Review by Booklist Review
Margaret Ryan has the perfect early1960s life--she has a brand-new house in a planned suburb in Virginia, three children, and a husband who works hard to provide for the family. And yet, she has a nagging sense that there is more to life. Her best friend, Viv, is a mother of six and, while she loves being a mother, she sometimes misses the excitement and fulfillment she had as a nurse during WWII. Bitsy is a young newlywed, married to an older man. Marge, after meeting an unconventional new neighbor, Charlotte, decides to start a book club. Charlotte only agrees to join if she can pick the book, the newly published (and controversial) Feminine Mystique, by Betty Friedan. Their first meeting shows each of these women that their longing for more is not unique to them, and the Bettys are born. Over the course of one year, these four women bond, grow, and forge lifelong friendships. Bostwick (Esme Cahill Fails Spectacularly, 2023) has written another charming, winning novel, perfect for those who love book clubs, nostalgia for the 1960s, and stories of female friendship.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Library Journal Review
Bostwick's (Esme Cahill Fails Spectacularly) latest explores the lives of four housewives in 1963 suburban Virginia. Margaret, Viv, and Bitsy are living the American dream. However, "having it all" leaves them feeling guilty and wondering if there should be more to their lives than just domesticity. Enter Charlotte, their arty, fashionable, and eccentric new neighbor from New York City. These four women start a book club, with The Feminine Mystique as their first title, a controversial and groundbreaking book that inspires each of them to examine their own lives, illustrating why they each feel pressured, unhappy, and unfulfilled. Through their discussions of other books, they form an unbreakable bond and encourage one another not only to acknowledge their fears and dreams but also to seek change to make their longings a reality. VERDICT Bostwick's latest is ideal for fans of historical fiction and those who enjoyed Bonnie Garmus's Lessons in Chemistry, Kristin Hannah's The Women, or Kate Quinn's The Briar Club, which explore the historical roles of women and the challenges they faced within a society structured to define and limit their roles in and out of the home.--Linsey Milillo
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A lively and unabashedly sentimental novel examines the impact of feminism on four upper-middle-class white women in a suburb of Washington, D.C., in 1963. Transplanted Ohioan Margaret Ryan--married to an accountant, raising three young children, and decidedly at loose ends--decides to recruit a few other housewives to form a book club. She's thinkingA Tree Grows in Brooklyn, but a new friend, artistic Charlotte Gustafson, suggests Betty Friedan's brand-newThe Feminine Mystique. They're joined by young Bitsy Cobb, who aspired to be a veterinarian but married one instead, and Vivian Buschetti, a former Army nurse now pregnant with her seventh child. The Bettys, as they christen themselves, decide to meet monthly to read feminist books, and with their encouragement of each other, their lives begin to change: Margaret starts writing a column for a women's magazine; Viv goes back to work as a nurse; Charlotte and Bitsy face up to problems with demanding and philandering husbands and find new careers of their own. The story takes in real-life figures like theWashington Post's Katharine Graham and touches on many of the tumultuous political events of 1963. Bostwick treats her characters with generosity and a heavy dose of wish-fulfillment, taking satisfying revenge on the wicked and solving longstanding problems with a few well-placed words, even showing empathy for the more well-meaning of the husbands. As historical fiction, the novel is hampered by its rosy optimism, but its take on the many micro- and macroaggressions experienced by women of the era is sound and eye-opening. Although Friedan might raise an eyebrow at the use her book's been put to, readers will cheer for Bostwick's spunky characters. A sugarcoated take on midcentury suburbia. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
