Braided Lives

Rating:
Summary: Womens' fiction on a new level...
Review: It is very easy to group all women writers into one category, especially in the UK where it seems that every woman is a twenty-something writer of tales of lost boyfriends and work stress. Marge Piercy is a world class above these writers, depite the dodgy publiscist she has who gives all her novels terrible covers! This book is an enticing tale of women surviving in a society that does not hand them anything. It's a sobering tale for those of us who feel we have a relatively firm grasp on our lives/careers in this new millenium. Spend some time thinking about the struggle women face on the most basic level day in day out and try not to cry during 'that bit'!

Rating:
Summary: My favourite book - ever
Review: Like one of the other reviewers, I have reread this book at least once a year since it was first published in the UK in 1984. Unbelievably, it is no longer in print there. Marge Piercy has created the most believable fictional world I have ever read - in part I suspect because Braided Lives is fairly autobiographical - and her memoir "Sleeping with Cats" confirms this (also a great read). I learn something new every time I read the book. Jill, the main character, is rounded, complex, politically aware and self-sufficient. I wish I could write as well as Marge Piercy to urge every woman to buy and read this book - I know my life would have been poorer without reading it. It really is that good.

Rating:
Summary: Tedious, sterotypical and one sided
Review: This novel has a great title. But, some of the intertwined characters that were fleshed out were absolutely cruel and unlikeable, others so unidimensional, that I didn't really want to know more about them, and didn't care as much as I should what happened to them. Donna and Peter deserved each other. What was there to like about Mike? I, too, was reminded of Margaret Atwood's style when reading this, but she's not one of my favorites either. To be fair, perhaps to really appreciate this book you had to have read it during the era in which it was written.