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.