A New York Times Bestseller “A powerful coming-of-age story that looks at ambition, friendship, identity, desire, and power from the much-needed female lens.” —Bustle “Ultra-readable.” —Vogue From the New York Times-bestselling author of The Interestings, comes an electric novel not just about who we want to be with, but who we want to be.To be admired by someone we admire—we all yearn for … to be with, but who we want to be.
To be admired by someone we admire—we all yearn for this: the private, electrifying pleasure of being singled out by someone of esteem. But sometimes it can also mean entry to a new kind of life, a bigger world.
Greer Kadetsky is a shy college freshman when she meets the woman she hopes will change her life. Faith Frank, dazzlingly persuasive and elegant at sixty-three, has been a central pillar of the women’s movement for decades, a figure who inspires others to influence the world. Upon hearing Faith speak for the first time, Greer—madly in love with her boyfriend, Cory, but still full of longing for an ambition that she can’t quite place—feels her inner world light up. And then, astonishingly, Faith invites Greer to make something out of that sense of purpose, leading Greer down the most exciting path of her life as it winds toward and away from her meant-to-be love story with Cory and the future she’d always imagined.
Charming and wise, knowing and witty, Meg Wolitzer delivers a novel about power and influence, ego and loyalty, womanhood and ambition. At its heart, The Female Persuasion is about the flame we all believe is flickering inside of us, waiting to be seen and fanned by the right person at the right time. It’s a story about the people who guide and the people who follow (and how those roles evolve over time), and the desire within all of us to be pulled into the light.
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Enjoyed it, but “The Interestings” was a hard act to follow; this one was good, but the characters weren’t as lovable, nor were their entanglements as interesting to follow over the course of the years passing by in the novel.
I like the author and hope she writes more novels, but if she could loosen up a bit on the morals stuff it would make the books more interesting.
Fantastic! It changed the way I look at life. This is defiantly a book every woman should read!
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.
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