Scan barcode
A review by tani
The Women's Room by Marilyn French
5.0
It's difficult to know what to say about this book. It took me a long time to read this, not because it's long or difficult, but because I could only read so much without needing a break from it. I was a little unsure what to expect when I started reading it, so the first third of the book went quickly for me. Things slowed down when I was forced to acknowledge that yes, it really was that bleak and everything was not going to just magically get better, no matter how hard I wished it would.
I think the thing that made this book the most powerful for me was the link between things I have noticed in my own life and the things that were portrayed in the book. It might be easy to look at this book and, "Oh, she's blowing things out of proportion. Things are different now. Things are better now," but are they? Right now, having just finished reading the book, a big part of me wants to deny the things that happened in it. However, I can't do that. I can't because I know people who think that way, who are that way. I can see hints of that kind of thinking in my own, no matter how hard I try to change it. There is truth in what Marilyn French has written in this book.
Despite all that, I can't think of this book as only depressing. I keep thinking of an exchange near the very end, where Bart says, "Nothing really changes." Mira replies, "It does, it does. It just takes longer than we do." I know it's trite of me to say, but hope is eternal; change is occurring even now. We just have to keep going on. As Gandhi said, "You must be the change you wish to see in the world." Change is inevitable, and where there is change, there is always hope.
I think the thing that made this book the most powerful for me was the link between things I have noticed in my own life and the things that were portrayed in the book. It might be easy to look at this book and, "Oh, she's blowing things out of proportion. Things are different now. Things are better now," but are they? Right now, having just finished reading the book, a big part of me wants to deny the things that happened in it. However, I can't do that. I can't because I know people who think that way, who are that way. I can see hints of that kind of thinking in my own, no matter how hard I try to change it. There is truth in what Marilyn French has written in this book.
Despite all that, I can't think of this book as only depressing. I keep thinking of an exchange near the very end, where Bart says, "Nothing really changes." Mira replies, "It does, it does. It just takes longer than we do." I know it's trite of me to say, but hope is eternal; change is occurring even now. We just have to keep going on. As Gandhi said, "You must be the change you wish to see in the world." Change is inevitable, and where there is change, there is always hope.