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Summary: A Life-Influencing Masterpiece
Review: This book helped me work through my grief after the demise of a much-loved uncle. The story demonstrates the inevitability of death for every living thing, in the process proving the theory that it is the ride, and not the destination, that matters. My uncle had lived well, so the novel's theme brought me great comfort. And this work's underlying subtext is that love, in all its forms, is the greatest power. I treasured this book, these characters, the town in which it was set. The values that the characters held were nothing more than simple morality, but these were the very values that made America so great. Reading AND LADIES OF THE CLUB helped me to come to terms with all of these realities. It is a very powerful novel.
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Summary: Read it for a different reason each time
Review: This book is a social history about the times between 1868 and 1931, written in the form of a novel. The novel itself flows like the pace of the times. There was quite a bit of discussion about how one got anywhere - walking, the carriage, buggy, etc. The characters became so real to me I can't quite believe they were fabricated - I know those people! Every time I read this book - and my family teases me each time - I read it for a different reason. I have read it to study the social relationships and how stratified those times were. I have read it for information on architecture, styles of clothing, political history, business and the development of anti-trust laws, the effect of the Civil War on former soldiers, oh oh! I feel another reason coming on! At least I want one, for I'd like to reread it again. Here's your first reason to read this book - did you know about the effect all the different religions of the midwest had on everyday life? Do you want to know what houses were like and when they got furnaces and lights? This book and the people in it are like old comforting friends.
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Summary: Absorbing and enchanting
Review: This book is one of my very favorites. I never get tired of re-reading parts of it. It's so well written and the subject matter is so real, it just creates a mood that is totally absorbing! Plus, it's fascinating to read about people in the 1800's as though they are real, not some Victorian fictional construct. Track this book down, but be prepared to be immersed for hours without realizing it - it's that good!
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Summary: A beautiful book about a group of friends through many years
Review: This book tells the story of a group of women whom would not have grown close had it not been for their club. It made me realize friends can come from anywhere in your life whether they are younger for older than you or have different philosophies on life in general. You go through their joys and sorrows. I read this book at least 12 years ago and plan on reading it again. It has stayed with me all these years. There is just not enough time to read everything I want to let alone reread a favorite but this summer at the beach it's just what I will do. I wanted to purchase the hardback until I saw the price. It would make a great gift. Try it
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Summary: Still deeply satisfying and worth the effort
Review: This book was all the rage back in the early 80's when Book-of-the-Month Club made it a main selection. It was written by a comparatively unknown, elderly resident of a nursing home (who, I believe, died fairly shortly after the book's publication). For a short time everybody was talking about "...And Ladies of the Club". Fourteen years later, not many people remember the hoopla. But if a book is any good, it's still good even after the glitter fades. And this one is GOOD. I finally got around to reading it this year, partly because my wife read it and loved it. It is long (1100+ pages) but NOT difficult. I found the book hard to get "into" for the first one or two hundred pages, because there were many characters, and there hadn't been time to flesh out the personalities and relationships. But I am VERY glad that I stuck it out. Eventually the characters become vividly defined: lovable, hateable, and recognizable. The book is the story of a fictional medium-sized town in southern Ohio, from just after the Civil War to the beginning of the Depression. The story is told primarily through the eyes of a women's book club, and focuses particularly on two of the club's members and their families. All the important themes of life are explored: love, race, jealousy, religion, war, politics, business, literature, education, family relationships, and death. If you read this book, you will be both moved to tears and richly educated in American history. How much more can you ask of one book?
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Summary: Oprah, eat your heart out
Review: This is an enjoyable book, and one that hasn't diminished in the years it's been in print. Though some of the attitudes in it will make modern readers squirm a little, it remains an enjoyable read - if you can get through the 1000-plus pages of it. (My old mass market paperback has nearly 1500)The book starts shortly after the Civil War, in a small but lively town in Ohio. Several young women are graduating from their local ladies' college, just as a literary society is being formed. It's a small but intelligent society, and it serves as the focus for these ladies as they marry, rejoice, suffer, have kids, live and die. A complete plot summary is impossible; this novel is so complex and widespread that it can't be done. There is no central plot; rather, it's as close as you can come to living and participating in that era. The writing is pretty ordinary; flowery writing would extend this book to Bible-length. But somehow Santmeyer never loses track of her characters, what they're doing and who they are. The dialogue is both realistic and very alive: the extensive discussions about characters and places and political events never stay dull. Why four stars? Well, as can be expected in a novel that spans 64 years, there are some "dead spots" that seem to drag on for quite a while. Also, Santmeyer tends to repeat herself sometimes. And, as this was written over the course of fifty years, taking place in the latter half of the 1800s and the early quarter of the 1900s, some of the attitudes toward women and African-Americans are... well, dated to say the least. If you are in favor of banning Twain's books, you shouldn't read this, accurate as it probably is. But one unique thing is that though these women of the club (Not "ladies"! Not "females"!) begin in an era where women were thought to be lesser beings than men, they are portrayed as intelligent and very equal to the men. Some of them reminded me of the cast of "Little Women"; ... I do warn you - this is not a book for fluff reading, as the length will be enough to scare off many readers. But if you have a great deal of spare time and a comfy place to read, you may enjoy this book.
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Summary: Excellent literature, packed with American history
Review: This is an excellent story that is packed with history of the United States in the 1800's. The story follows two
delightful young women through their adult life. It clearly portrays the attitudes toward women and their role in society in that time period. Be prepared to spend
some time reading it, though! It's a long one, but it's worth every minute.
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Summary: Connecting with the women of my past
Review: This is one of those books that creeps up on you. If asked to summarize the plot -- there isn't one. But it's nonetheless compelling to watch life unfolding for the characters. Neither of the two main women characters is extraordinary. In that sense, they could be any of my ancestors, the women who lived, loved, bore children without anesthesia, kept house without electricity -- and enjoyed their lives and their families. Reading it gave me a real sense of what life was like in post-Civil War Ohio, and the truth is, it's not so very different now. The main subjects of the book are the things that lives have always revolved around: birth, death, love, marriage, sickness, betrayal, and faithfulness. This isn't a quick read or a thriller. It does enfold you in a different time and place, and when you finish, you'll remember it.
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Summary: More than Just Nostalgia
Review: This novel is wonderful and I am quite sure I will reread it again in a few years. I think it is the kind of book that is worth reading several times in your life: the story follows the long lives of several women, and you will probably understand the characters' concerns differently as you age yourself. The novel is unexpectedly deep for a best-seller. What I especially appreciated is that the ladies truly behave like women of their own time. So often novels with a historical setting feature heroines who think and behave exactly like women of our own time - they are just disguised in a hoop skirt or a bustle, as if this were enough to suggest the mindset of another era. The author of this novel takes a very different approach, and the reader will get a much deeper feel for the things that really concerned middle-class American women in the period covered (c.1868-1931). Like real life, this novel has some long boring stretches. Like real life, it also engages some intensely dramatic moments. It is full of joys, births, deaths, illnesses, and heartbreaks. It also tells you a lot about the politics and economic issues of the time. If some of the early sections of the novel seem dull (e.g. long passages about presidential elections- yawn), you should just muddle through them (much as the characters do). By the end, you will be looking back on those sections and feel a strange appreciation for times past akin to what the characters feel, and you will start to understand those "boring" stretches differently. Toward the end of the novel, all the earlier events that may at first seem terribly mundane start to take on a new significance, and the author ties them all together brilliantly to give you a real feeling of how valuable life is. After all, all our lives come and go and eventually pass into dust. This novel reminds you of the place of your own small, unique, sometimes-boring life in the grand tapestry of history.
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Summary: A Personal Note about Santmyer
Review: This wonderful novel has indeed, as Ms Privera notes in her review below, touched the lives of millions. But her comment that she wishes that Santmyer had known how lasting her book would be. I was with Santmeyer a few days after the story of the discovery of her novel was on the front page of the NY Times. She was being interviewed in her nursing home in Xenia, Ohio, by Dan Rather. Rather said to her, "How do you feel when they say you've written the great American novel?" Helen just chuckled and said, "Oh no. It's just a book about politics." She lived for almost another year, checking the NY Times every Sunday, and saw her book as #1 every single week for the rest of her life. As one enters Xenia now, there is a sign that says, "Home of Helen Hooven Santmyer, Author."
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