The Stepford Wives

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Summary: Social horror-scary stuff!
Review: This book is scary in the "Rosemary's Baby" way, it makes you question yourself and those around you. Levin has a great way of just making you paranoid. You probably will want to think again when your neighbors invite you over. What if they are...robots? Pretty darn creepy!

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Summary: Love all of Levin's books!!!
Review: This book never really hit home for me until I moved from new York to a small town in Connecticut---one that just happened to be a few miles from where Ira Levin lived at the time he wrote this book. And it is for this reason that I "connected" with it, for it is a most thrilling story about a family that moves from the hustle and bustle of New York, to Stepford a quiet suburb on the outer rim of the city. It was many years ago when I initially read the book, and now, revisiting it, it has all the more meaning for me. The Author drops subtle hints about the real sinister nature of Stepford. The women in Stepford appear to be a mans dream, always looking amazing, keeping the house immaculate, and cooking to their husband's delight. Joanna quickly finds out that the men's association are behind it all but is she quick enough? A short and surprising end that gives you few details but still leaves you with the horror of the story. I'm usually one to stick with a tried and true bestseller like "Da Vinci" or "Bark of the Dogwood" but decided to go back and read this one instead. Glad I did.

Rating:
Summary: Suspenseful and engaging
Review: This book tells the story of a family that moves out of the city and relocates to the picture-perfect town of Stepford. Joanna, the main character, makes a few "normal" friends in her new neighborhood, but she soon realizes that most of the women in town seem to exist for the sole purpose of pleasing their husbands, lacking any personal ambitions of their own. She begins to suspect that all the men in town are involved in an evil conspiracy, and that even her own husband is out to get her.

The story is suspenseful and entertaining. My only two complaints are that it's too short (I finished the book in just under two hours) and it leaves a lot of questions unanswered. We know what happens to Joanna at the end of the story, but I would have liked a little more information about how the men's club was able to orchestrate everything. The flip side of that, though, is that a lot is left up to your own imagination, which makes it even more terrifying.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting and Quick
Review: This is a great Filler book. It is a very fast read, and kept my attention for the most part.

The beginning was a little slow, but about halfway I couldn't put it down. It's kind of a creepy story line and makes you think about what you would do in that situation. I would recomment this book especially if you're looking for something short to pass the time.

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Summary: BARBIE RULES!
Review: This is a thought provoking, tautly written novella. A gem of suspense, it was first published in the early nineteen seventies and went on to become a popular movie of the same name, starring Katherine Ross.

The story is very simple but gripping and well written. Joanna Eberhart moves to the seemingly bucolic town of Stepford with her husband, Walter, and two children, leaving behind the dangers of big city living. An independent, assertive, intelligent, and creative woman, Joanna epitomizes the newly liberated women of the nineteen seventies. Looking for like souls with whom to become friends, she seeks out some of the other married women of the town, only to find that they are all uniformly addicted to housework, give their husbands complete obeisance, are made up to the gills, and have figures courtesy of maidenform.

Joanna manages to find several like minded women such as herself. Yet, when they, too, become addicted to housework after having a romantic weekend alone with their respective husbands, Joanna becomes convinced that the town's Men's Association has hatched a sinister plot to change all the wives of Stepford into submissive Barbie dolls. Will Joanna manage to escape the fate of the rest of the Stepford wives? Read the book and find out. You will not be disappointed.

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Summary: VERY GOOD, a little incomplete but nontheless VERY GOOD
Review: This is the most fast-reading book you'll ever read in your life! So, you could either like this book or hate it; no in between. It has a good morale and is only about 130 pages. The plot is a little weird but it makes its point; which is ...read the book to find out... {p} One downfall is that it is a little incomplete though. Another variable on wether you'll like it or hate it is if you were alive in 1974, when the story took place. I liked it!

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Summary: Careful: Someone left a review and spoiled the entire book.
Review: Watch out when reading the reviews below. Someone decided to stupidly leave a review that went on about men's reaction to women's lib in the 70s, while saying NOTHING AT ALL about whether or not they found the book an enjoyable read and why. (Never mind the fact they seemed to be thinking of the movie instead of the book).

What's worse is that they give away the deep, dark secret of the book and completely ruin it. I was glancing at the reviews to get an idea of the book, and I expected a lot of things in the way of minor spoilers, but I never thought someone would be idiotic enough to just outright give away the ending without so much as a spoiler warning. This is supposed to be one of those classic chillers; thanks to that anonymous moron below I'm deprived of the point of reading The Stepford Wives.

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Summary: The ending is unbelievable!
Review: We read the „Stepford wives" in English class. I really liked it!
Joanna, a very nice and brave woman who tries to fight against the Men's Association from Stepford, and even tries to fight against her own husband - just to live her life and to keep her own identity.
I found the book good. I read it twice. But the end of the book was unbelievable, because I thought the book had a happy ending, but it did not turn out that way!!
The book was really easy to understand.

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Summary: What would life be like if women were perfect?
Review: What if life was perfect?

Does it mean we'd be insane? Or happy? This book leads one into the world of television-commercial perfection, the ultimate celebration and triumph of our consumer oriented society, and suggests such wonderful fulfillment would leave us totally insane. We're human because of our faults; getting things right every now and then is a rare delight, not a habit.

In the years since the book and the movie originally appeared, it's become a cult classic for gay and lesbian audiences. Honestly. In other words, the so-called "feminist" movement is as sexist, blinkered and hypocritical as most prejudices the so-called "male" culture has ever developed. Geeeee . . . . . I guess we're all human, after all.

There's an old test for prejudice, "How would you like it if THAT applied to you, rather than someone else?" On that basis, don't tell me that women couldn't identify with "perfect" men. If you have any doubts, read a couple of "romance" novels -- there's some 18 million printed every month -- and tell me if the male heroes aren't masculine clones of the perfect housewives portrayed in this book.

In other words, it deals with a very human condition -- what would we do if confronted with perfection? That, of course, is the proposition offered by almost every advertisement and commercial ever produced; use this "product" to make your life better. In Genesis the answer comes in two and one-half chapters, "We'd mess it up."

Of course, Genesis dealt with an apple. This novel substitutes the perfect woman for an apple, which supposedly raises the stakes considerably for the average male. Just how would a man react if he met a perfect woman? What is the perfect woman? One whose bra size (measured in centimeters) matches her IQ ? In other words, it's a savage satire of our media-driven society in which youth, beauty and happiness all come from a bottle.

Does happiness depend on bra size? And, in the case of a woman, whether a man drives a Dodge Viper or a Dodge Neon? After you read this book, you'll never again look at a commercial or advertisement without laughing. Maybe it's just as well the latest film version treats the whole thing as a joke. Ideas can be disturbing, such as the thougtht that our consumer society just may be insane.

Savage, biting, clever, frightening -- it's a great book.

Rating:
Summary: Uneasy and lots of question marks
Review: When I first finished this book I was not pleased. I wanted to know EXACTLY what was going on in Stepford and how they were going about transforming all the women into perfect housewives. But after a day or two of thinking it over, I really liked how the book ended...you come to your own conclusion about whats going on.

I was also pleased that it wasn't your typical 'bad guy loses...good guy wins' sort of ending. (I don't want to give anything away, so I'll leave it at that.) I've recommended this book to all my family and friends, its a very stimulating quick little read. Can't wait to see the movie.