The Stepford Wives

Rating:
Summary: Somewhat thrilling, but a little dull
Review: Stepford Wives started out a little slow, and I was hoping for it to pick up pace, but I didn't all that much. It was thrilling in the sense that you did wonder what was going to happen next, but it wasn't one that you were just dying to know the ending to. It's about a family who moves to Stepford and discovers that all the wives in this town are slaves to their husbands, constantly doing nothing but housework and cooking. The strange thing is that they don't seem to be bothered by it. What's even more odd is that all the husbands in the town meet at the Men's Association and nobody knows why. Joanna Eberhart (the main character) does some research on the president of the association and finds out some horrifying information that just might explain why all the wives are the way that they are. Can she save herself before she becomes one of them? You'll have to read to find out.

Rating:
Summary: A Tale Right Out of the Twilight Zone
Review: Suspenseful, tightly woven, and with just the right amount of foreshadowing/hint-dropping. This book is excellent in its depiction of a patriarchal society willing to go to great lengths to keep its women down. You quickly suspect what is going on, though don't know who or what will prevail until the very end. The dialogue is believable, and I struggled with what I would do if in Joanna's (the protagonist's) situation. Who do you turn to when you discover something unbelievable, and how effective would you be at convincing them?

Rating:
Summary: The future housewives
Review: The book is very particular, it is a suspense story. It is an interesting idea to write about the life of a family, of a wife, who lived in a city and then went to a small village. All is new in Stepford, the work, the school, the surroundings, but above all the wives in the town. The crucial difference is the housework, the women in Stepford do nothing but clean the house, look after the children and cook for their husband.
Sometimes it is a bit difficult to understand the story as there are unknown words in some parts. The end is strange there is not a real end, the story is somehow chopped off.

Rating:
Summary: Stepford Robots
Review: The book Stepford wives is a very well written book about a family who has moved to Stepford, which is a very old fashioned town without any rights for women.
I think the story is very interesting and fits well to the time, when women had a very bad time as working and political interested individuals
The fact that the women of Stepford become robots was unfortunately noticeable too early, so that the whole tension was over in the middle of the book.

Rating:
Summary: My favourite English book
Review: The book „Stepford Wives" has impressed me. That's my first book from Ira Levin.
I like this book. It's easy to read and I like this special style of horror or suspense fiction. When I started reading the book, I had my problems. But later I realized this was a great book. I like this story and I would recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: A thriller about a disputed subject
Review: The central figure is Joanna Eberhart. She personifies the perfect woman of the early seventies. And for that she also has her own desires and wishes, to the great disappointment of her husband. After the family moved to the new rural town of Stepford something really strange happens: All the wives in Stepford are just interested in housework and do exactly what their husbands, or rather masters, want from them. Joanna can't believe it and her friend Bobby Markow has the same opinion. Together they search a reason for the strange manner of acting of the Stepford wives. But after a weekend of Bobby and her husband alone, she turned to a typical Stepford woman. What will happen to Joanna?
For me it was a little bit difficult because I'm not very good at English.
It is an unreal but thrilling story. You have no idea what has happened to all the Stepford wives.

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining, but bad
Review: The fact that the term "Stepford Wife" has somehow made it into our collective cultural vocabulary intrigued me enough to pick up this slim novel and give it a try.

I tried to look through the clumsy, artless prose and the dated references and give the book credit for some sort of quirky satire, but to no avail. Reading the Stepford Wives emphasizes to the reader that creating truly timeless fiction requires an author with subtlety and depth, qualities which Levin sorely lacks.

Perhaps in 1972 the book's plot represented some sort of progressive social commentary, with its daring rejection of the woman's role as stay-at-home housefrau and the brave female protagonist's who is interested in creative photography (she can even use a tripod!) and who befriends a Black person. An interesting but unintended revelation from the Stepford Wives is how far the women's liberation movement has actually come since this novel was published. Yesterday's shocking denouncements are today's norm.

That said, however, I have to admit that I did actually read the entire book (not a serious investment; it's short). There's something entertaining about bad faction from the early seventies, but if you're in public you might be tempted to conceal the book's cover with a newspaper so no one knows what you're reading.

Rating:
Summary: A wonderful read!
Review: The Stepford Wives is a masterpiece, a brilliant and chilling satire on the feminist movement, that not only manages to entertain, but provides enough material for deep discussion. It's a quick, effortless read, marvelously plotted, and full of page-turning, as opposed to nail-biting, suspense. Ira Levin has created a pop-culture phenomenon, and the title has etched its way into our vocabulary, and for good reason. The Stepford Wives is truly a memorable book; shocking and original.

This book is at times hilarious, and at times extremely disturbing, especially the ending. Levin leaves a lot of the secrets unsolved, allowing our imagination to run wild trying to interpret what has actually happened and is actually happening. He never goes into detail, making everything seem all the scarier. This book is a must-read for anyone. It is truly one of the best books ever written and highly recommended.

My only complaint is that it was too short. I would have loved to spend more time with these 'perfect' women. Give the women of Stepford a chance, you might thank yourself later.

Rating:
Summary: Great read
Review: THE STEPFORD WIVES is a psychological thriller that will keep you guessing until the end. The book is very well paced and will keep you turning pages, until you've turned the last page. Joanna Eberhart moves from a big city to the small village of Stepford with her husband and two kids. She finds the women in this town a little strange, they appear to have no brains and to be soul-less, enjoying the chores of being a housewife and taking care of the kids. She meets Bobbie, to whom she immediately befriends. Bobbie agrees that something isn't up to par. When they move her husband joins the Men's Association. Bobbie and Joanna wonder what happened to the Woman's organization, that disbanded a few years ago. When their friend suddenly turns into one of those women, they start to wonder if there's something in the water or the air that is making these women turn into these housewives with no other aspirations. Bobbie & Joanna decide to try to uproot and move their families. Then Bobbie goes away for a weekend with her husband, and boom she comes back a changed woman as well. Joanna's suspicions are piqued and she heads off to do some research, and finds out a man who once lived in California at Disneyland, who made robots, is the president of the Men's Association. Their initial friend came in July, and four months later, had changed. Bobbie came in August, and a month after their friend, also changed. Joanna knew she was next, and with her proof, she went to her husband and told him she was leaving town with the kids, only to find they were gone! She knew she was next, and escaped, only to be found by the men who tried to convince them that they weren't turning women into robots. They convince her to go to Bobbie's and she will cut herself to prove she's human, and then suddenly, Joanna is one of them. The implications of this is truly astounding and quite frightening. It was a quick read, quite a short book but fast paced.

Rating:
Summary: A funny book without a happy ending
Review: The whole story with was very funny in my opinion. I really liked the robots and their vacuum cleaners. Bobbie was always good for a joke and Joanna brought her back to reality when Bobbie thought that the whole town of Stepford was poisoned by some computer factories.