The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer

Rating:

Barnes and Noble picked The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer for their first official Book Club read in the spring season (the book club is taking place quarterly). I was on the fence about reading the book or joining the book club. That is, until 4 days prior, which happened to be the Sunday before the meeting.

 

I did not want to buy this book because it was not a book that I would have picked up if I had been left alone in a bookstore, and it wasn’t until Monday night that my parents picked up the book for me from their library (it was the only library around here that had it). On Tuesday, I swung by and picked up the book.

I was about maybe 50 pages into this book when I walked into Barnes and Noble about to discuss it. I made it clear to Mara, the Assistant Manager running the discussion, that I had not read much of it.

 

The book club was a wonderful diversity of minds. I met some lovely people and had a wonderful discussion about the subject the book was based around – feminism – as well as one of the scenarios that get the books plot into motion – sexual harassment.

 

After discussing, and after fully reading this book, I see what the women of the book club meant. The story could have been told in half the amount of pages that it was written and the characters were a little dull.

 

I did disagree however, that none of the characters were feminist. I believed that each main character represented a different view and age on feminism.

 

We meet Greer in the beginning of the book in her first semester of college. She is in a relationship with Cory – a high school sweetheart – and they are not attending the same University although they had planned to.

 

Greer meets Zee and they head off to frat parties around campus. At one of the parties, Greer gets groped and her whole world changes. Zee and Greer campaign and petition to have the male who did this to her, and other females, kicked out of their University, but that doesn’t happen. The other victims accept what little punishment is given and want to move on with their lives, but Greer and Zee do not want to let him get away with a slap on the wrist.

 

One night, Zee’s idol – the well known feminist – Faith Frank is speaking at their campus and brings Greer along. Greer is able to ask a question and winds up waiting for Faith in the restroom where they have a pleasant chat, while both ignore Zee. Faith gives Greer her card which ultimately leads Greer to working for her after college.

 

This story is of course about friendship, relationships, feminism, and finding your voice.

 

The pace was well done and the story moved along quite quickly. Again, I find that Greer, Zee, Faith, and even Cory represent a different aspect of feminism. Overall, it’s a pleasant story and really incorporates the movements going on today.

 

With that being said, the book came out a little too late. The Times Up movement has come and been here for a little bit. The Weinstein accusations were already happening by the time this book came out. MeToo has come and gone (it’s still out there, but not seen as much). I feel like the timing of this book was unlucky as it can be passed off as “late to the party.”

 

I could not connect to the characters as much as I wanted to. I felt like each of them were bland and quite annoying at times. Greer swayed whichever way the other females in her life did. Zee was vegetarian, so Greer becomes one, too. Faith makes steaks for the employees working for her, and Greer eats it as to not offend. Greer got to me so much, because she was finding her voice, but she was not true to herself.

 

Faith was such a feminist, but she didn’t care about actual feminism. She only cared about the feminism she represented, and when her higher ups revealed that the money donated to a cause, a cause she thought up and shaped, was going nowhere but their pockets, she accepted it. She acted like it was no big deal and told them not to let it happen again.

 

Zee was the only female I had hoped for and she did nothing for herself. She wound up doing what she liked, but not what she loved. I felt she had it in her to get what she wanted, but I was so disappointed.

 

I thought this book was a good read, but not something that I would have wanted to read myself. It left the book club members who were already questioning what feminism was and what it represented still questioning. It was called The Female Persuasion but I honestly don’t know if the females in this book used their persuasion, and if they did how it was used. A misleading title since it did not match the book.

 

I honestly would tell people to read this book, because I want to know their thoughts on it and if I missed something. After listening to the Barnes and Noble book club discussion, I don’t think I was missing anything, but maybe Meg Wolitzer did.

 

Did you read it? What did you think? Please comment below if you agree or disagree with me.

 

-K.