzer's that she's unable to suppress.

Furthermore, I just wasn't very into the story of Greer and her boyfriend, Cory. And as much as Wolitzer works to show you that famed feminist Faith Frank takes an inexplicable liking to Greer after speaking at Greer's college precisely because Greer's awkwardness has a sort of introspective honesty and curiosity at its core, it still feels contrived--which is not something I would say about The Interestings.

A few months later, I decided to try again, but on audio this time--figuring that listening might help me get by some of the things I was struggling with. I was right at first. I breezed through the first half of the book and the parts that center on Greer and Cory. But then the focus shifted again and Greer's friend Zee picked up the narrative. It felt overwhelmingly like the book was attempting to start over again, which set me to despairing. When the focus shifted to Cory, his story had been so tied to Greer's that you were able to pick it up without going backward. But with Zee, Wolitzer has to go back to tell you all about her life since Zee has mostly been tangential to the plot up to this point. And so I lost all momentum and interest. Again.

I checked in with a friend and she informed me that this basically happens two more times in the book as we get sections centered on Faith Frank and a venture capitalist. The Interestings also follows multiple characters, but since they all start from the same point the narrative progresses linearly--without stopping and starting again.

Thinking about why I was so frustrated with the story, it occurred to me that Greer is basically a cheap imitation of Jules from The Interestings. Both start out insecure, directionless girls with complicated families and progress from there. It then further occurred to me that The Female Persuasion is essentially the same book as The Interestings except less, well, interesting. I was struggling so hard because I felt like I had already read it. Surely, a lot of authors tend to cover similar ground in their novels (Jonathan Franzen and Tom Perrotta come to mind), but usually there's enough of a twist to make it feel fresh. When there isn't, you end up with the absolutely dreadful Mrs. Fletcher.

Part of me wants to finish The Female Persuasion to see where it goes, but I think this is mostly out of a sense of obligation. In truth, I'm just not interested in discovering if the third time is the charm.

You can find more of my reviews on SupposedlyFun.com

As other reviewers have said, it's well written, but that's about it. The main character is not relatable to most audiences; she's a white, privileged American girl suffering from white girl problems. If you want to read something without substance, this book is it; don't expect to come up with any deep thoughts from it.

When famous feminist Faith Frank gives a speech at Greer Kadetsky’s small-town college, quiet student Greer plucks up the courage to speak to her afterwards and – despite her shyness – makes an impression. Years later, she will come to work for the woman she so admires.

Meg Wolitzer is a fine writer and turns many a phrase to delight the reader:

“Faith’s cheeks were so bright they looked freshly slapped.”

The college students who go around together and “travelled in one group, like children inside a camel costume.”

“People’s marriages were like two-person religious cults, impossible to understand.”

A soft, floppy sandwich with “a stiff Elizabethan ruffle of kale”.

But what initially promises to be a bracing novel about the feminist struggle soon disperses into a vapid read featuring the usual American post-college suspects: coming of age, friendships, first love, career choices, disappointment and betrayal. And as it becomes clear that Ms Wolitzer does not intend to develop her central feminist theme, the second half drags and becomes increasingly ragged. A failure of nerve perhaps? Only in the conflict between Greer’s personal and her professional morality does the author bring a bit of bite to her narrative and say something of greater depth. Towards the end, as the story moves to present time, the Trump era is seemingly referred to in disparaging terms – but even here, Ms Wolitzer pulls her punches. She doesn’t name him.

With the incredible amount of hype surrounding Meg Wolitzer’s new book, The Female Persuasion, I was tempted to grab it…then remembered how I felt about the last book of hers that I read. That was the widely praised The Interestings, but in my opinion, they weren’t. But, FOMO took over and after reading things like "Equal parts cotton candy and red meat, in the best way." (People), I was happy to receive a copy of The Female Persuasion from Penguin Group Riverhead and NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

The story is the coming of age and move into adulthood of Greer Kadetsky, who had spent her last years in high school in love with Cory, who was the other top student in their class. They had planned to go to college together, hopefully Yale. But Greer is devastated after being accepted to find out that her spaced-out aging hippie parents hadn’t gotten it together enough to fill out the financial forms, so she has to settle for Ryland College. At this point, I had the requisite anger at her parents, but also thought “good grief, Greer, how passive ARE you to just assume that something so important will be done for you?” (especially with THOSE parents).

Greer is a bookish teenager (“books were an antidepressant, a powerful SSRI”) who is smart, funny, and ambitious, but definitely NOT “…one of …those girls who were descried…as being “spitfires,” of, later on, “kickass.” Even now at college, there were girls like this, fuck-you confident and assured of their place in the world.” At Ryland, she experiences a MeToo moment that affects her to the point that, despite her introversion, she speaks when she attends a presentation by Faith Frank, an aging feminist icon (think a less-famous Gloria Steinem), who is impressed with Greer enough to give her a card and suggest they stay in touch.

After lots of drama between Greer and Cory, he goes off to the Philippines in some vague financial management position, and Greer ends up working for Faith Frank’s Foundation. She loves him but has a vague longing that leads her away from the future with Cory that she had always imagined.

One of Wolitzer’s recurring themes is finding yourself as you move into adulthood. Also included are questions of power and influence, ego and ambition, and loyalty between and among women (seriously, Greer’s relationship with Zee was nearly enough to make me despise Greer, even while relating completely to the dilemma she faces).

The story about how Faith came to be the powerful woman she has been for decades is interesting. As a younger woman, Faith had less than stellar experiences with men. She “…has energy so low that she thought: ‘This is sex? This?’ As she lay beneath him like someone pinned by an overturned car.” Her view on relationships between women and men are revealed by her thoughts that “all you ever had to do, to make a bad moment flee, was acquiesce” and her words to her devoted staff as she sets up her Foundation: “Men give women the power that they themselves don’t want.”

Personally, I wasn’t wild about the ending, but am clueless as to what might have been better. For sure I don’t agree with some reviews I’ve read, either rapturous, patronizing, or just weird (personally, I didn’t find the cover design “pudendal”!!) I didn’t think I liked this book that much, although it was an entertaining story, but I did find myself thinking about fairly frequently after I was finished, which made me realize it was better than my initial three-star reaction. Four stars.

The Female Persuasion was billed as a feminist novel, and in some ways it is, but we all agreed it's not REALLY about feminism. The main character, Greer, works for a feminist foundation, but you could have changed what the foundation's purpose was, or made her work for a corporation, and the essence of the book would have been exactly the same. It was only tangentially about feminism. It was about women supporting each other, though, and the mentor relationship between an older woman and a younger woman, so in some ways, yes. If I was asked to make a list of books about feminism, though, it certainly wouldn't make the cut.

All of the characters have some major flaws. Greer is selfish, and doesn't understand when things don't go according to plan. Cory's life gets entirely derailed by a tragedy he couldn't prevent, but in some ways he lets the derailment happen. If he'd really wanted what he said he wanted (and perhaps he didn't) he could have fixed his trajectory. Zee is a little brash and headstrong, but the most likable character in the book. Faith - oh, Faith. Faith is the older feminist mentor who turns out to be far more jaded than expected.

I have lots of conflicts about Faith. She is one of those feminists who doesn't seem to care for individual women - she can't even remember most of the women who credit her with changing their lives - but she keeps her eyes on the big picture. And as I brought up in book club, the movement does need people who see the big picture. Those people are important - but they still need certain principles that I think Faith lacks.

IR mentioned that Cory was a good foil to all the female characters in the book, and he needed his flaws, because otherwise he would be the perfect feminist boyfriend. And no one is perfect.

We were all a little disappointed with the ending; it felt like Wolitzer skipped a whole section of the story. How did Greer get from point A to point B? (Well, really, it's more like the book covers Points A, B, C, and E. And skips D.)

I think one of my favorite quotes from the book (I misattributed it to Faith at the book club, it turns out it came from Greer) was the one about being given permission:

"I think that's what the people who change our lives always do. They give us permission to be the person we secretly really long to be but maybe don't feel we're allowed to be. Many of you here in this room.....had someone like that, didn't you? Someone who gave you permission. Someone who saw you and heard you. Heard your voice."

I think that really sums up mentorship, in some ways. Women are often still socialized to not trust their own instincts, to lean on outside opinions for validation. (I know I was.) To be given permission and encouragement to trust yourself can be a life-changing event.

I really enjoyed this book. I saw bits of myself in all four characters - Faith's practicality, Greer's impressionability, Zee's idealism, and even a little of Cory's foggy despair and lack of ambition. I wouldn't call it a feminist classic. But it was a good book.

The Female Persuasion from Meg Wolitzer is, for me, a work of many contradictions or contrasts. Not all of these are strictly textual, many involve my interactions with the work. All in all I did enjoy the novel, though I am not sure if it is because of or in spite of it being problematic in many ways.

First, the whole white middle class feminism and the first world problem aspects. These are certainly justifiable comments about the work but, I believe, it does not mean the novel is any more or less good based on those very simplistic observations. Rather I think it speaks to both Wolitzer's known world (and writers generally write about what they know so to say she shouldn't write this would be to say she shouldn't write about her experience with feminism, and I am not interested in silencing any writer) and, yes, the world of these particular feminists. More importantly for the novel itself is the story of people, humans experiencing life as they know it. I understand a reader deciding not to read about them, even if it is only because of their privilege within society and feminism. But to do so also for that reason alone is to ignore the common humanity of these characters with every one of us. These are human conflicts and issues as well as being a part of a larger sociological discourse, and to ignore either because of the other seems every bit as exclusionary as the complaints leveled against many such feminists.

Having gotten that out of the way, I was swayed positively by the writing itself. No doubt it is not to everyone's liking, but anyone who makes hyperbolic statements about her "inability" to write or express herself is using absurd hyperbole to vent some other internal issue. I wish people would approach reality when they write these reviews. Wolitzer knows how to write and does so quite well. Not to everyone's taste but then no writer ever has, so that is very good company.

I was less convinced about some of the interactions. I think what I found difficult was that I understood what a lot of the feelings and motivations were but I just wasn't convinced that the chosen actions and words are what the characters would have done. That disconnect kept me from being more enthusiastic about the book.

Yet I also found many scenes to be so wonderful, mostly in the way they portrayed aspects of relationships, personal and working. I could see these scenes, even some of the ones I questioned in the previous paragraph, quite vividly. Some paralleled moments in my own life so touched me a bit more.

I would recommend this to anyone interested in a moderately-paced story about relationships between women, between mentor and mentored, and between one's ideal perception of oneself versus what one becomes (and how we deal with any discrepancy). If you can accept that this is not about a world Wolitzer wouldn't know, and also that there is not much in the way of regret about how things were done, there is a great deal to like here. If you expect a novel to teach you something new about any feminisms of the past or present then you probably won't be satisfied. I can offer a substantial reading list from past courses but even that would have holes and gaps, so maybe take whatever we can from every single source, positively move on from what doesn't help us (without counterproductive hyperbolic criticism for not being what it could never have been), and always look to do what we believe to be right.

Reviewed from a copy made available through Goodreads' First Reads.

With the incredible amount of hype surrounding Meg Wolitzer’s new book, The Female Persuasion, I was tempted to grab it…then remembered how I felt about the last book of hers that I read. That was the widely praised The Interestings, but in my opinion, they weren’t. But, FOMO took over and after reading things like "Equal parts cotton candy and red meat, in the best way." (People), I was happy to receive a copy of The Female Persuasion from Penguin Group Riverhead and NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

The story is the coming of age and move into adulthood of Greer Kadetsky, who had spent her last years in high school in love with Cory, who was the other top student in their class. They had planned to go to college together, hopefully Yale. But Greer is devastated after being accepted to find out that her spaced-out aging hippie parents hadn’t gotten it together enough to fill out the financial forms, so she has to settle for Ryland College. At this point, I had the requisite anger at her parents, but also thought “good grief, Greer, how passive ARE you to just assume that something so important will be done for you?” (especially with THOSE parents).

Greer is a bookish teenager (“books were an antidepressant, a powerful SSRI”) who is smart, funny, and ambitious, but definitely NOT “…one of …those girls who were descried…as being “spitfires,” of, later on, “kickass.” Even now at college, there were girls like this, fuck-you confident and assured of their place in the world.” At Ryland, she experiences a MeToo moment that affects her to the point that, despite her introversion, she speaks when she attends a presentation by Faith Frank, an aging feminist icon (think a less-famous Gloria Steinem), who is impressed with Greer enough to give her a card and suggest they stay in touch.

After lots of drama between Greer and Cory, he goes off to the Philippines in some vague financial management position, and Greer ends up working for Faith Frank’s Foundation. She loves him but has a vague longing that leads her away from the future with Cory that she had always imagined.

One of Wolitzer’s recurring themes is finding yourself as you move into adulthood. Also included are questions of power and influence, ego and ambition, and loyalty between and among women (seriously, Greer’s relationship with Zee was nearly enough to make me despise Greer, even while relating completely to the dilemma she faces).

The story about how Faith came to be the powerful woman she has been for decades is interesting. As a younger woman, Faith had less than stellar experiences with men. She “…has energy so low that she thought: ‘This is sex? This?’ As she lay beneath him like someone pinned by an overturned car.” Her view on relationships between women and men are revealed by her thoughts that “all you ever had to do, to make a bad moment flee, was acquiesce” and her words to her devoted staff as she sets up her Foundation: “Men give women the power that they themselves don’t want.”

Personally, I wasn’t wild about the ending, but am clueless as to what might have been better. For sure I don’t agree with some reviews I’ve read, either rapturous, patronizing, or just weird (personally, I didn’t find the cover design “pudendal”!!) I didn’t think I liked this book that much, although it was an entertaining story, but I did find myself thinking about fairly frequently after I was finished, which made me realize it was better than my initial three-star reaction. Four stars.

The Female Persuasion was billed as a feminist novel, and in some ways it is, but we all agreed it's not REALLY about feminism. The main character, Greer, works for a feminist foundation, but you could have changed what the foundation's purpose was, or made her work for a corporation, and the essence of the book would have been exactly the same. It was only tangentially about feminism. It was about women supporting each other, though, and the mentor relationship between an older woman and a younger woman, so in some ways, yes. If I was asked to make a list of books about feminism, though, it certainly wouldn't make the cut.

All of the characters have some major flaws. Greer is selfish, and doesn't understand when things don't go according to plan. Cory's life gets entirely derailed by a tragedy he couldn't prevent, but in some ways he lets the derailment happen. If he'd really wanted what he said he wanted (and perhaps he didn't) he could have fixed his trajectory. Zee is a little brash and headstrong, but the most likable character in the book. Faith - oh, Faith. Faith is the older feminist mentor who turns out to be far more jaded than expected.

I have lots of conflicts about Faith. She is one of those feminists who doesn't seem to care for individual women - she can't even remember most of the women who credit her with changing their lives - but she keeps her eyes on the big picture. And as I brought up in book club, the movement does need people who see the big picture. Those people are important - but they still need certain principles that I think Faith lacks.

IR mentioned that Cory was a good foil to all the female characters in the book, and he needed his flaws, because otherwise he would be the perfect feminist boyfriend. And no one is perfect.

We were all a little disappointed with the ending; it felt like Wolitzer skipped a whole section of the story. How did Greer get from point A to point B? (Well, really, it's more like the book covers Points A, B, C, and E. And skips D.)

I think one of my favorite quotes from the book (I misattributed it to Faith at the book club, it turns out it came from Greer) was the one about being given permission:

"I think that's what the people who change our lives always do. They give us permission to be the person we secretly really long to be but maybe don't feel we're allowed to be. Many of you here in this room.....had someone like that, didn't you? Someone who gave you permission. Someone who saw you and heard you. Heard your voice."

I think that really sums up mentorship, in some ways. Women are often still socialized to not trust their own instincts, to lean on outside opinions for validation. (I know I was.) To be given permission and encouragement to trust yourself can be a life-changing event.

I really enjoyed this book. I saw bits of myself in all four characters - Faith's practicality, Greer's impressionability, Zee's idealism, and even a little of Cory's foggy despair and lack of ambition. I wouldn't call it a feminist classic. But it was a good book.

The Female Persuasion from Meg Wolitzer is, for me, a work of many contradictions or contrasts. Not all of these are strictly textual, many involve my interactions with the work. All in all I did enjoy the novel, though I am not sure if it is because of or in spite of it being problematic in many ways.

First, the whole white middle class feminism and the first world problem aspects. These are certainly justifiable comments about the work but, I believe, it does not mean the novel is any more or less good based on those very simplistic observations. Rather I think it speaks to both Wolitzer's known world (and writers generally write about what they know so to say she shouldn't write this would be to say she shouldn't write about her experience with feminism, and I am not interested in silencing any writer) and, yes, the world of these particular feminists. More importantly for the novel itself is the story of people, humans experiencing life as they know it. I understand a reader deciding not to read about them, even if it is only because of their privilege within society and feminism. But to do so also for that reason alone is to ignore the common humanity of these characters with every one of us. These are human conflicts and issues as well as being a part of a larger sociological discourse, and to ignore either because of the other seems every bit as exclusionary as the complaints leveled against many such feminists.

Having gotten that out of the way, I was swayed positively by the writing itself. No doubt it is not to everyone's liking, but anyone who makes hyperbolic statements about her "inability" to write or express herself is using absurd hyperbole to vent some other internal issue. I wish people would approach reality when they write these reviews. Wolitzer knows how to write and does so quite well. Not to everyone's taste but then no writer ever has, so that is very good company.

I was less convinced about some of the interactions. I think what I found difficult was that I understood what a lot of the feelings and motivations were but I just wasn't convinced that the chosen actions and words are what the characters would have done. That disconnect kept me from being more enthusiastic about the book.

Yet I also found many scenes to be so wonderful, mostly in the way they portrayed aspects of relationships, personal and working. I could see these scenes, even some of the ones I questioned in the previous paragraph, quite vividly. Some paralleled moments in my own life so touched me a bit more.

I would recommend this to anyone interested in a moderately-paced story about relationships between women, between mentor and mentored, and between one's ideal perception of oneself versus what one becomes (and how we deal with any discrepancy). If you can accept that this is not about a world Wolitzer wouldn't know, and also that there is not much in the way of regret about how things were done, there is a great deal to like here. If you expect a novel to teach you something new about any feminisms of the past or present then you probably won't be satisfied. I can offer a substantial reading list from past courses but even that would have holes and gaps, so maybe take whatever we can from every single source, positively move on from what doesn't help us (without counterproductive hyperbolic criticism for not being what it could never have been), and always look to do what we believe to be right.

Reviewed from a copy made available through Goodreads' First Reads.

Meg Wolitzer’s The Female Persuasion is touted as a brilliant feminist novel for this current political climate. While the story is dedicated to exploring the nuances of being a woman and the oft-times thorny dynamics of female friendship and mentorship, the plot is more of a millennial coming of age story than a triumph of feminine empowerment.

This could have been a heavy-handed book rife with a lecturing tone and militant cause, but the strength of the story lies in its characters. This is a human tale, and Wolitzer treats her characters tenderly and humanely in their authenticity, their roundedness, and their fallibility. Some are more sympathetic than others, but each character is very real. The author’s writing style is humorous, pointed, witty, and lyrical, and her keen insights and observations are a highlight of the read.

That said, the pacing is uneven, engaging in places, slow to the point of boring in others. There is a rhythm to the telling, though, and every reader who has been through the slow slog to maturity can recognize the cyclical patterns of life in the book. Women have been the most persecuted and oppressed people group throughout history, but where this story becomes messy is in its attempt to wedge every current issue into a tale that still gives the reader no new insight or perspective into this female struggle. And like the current feminist movement itself, the story is exclusive to those of only a certain cut and viewpoint. Perhaps the irony was unintended that the angle of privilege denounced in the book is exactly what is portrayed throughout the story.

The Female Persuasion is a tale of maturation and growing into one’s worldviews, causes, and passions. The writing style and the characters were the story’s strengths, but in the end, Wolitzer’s latest offering was far less powerful and resonating than it could have been.

As with her very good previous novel, The Interestings: A Novel, Meg Wolitzer builds her new novel around people, four of them, moving through life and a few themes, among them inspiration, mentorship, betrayal, disillusionment, and reconciliation.

Of the four characters—Greer, Faith, Zee, and Cory, Greer proves the most interesting and relatable. The most compelling relation is that of Greer, the maturing young woman, with Faith, the established and much admired feminist leader. Here, Wolitzer addresses the power an inspiring leader can exert over a young, quiet woman (or man) without much self-direction, a soul flailing about. Also, in this relationship, Wolitzer shows how one woman can mentor another and help her grow and make a difference in the world. Perhaps more important, is showing how a leader leads by example. The path here, however, isn’t straight and without challenges, as someone like Greer can find herself the thrall of her guide, willing to compromise herself in small ways, until at some point she finds something big that feels like betrayal, and that reminds her in vivid terms of her own betrayal of close friends.

Faith, whom Greer meets at a speaking engagement sponsored by her college, strikes you from the beginning as an inspirational leader. Though you know nobody can go as far in life as Faith has looking beautiful and well turned out without some compromises, still, like Greer, you feel the strength of the fealty she receives from those in her sphere. As Greer learns very dramatically and bitterly, confronting the admired’s flaws can be shattering and change the course of your life.

Disillusionment, though, can strike in other ways. Zee, for example, has accomplished parents, two judges, who expect a certain conventionality from her. In the Greer-Zee college friendship, Zee is the radical firebrand. She’s the one who wants to be the radical feminist, to make the most impact and difference. She’s the one who insists on Greer attending Faith’s college appearance, who encourages Greer to ask her question, who hopes later to work with Faith through Greer’s intercession. Though it doesn’t work out, Zee gets her chance to make a difference, but not in the way she expected.

For Cory, a wunderkind, not to mention tall and good looking, life goes along very well, until tragedy overwhelms him. He and Greer become a couple their senior year in high school. Both extremely bright and hardworking, they apply to the Ivies, and, as hoped, Yale accepts both of them. However, through a misunderstanding related to her parents, she can’t attend Yale, and has to settle for a small second-tier school. That frees Cory to accept a free ride to Princeton, develop a new business idea with friends, and go into the consulting world, as do his friend, to earn funds to transform the idea into reality. The tragedy prevents this from happening and throws Cory into a tailspin for years. Readers may have mixed feelings about Cory related to his choices and to him as a character late in the novel revolving around strength or weakness of resolve, especially measured against the male stereotype (of which VC magnate Emmett Shrader stands as prime example).

In Wolitzer fashion, the lives of these characters weave in and out of the story, with each receiving chapters devoted to them, chapters in which incidents reappear viewed from each’s vantage point. In the end, things turn out as most expect them to, though with Wolitzer the journey is the whole point. Maybe not as good as The Interestings, but nonetheless a top-notch read for both genders.

Wanted to love it. Found it dull. It addresses many issues and memories in my own life as an active feminist. But sadly, the story was bland, and so political that it fell short of being a good story, which is an absolute imperative for any novel. Again - I'm getting tired of saying this: I'm sick of buying expensive books that get rave reviews only to find that there really isn't much to rave about. I like a book that grabs me, excites me, leads me on, makes me want to sing when I hear certain words and phrases that push me to be a better writer myself. Sadly, couldn't wait for this to end, and in fact the last disc on the CD was damaged, so I don't really know - or even care - what the ending was.

There are two aspects of feminism, says Faith Frank, the elder stateswoman of feminism in Meg Wolitzer's new book. The first concerns individualism, the idea that each woman gets to choose the shape of her own life. The second she calls "sisterhood" and centers around the idea that individual feminism can't take place unless women act together for advancement. Similar disquisitions on feminism occur throughout the book, as the characters give speeches, have conversations, and generally try to figure out what feminism even means these days. After all, as one character says, "I assumed there would always be a little progress and then a little slipping, you know? And then a little more progress. But instead the whole idea of progress was taken away, and who knew that could happen, right?" Although the current political environment is never explicitly discussed, it's clear that by the end of the book the real world and fiction have collided.

This book is much more than a feminist screed, though many gems on the subject can be found within its pages. We are also given several deep and complex characters and their relationships, through which Wolitzer explores themes of self-discovery, betrayal, and idealism.

Greer Kadetsky is a shy college freshman, disappointed by her stoner parents for messing up her financial aid paperwork which caused her to miss the opportunity for an Ivy League education. Instead she ends up at Ryland College where she meets a feminist, Faith Frank who inspires her and challenges her to be all that she can be.

The topic was timely: feminism, sexual identity, workplace harassment and first loves. Although the story held my interest, it never wowed me. Most of the (4) central characters were flawed in some way, which I generally love, but I wish that these chapters, especially Faith Frank had been explored in more depth. The stories of each of these characters sometimes felt a bit disjointed, so to me the pacing felt off.

I'm happy I listened to this one but after reading several rave reviews, I expected to like it more.

Rating 3.5/5

This is the third novel of Ms. Wolitzer's that I've read. It might be the last. My problem with all three of the books is that they seem to go on and on and not get anywhere until the very end, when I've long gotten tired of reading them. What I found in this one was that the characters didn't appeal, their situations were not very compelling, the story lines meandered along and things only came together right at the end. I really think the author needs a good editor to help her pare down (this one could have been 100 pages shorter) and focus her ideas and maybe get a more streamlined and readable book. She spends way too much time on lengthy backstories and descriptions and thought-processes of the characters. It's too much tell and not enough show. While I think she had a good premise, this book didn't deliver for me at all.

"The Female Persuasion" will resonate with women, young and old, who have mentored or been mentored. Meg Wolitzer, who has become one of my favorite novelists in the past decade or so, doesn't just remember what it feels like to be in your late teens/early 20s; she *understands* the highs and lows of those years and the way that small-scale stuff can feel so very high stakes. (Which party should I go to? Who gets to ask a question when a famous person visits our campus?) She manages to put her readers right in the thick of it all as protagonist Greer Kadetsky leaves home and tries to make her way in the world. Will Greer's hero/mentor live up to her expectations? Will Greer live up to her own impossibly high standards? Wolitzer deftly wedges in a lot of other things along the way, including a critique of "rich white lady feminism" and some interesting ideas about grief. Highly recommended.

Having lived through the times and travails of Faith’s life, I thought the descriptions of the attitudes and time were extremely well done. Unfortunately, I believe the failure of our generation was the fact that we mostly didn’t pass the idealism, passion and faith on to the next generation.
In other words, I don’t see many people of Greer’s passion and dedication. For that reason, Greer did not seems believable to me. I wish I saw more Greer’s out there who did embrace some of Faith’s values and who would be delighted to meet Faith and be enchanted by her. Maybe the #Me Too movement will change things. Good luck to all of our heroes of the future, and thank you, Meg Wolitzer for focusing attention on the issues in this book...not only the feminist movement, but the ethical and practical choices (and screw ups) that are made in the”real world.”

Having come of age in the women’s movement (I entered college the same year Betty Friedman’s THE FEMININE MYSTIQUE was published), I was eager to read Meg Wolitzer’s THE FEMALE PERSUASION. Alas, my enthusiasm was dampened by the first part of the book. The main character begins as a cipher and never develops. Her progression from a student with an inside voice to a young woman with an outside voice is unconvincing. However, the depth and sensitivity with which Wolitzer portrays the other characters — from the Gloria Steinem stand-in to the less-than-upstanding rich boy supporter of her feminist foundation — makes the book worth reading. Even Slowy the turtle evokes sympathy. Rather than painting a successful big-picture of an evolving social movement, Wolitzer shines in the small enduring portraits of friendship and family.

I love Meg Wolitzer's books, and this one intrigued me. Female mentoring and female relationships are given a solid workout here, in all their shades of gray. You can really like and respect someone, and then- some aspect of them proves troubling. You let it go for awhile; and then they do something else problematic for you. Finally, you have to distance yourself from the problems that have become larger than the person herself. This is a common issue in life; and the book explores them quite well.

Dreadful book. Most disappointing. Dribbled on for 400 + pages. If it had been half the size and not jumped back and forth in time, it might have been comparable to her incredible book, "The Wife."
Yes, she needed a good editor. "The Female Persuasion" is dull and over-extended.

3.5 Stars (rounded up to 4)-- I found The Female Persuasion to live up to most of the hype given. I was not too worried about the length and most people disliked the last 10%. I did not dislike all of the last 10%, but did not like all of it either.

I am being careful not to spoil too much here. But while I felt the message to start as one thing, I felt it went elsewhere. To me, I do not feel that Greer developed too much. I saw more development in the supporting cast of Cory and Zee. If you asked me to predict Greer's life ten years from now, I would say she becomes the next Faith Frank.

While, the book did not live up to all the hype given, I would still recommend it to others.

I devoured this novel in two days - it is an absorbing, delicious page-turner that made me laugh aloud and, at two different points, actually cry (and I do not cry easily). This is the first book in a long time that held my attention all the way through and it was a huge pleasure to read. The author is an incredible observer of social behaviors and the interior lives of women of all ages (and actually men too - one of the most heartbreaking story lines involves a young man). Hugely recommend!

Very timely book dealing with feminism, sexual assault, taking care of family, dreams crushed, eyes opened. I enjoyed the book. Cory and Zee were the most developed characters. Greer could have been more developed. Faith could have explained things better instead of leaving the rift at the end. There were many story lines but Cory and Zee grow up the most and become adults during the book. The others had some ways to go before becoming fully adult. All lost something on their journeys and what they lost was important. Those losses caused some to grow up while others went into downward spirals before their growing up began. Worth the read.

Wolitzer is a hard-core bourgeois novelist. In her world, work is ALWAYS a tonic, no matter how exploited or back-breaking. Body odor is to be shunned and eradicated. Feminism means freedom for women to do what they want (and wearing sexy boots might be an archetypal expression of that), and not any more radical gender critique.

All that said, it's an entertaining and humane novel. Wolitzer is a powerhouse prose writer -- every sentence is crystal clear, She doesn't penetrate the mysteries or complexities of existence in any deep way, but her work feels true anyway.

I truly adored this novel. On the one hand, I felt that Wolitzer was writing about important themes with much insight and a rich perspective. But more meaningful, to me, was her sheer talent for -- and clear delight in -- telling a good story. Her characters -- Greer, the young college student; Faith, the charismatic feminist; Cory, the genuine and devoted boyfriend -- were so real to me, and I wrestled alongside them with all the difficult and consequential decisions they had to make. Wolitzer is one of those rare novelists who writes both from her heart and her head, which makes this a captivating read.

A friend sent me this book. I disliked it. Sorry. Meg Wolitzer's writing reminds me of some of Doris Lessing's early works. She doesn't know where and how to end a sentence, but she sure goes on and on.

Synopsis
The Female Persuasion tells the story of Greer Kadetsky whose life turned out nothing like she expected. She was supposed to go to Yale and yet finds herself at the local college, Ryland, where a chance encounter with Faith Frank—feminist icon—changes the trajectory of her life. It is this meeting and subsequent relationship that provides Greer the scaffolding of the life she builds for the next decade, informing who she is as a person, providing her the job that starts perfectly yet leads her to a moral crossroads. Interspersed with Greer’s chapters are stories from her friend Zee, Faith Frank, and boyfriend Cory. In these we see Zee build her own life, independent of both her parents and Greer; how Faith became The Faith Frank; and what it means to love your family and do “women’s work” through Cory. Even without a Trumpian figure, The Female Persuasion explores, with a casual wit, how it feels to live with and navigate through current gender politics.

Conflicted
I listened to the audiobook of The Female Persuasion with conflicted feelings—I found the characters interesting, the dialogue between characters snappy, and the writing fresh. Told from several points of view, The Female Persuasion gave me points I could connect in most of the characters. I could also understand why the major characters were making the choices they were making—which isn’t to say they made only good choices. Rather, Wolitzer’s characters stayed true to their development such that they made choices consistent with who they were as people. At the same time, I felt this niggling discomfort each time I turned the audio back on in that the book, while engaging, fresh, and snappy, also had a glaring hole in it. The Female Persuasion might more accurately be titled The White Female Persuasion. While this review will be centered around the almost exclusively white lens here, I want to be clear that this is still a book I enjoyed and one I’d read again. I don’t regret the time I spent on this book and the writing style and voice pushed Wolitzer’s prior book, The Interestings, up my TBR list. Because I think it is important to recognize the limitations of works we enjoy, this review will be more negative than usual, particularly for a book that I gave 4 stars. Essentially—this review focuses on what cost The Female Persuasion that last star.

I should also note that there are many people who knew me as recently as five years ago who will find this critique out of place coming from me. To be transparent in where I’m coming from—I’m a relatively recent arrival at the Feminist camp as a refugee from complementarian evangelicalism. I am not well-versed in the scholarship. I’m aware that the concept of intersectionality within feminism was introduced by bell hooks, though I’ve not (yet) read her works. There are things I may get wrong in this review or, more likely, my critique here will be necessarily somewhat surface level—both because I do not have the foundation to make this a true critical analysis and because you’re here to read a book blog, not a ten page seminar paper. I welcome any critique you have—any point you think I’ve missed—as well as any books you think I should read. The only comment that isn’t welcome today is a defense of White Feminism.

Limitations
So why do I feel like the The Female Persuasion is a story limited to a White Feminist perspective? There are, in fact, a few characters of color, though with one exception, they are typically limited to peripheral characters—at Loci for example, Wolitizer mentions at least one woman as being of color but that description is where the representation ends. These women do not engage in any dialogue in the scenes in which they appear that raises any points related to how women of color have experienced injustices differently, how their layers of race and possibly class have made their experiences of sexism different. The only character who could be considered a person of color whose viewpoint is directly presented is Cory—Greer’s boyfriend who is a first-generation American of Portuguese descent. (A quick Google search indicates there’s an ongoing debate about whether people of Spanish and Portuguese descent who are not from Latin America “count” as white or not. I’m not about to wade into this debate. For purposes of this discussion I’ll “count” him as being of color since he is presented as having what is typically considered the immigrant experience—his parents don’t always speak great English and work traditionally menial jobs, like housekeeper. He also changes his name from “Duarte” to “Cory” to sound less ethnic.) Zee is Jewish, though how this might have impacted her experiences with sexism doesn’t really come up.

As I recall, the only place where a person of color comes close to engaging in any kind of discussion about intersectionality is Zee’s African-American coworker, Noelle. When they first meet, Zee is in a Teach-for-America-esque program in Chicago. Noelle is, understandably, skeptical of Zee’s qualifications as well as her commitment. This one section from Zee’s perspective in conversations between these two women is where race becomes a topic. And yet, it is a topic removed from the larger feminist discussion. Zee fits into the larger narrative as a character study of feminism—she is an example of the plethora of Gen-Y woman learning to stand on her own in this “Man’s World.” Her experiences of moving across the country to start something new felt familiar to me, the way it will to many women my age. And yet, the way race is slotted into Zee’s story, it’s done in a way that manages to separate the discussion from Zee’s experiences as a feminist. The introduction of Noelle would have allowed Wolitzer to have even just one character voice what it is like to live as both female and black and yet this never really happened. Zee is the most minor of the major characters and Noelle a missed opportunity within Zee’s development.

As I noted when I started, I enjoyed this book. I could see myself in Greer and Zee (though Faith seemed a watered down feminist icon to me). While the writing wasn’t particularly fancy or “literary,” it was snappy in the way my friends and I are when we get going. And yet, there is this glaring hole. For me, as a white cis-woman, I am not directly harmed by the omission of women of color, except to the extent that only seeing people like me means I’ll never be exposed to stories unlike my own. There isn’t anything that I noticed that was stereotypical or trope-y, women of color just aren’t really there.

Doing Better
And yet, like the catchphrase “silence is violence,” absence is a problem here. It is far too easy as a white female reader to never read a story featuring a woman of color. I can pat myself on the back for being a feminist and enjoying this feminist book and never realize that I’m only imbibing stories of White Feminism. It is easy to purposefully or even inadvertently avoid being exposed to the ways that race and class intersect with gender to make harder for women at these intersections. To an extent then, it is incumbent on writers and artists who produce art that appeals to women, like The Female Persuasion, to intentionally produce diverse works and for publishers to publish and market them. While it was far from a perfect book, Jodi Picoult’s Small Great Things strikes me as a good example here—many of the people who read mass-produced contemporary fiction like Jodi Picoult probably aren’t reading a lot of hard-hitting stories that discuss the ugliness of white supremacy and what it is like to be black today. And yet, Picoult knew she had a platform and Small Great Things was the result.

At the end of the day, I truly enjoyed The Female Persuasion and think it deserves much (if not all) of the hype it is getting. I look forward to seeing what Wolitzer does in the future and hope that in future books, she features more diverse stories and characters.

Notes
Published: April 3, 2018 by Riverhead Books (@riverheadbooks)
Author: Meg Wolitzer (@megwolitzer)
Date read: April 26, 2018
Rating: 4 stars

The writing is excellent and the story is good .....for a while. The characters are well drawn and for 3/4s of the book I read with interest. Then it slows down. This is the story of 2 young people in love, they are described as rockets. They are smart, ambitious, have a life plan and are devoted to each other. But eventually their life goes off track. That is when the book slows down. It was sad to see them mess up, They were winners and I was pulling for them.

My favorite book of 2018 so far. I’ve read Meg Wolitzer and she can be kind of wordy, and so I hesitated on this book. I’m so glad I didn’t. I was hooked from the first chapter and didn’t want it to end. I got heavily invested in the characters’ lives from the first time chapter and the first time Greer met Faith Frank, who became a mentor to her later in life. A wonderful book about the people that influence us, relationships, careers, friendships, family. I will miss it.

This book was fantastic in so many ways and is really important and salient at this time in history. The reason for 4 stars and not 5 is that the author "tells us and doesn't show us" the story and the ending was sort of disappointing The story just sort of fizzled out and felt forced like the author was running out of pages to resolve it better and it felt contrived. But I really enjoyed the first 400 pages of the book.

I was really looking forward to this. I have enjoyed other Meg Wolitzer books but this one was flat out dull and superficial. I never really got into any of the characters and nothing about the plot really clicked.

A satisfying novel of a young woman trying to figure out who she is, and who she is supposed to be in the world.
SUMMARY
Greer Kadetsky is a shy college freshman at Ryland College. She’s there because her parents could not fill out the financial aid forms that would have yielded her entry into Yale. This isn’t where she wanted to be. While at Ryland, she meets Faith Frank for the first time. Faith, 63, is a feminist icon and has been a central player in the women’s movement for decades. Faith can carry a room with her knowledge and wit, and her suede boots were enviable. Greer is captivated by Faith, and after graduation goes to work for her, interviewing women for their stories and writing speeches. Her relationship with Faith as her mentor becomes complicated.

Greer and Cory had been a couple since high school.They had planned on going to college together, but that didn’t happen. Cory was accepted at Yale, while Greer was relegated to Ryland college. Though hundreds of miles apart their relationship survived, and they made plans for after graduation. But once again things didn’t work out as planned for either Greer or Cory. Greer’s best friend, Zee who’s is gay, is also struggling to make a difference in the world. She too wanted to work for Faith Frank.

“I think there are two kinds of feminist. The famous ones, and everyone else. Everyone else, all the people who just quietly go and do what they’re supposed to do, and don’t get a lot of credit for it, and don’t have someone out there every day telling them they’re doing an awesome job.”

REVIEW
THE FEMALE PERSUASION is a novel about a young woman who is trying to find her place in the world. It about a woman trying to figure out who she is supposed to be and who she is suppose to be with. It’s about the obstacles in her life that prevented her from achieving the things she thought she was supposed to be doing. While the writing was great I found reading it to be a struggle at times, and my interest sometimes faltered. The story was long but interestingly raised a variety of social issues that played significant role in the narrative: privilege, personal/professional ethics, and family responsibility to name just a few. The modern day feminism aspect of the book left a little to be desired.

The people in Greer’s life, her best-friend, Zee, her boyfriend, Cory and her mentor, Faith, all played pivotal roles in guiding Greer’s decisions and impacting her life. Greer’s character was at times frustrating, she left me waiting for her to evolve into a stronger, bolder character. All characters were well developed and I particularly liked Cory, and how he handled the difficulties he faced after graduation.

Meg Wolitzer is a New York Times best selling author of The Interestings, The Uncoupling, The Ten-Year Nap, The Position, The Wife and Sleepwalking. I listened to the audio version of the book, which was narrated by Rebecca Lowman. Publisher Penguin Random House Audio. Publication Date April 3, 2018.

“I do it for women. Not everyone agrees with the way I do it. Women in powerful positions are never safe from criticism. The kind of feminism I’ve practice is one way to go about it. There are plenty of others, and that’s great. There are impassioned and radical young women out there, telling multiple stories. I applaud them. We need them. We need as many women fighting as possible. I learned that early on from the wonderful Gloria Steinem - the world is big enough for different kinds of feminist to coexist, people who want to emphasize different aspects of the fight for equality. God knows the injustices are endless, and I am going to use whatever resources are at my disposal to fight in the way I know how.”

I enjoyed reading this book, it was refreshing to read something that felt topical and contemporary without being dark and depressing. I consider myself a feminist and so am very familiar with the themes and ideas addressed. Still, it didn't really give me anything new or blow me away hence 3 stars.

This book showed so much promise, but then the characters and their lives never seemed to flesh out. There’s too much one-dimension about character and story, and when either became two-dimensional, it was too convenient. I finished the book over 2 days, but mostly because I wanted to get through it and get to the next book in my stack. Distinctly eh.

If you loved The Interestings, you'll...like this. It's fine. Couldn't really figure out what Greer saw in her mentor, Faith Frank, and the time jumps made it difficult to root for the characters or invest in their relationships. I wasn't disappointed I read it, but it's forgettable. Read The Interestings instead.

Pleasant, readable, honestly just a little dull. Every character is a good person in one sense or other. The worst you could say about any of them is that one central character is a little too rigid. It's not thrilling stuff, but I did keep going and did want to find out what would happen.

This book was so boring that I started not to read it after the first few chapters but I continued. It got better at times but definitely not a thriller. Her book "The Widow" was outstanding. But I would never read this book again

Very readable. I could not put it down. I liked the 4 different stories interwoven into one. More importantly, I love Cory and the way that he takes care of his mother without complaint and above all else in his life. I can relate.

This book was so disappointing. It was very slow with little actually going on in the characters lives. It ended up the lives of women didn't really change. A lot of talk about being powerful, but no real results. Perhaps that was the point. A lot of reflection and very little action, dialogue, or plot. I slogged through because I picked on my friend who said she might not finish it, it was so bad. She told me I had to read it because I made her or I would have just put it down.

I was ready for a "page turner" as some reviews touted. Sadly, it did not grab me that way. It is a big, ponderous book with a good theme. Just what did happen to the fates of college students at the turn of the 21st century up to the present? How did they prosper or not? Set in the East coast, we meet the characters whose lives change dramatically or not change at all. There is probably too much to have to keep track of in the novel and in it's complexity. However I could not help liking the main characters, especially Slowy, who said it all.

Good read Historical Novel about Modern Feminism from the 1970’s forward. Brought up a lot of good points and a lot of good questions about the future of the women’s movement. Good Character Development.

Sorry, but, I did not find this book to be as exciting as others. Throughout, I kept asking where is it going or what is the point. Maybe, having been born in the 40’s I knew what women went through and what we still endure.

I loved this book. A little long winded at times about things I didn't really care about, but offering a lens through which I could see my life. What have I accomplished as a women? Is there a need for me to occupy the place of a dynamic individual who inspires? Is it ok if I don't? In ways giving me permission to be less or more.

I'm a millennial (born in 1990, so about the same age as Greer, Cory, etc) and I LOVED this book. I also loved The Interestings, so getting to read a similar coming-of-age story about characters of my own generation was a treat. Also, her cultural references are spot on (the "nailed it", the video gaming, the skype-ing...). Possibly the only book I've read that truly captures millennial culture.

I have a question, and the only way to ask it is to rank the book. Hence, five stars for a novel I haven't read written by an author I greatly admire. Is the intended audience for "The Female Persuasion" young adults or an older population?

What a wise and wonderful novel. I'd read so many reviews saying how important The Female Persuasion is for what's happening in the world right now. But I say it's an important book for all times. Brava, Meg Wolitzer.

I waited about three months for my library to have this book available. I have read all of Meg Wolitzer ( and her mother's stuff too) and found the characters flat. Feminists of the 60s selling out in the new millenium is not what I call an enjoyable story

I first encountered Meg Wolitzer's work at 15, when I read Sleepwalking. I was stunned to see myself in print! That book would become a touchstone, read and re-read (and still read) over the years.

I feel the same way about The Female Persuasion.

I'm absolutely amazed this book made the New York Times bestseller list. I'm thankful I wasn't a buyer but read it for free from my local library. I only read to 30% and chucked it. It's some of the most boring drivel I've ever seen in print. I've read restaurant menus that were more interesting.

I wanted to like this book, I’d come across a good review and eagerly awaited my turn at the library, but the writing was “like the hairs sticking out of an old man’s nose” - not a pretty sight. I listened to the audio version and I can’t say the narrator added anything. This is a semi serious lesbian romance novel, full of girl crushes, and without focus. Ugh.