Rating: 
Summary: It's a book you read slowly in hope that it will never end.
Review: Marilyn French does a great job in this book of capturing the most obscure tenets and then articulating them in a language that rings in the ears of both men and women. Albeit, male bashing, in this very feminist book, is not excluded which may tire some men and even women too, but to remove it would detract from the books overall affect of changing women everywhere. Every woman the age of 18 to 27 should read it and then read again for validation at the age of 35 or so.
Rating:
Summary: Returning 30 years later does not lessen the book's impact.
Review: Married in 1957, this book put words to the things I had only felt. I have never lost my desire to succeed because of it. The message as portrayed in the movie with Lee Remick and Coleen Dewhurst was just as clear as Ms. French's original message ( I too cannot find it). I'm buying a new copy of the book so I can be buried with a legible version!
Rating:
Summary: Should be required reading for anyone raising daughters.
Review: More than a "coming of age" story, it's a "coming to reality" story...What happens when Donna Reed's husband leaves her. A voyage into the psyche of a stifled woman, soon-to-be an independent, stand alone fully functioning member of society - not just her husband's entertainment director. Representative of what happened to divorced women in the 80's and how they turned their lives around. A must-read for anyone with a uterus
Rating:
Summary: Life!
Review: Putting aside the anti-male aspects of the book (I didn't know it was an "important feminist work" when I started), I'd sooner describe it as an epic novel, a story of intelligent people encountering different stages, events, structures in their lives--perhaps a bit of a soap opera. The book went surprisingly quickly; the narrator's voice drew me in, and the plot stayed interesting throughout, since each section brought radical changes in Mira's life and cast of friends. It starts with her growing up in the 40's, getting married, having kids and becoming a (miserable) suburban housewife, but is punctuated with passages of the narrator philosophizing, and framed by a group of thoughtful, "modern" women sitting around in 1968, interrupting with "but how could you have lived like that?"--"well, my house wasn't so different really"--"it had its good points too"--"aren't you glad all our relationships are more equal than those?" [heh]. Plenty of reflection, along with close up individual perspectives. The high points glowed, parts forced me to put down the book for feeling sick or depressed, and there was no lack of wit and strong characters. A compelling story. Then there's the recurring theme of how women keep getting screwed over. The author's got a point, and it's actually a little hard not to hate men while reading the book, but she takes it too far. Somehow despite characters being round and believable, men always turn out to be insensitive, to put it mildly, and women a classic "oppressed people". Real life is (I hope!) more fair. (These days, anyway. I'm also immeasurably grateful for the almost 50(!) years of societal change separating her birth and mine.) The evolution of the group of grad student friends struck a particular chord with me, as a recent college graduate. People change unexpectedly, relationships change, friends come together and fall apart, and when you look back there's no real pattern or meaning. As she put it, "No, it's the little things that matter. But when you're dealing with a lot of insignificant lives, how do you put things together?" It's trite at parts, and with an axe to grind, yes, but this book's got life.
Rating:
Summary: GREAT
Review: Read this to see what the Feminist movement has achieved. And how far we still have to go.
Rating:
Summary: AWoman's Guide to Her Authentic Self
Review: Recently, I have had the "opportunity" to do some work amongst women who are much older than me, who have spent their lives believing that they are as limited as the characters in the beginning of this book. They didn't directly say that they are limited, nor were they willing to express their needs. There was just an air about "women's lot." I had to remind myself that in this experience, just as in reading "Women's Room," there are many spiritual lessons to learn. First, it is due to the courage that having written this book took that women are thinking better of themselves. And, we have a long way to go. Yes, there was some men bashing, and some bashing against African-Americans. And more importantly we must look inside ourselves, and amongst ourselves, as women, to own, admit, experience and fully express what we feel, think, want and need. Another lesson to be learned from this book is that with one voice, others will be heard. And you might start out mouthy, or obsessed, but you will ultimately calm the storms in your soul, by giving voice to who you really are. Every women who is 18 years and older could benefit from reading this book. It's time that we make yet another difference in our lives.
Rating: 
Summary: Awakening
Review: Simply, this book changed my life completely. With the first page, I was curious and naive; with the last, empowered, excited, embittered. I have been unable to look at men, women, and relationships the same since. The author/protagonist's insight about the way in which women make the very words from mens' mouths into "golden nuggets" hit me like a mack truck. Why is what men have to say always revered so much more than a woman's insight or opinion? Why do the female peers in my classes dress their intellectual contributions with disclaimers such as, "well, this might not be right but...."? Because of this book, I refuse to mindlessly accept any long-standing institution for the sake of tradition. As a young woman, I gained tremendous insight into a decade of women to whom I had previously been unable to relate. I do acknowledge the extremes of gender representation in French's novel, but believe the melodrama and brutality of honest experience lends to its credibility as every woman's story--one which will continue to evolve into something far more beautiful.
Rating: 
Summary: Not what I'd been led to believe
Review: The hype for this book promises that it will change your life. Well, mine is still travelling along quite merrily and nothing this book had to say has any impact on it. This is probably due to changing times and approaches to feminism. The Women's Room focuses on some women who meet at university and explores their lives and loves. One thing that bugged me throughout is that the narrator (whose identity is never revealed) throws in monologue chapters that can be a little tedious. These chapters seem to be excuses to get up on a soapbox, but almost as though she is unsure of her reception, she "uses" the captive audience that is reading about the lives of a bunch of women to bang on about things that can be downright boring. I couldn't relate to the characters. Mira, the central figure, is supposedly influenced by her upbringing, but her real problem appears to be that she has no self esteem. It wouldn't really matter what decade she was born in. Although, to her credit, she does seem to develop some right at the end. Half the characters turn to lesbianism at some point or other, which just seemed cliched. There are references to events that I know nothing about. This further distanced me from the plot. The references appear to be things that all readers should automatically know about (that's the way it came across) and I couldn't figure out whether I was too young, too geographically removed (I'm in Australia) or whether they were figments of the author's imagination. I gave up trying to figure it out. All in all, I didn't find this earth shattering and I wouldn't bother reading it again. If it was ever "life changing", it isn't now - not for me, anyway.
Rating:
Summary: Not what I'd been led to believe
Review: The hype for this book promises that it will change your life. Well, mine is still travelling along quite merrily and nothing this book had to say has any impact on it. This is probably due to changing times and approaches to feminism. The Women's Room focuses on some women who meet at university and explores their lives and loves. One thing that bugged me throughout is that the narrator (whose identity is never revealed) throws in monologue chapters that can be a little tedious. These chapters seem to be excuses to get up on a soapbox, but almost as though she is unsure of her reception, she "uses" the captive audience that is reading about the lives of a bunch of women to bang on about things that can be downright boring. I couldn't relate to the characters. Mira, the central figure, is supposedly influenced by her upbringing, but her real problem appears to be that she has no self esteem. It wouldn't really matter what decade she was born in. Although, to her credit, she does seem to develop some right at the end. Half the characters turn to lesbianism at some point or other, which just seemed cliched. There are references to events that I know nothing about. This further distanced me from the plot. The references appear to be things that all readers should automatically know about (that's the way it came across) and I couldn't figure out whether I was too young, too geographically removed (I'm in Australia) or whether they were figments of the author's imagination. I gave up trying to figure it out. All in all, I didn't find this earth shattering and I wouldn't bother reading it again. If it was ever "life changing", it isn't now - not for me, anyway.
Rating: 
Summary: The Worst Book Ever Written
Review: The most insulting and boring book ever written. It is a biting social commentary on men-women relations that is so one-sided and vulgar that most readers do not take seriously. Don't ask me how it ended because I couldn't stand the torture of the book
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