Published by Riverhead Books
Publication date: April 3, 2018
There has been a lot written about Meg Wolitzer’s new novel, The Female Persuasion. The novel will resonate with an entire generation of women who, after joining the workforce, longed for a mentor to guide them. For Greer Kadetsky, an intensely shy college student, that woman is Faith Frank, a feminist icon. Except, Greer didn’t even know who Faith was or that she wanted to work with her. It was her friend Zee who was the activist and who actually gave Greer her first opportunity to interact with Faith, at a student event when they are in college. After graduation and at loose ends Greer is hired by Faith in a new undertaking—a women’s empowerment foundation, funded by a finance billionaire looking to divert scrutiny from some of his less scrupulous actions. Greer and Faith embark on this venture with little idea on how to find the happy place between profitability and making a difference. Along the way, each makes decisions that rub hard against the woman they thought themselves to be.
There is so much to love about The Female Persuasion—mostly the femaleness of it. It’s a novel where the key characters are very real women going through very real life in America today. There are men, but they are largely relegated to ancillary roles, with the exception of Greer’s long-time boyfriend, Cory. Instead, Wolitzer settles firmly in on the three women—Greer as she begins to explore the power of ambition, Faith as she tries to gild a legacy before she’s out of time and energy, and Zee, who is filled with passion but can’t seem to focus her energy enough to do something with it. Wolitzer writes so authentically that some aspect of each woman’s life will resonate with all women. She does the same thing with time and place in the novel, which ends in 2019, touching on the new feminism and the feelings of women across America who are coming to grips with a president who, as one woman says:
“…is that the worst kind of man, the kind that you would never allow yourself to be alone with because you would know he was a danger to you, was left alone with all of us.”
The female perspective is such a critical part of The Female Persuasion that I was jolted in the last quarter of the book when Wolitzer shifts the focus to Cory and what is happening in his life. He is the only male in the novel who’s given a real presence, and earlier it’s used to great advantage, illuminating the impact of the difference in his upbringing versus Greer’s, but by this point in the novel I didn’t care about the specifics of what he was doing. Inclusion is great, but this felt like intrusion. I resented being torn away from Greer, Faith, and Zee to read about a man’s business venture—even if it was very personal and dear to Cory’s heart.
Still, this is a small blip in a novel that both welcomes and challenges. Welcomes because so much of what is experienced by Faith, Greer, and Zee is familiar and likely to provoke introspection. Challenging because Wolitzer doesn’t let any of her characters off easily. She probes at Greer, making us wiggle uncomfortably as her incisive prose hits close to the not-so-pretty aspects of ourselves we’d prefer to ignore. And while I squirmed at times, I appreciate that Wolitzer doesn’t try and attribute to women some blessed transcendence of nurturing versus power. Instead, she goes all in by taking The Female Persuasion to a delicate intersection—that between friendship and ambition. Are women more altruistic than men? Will we choose to sacrifice ourselves for a friend? For someone who might want it more? Questions like these arise and rather than providing pat answers Wolitzer leaves them wonderfully unanswered, ripe for contemplation and discussion.
Thanks for the skinny on this one — I haven’t started it yet. Why does she shift focus to Cory? hmm. I look forward to reading about the feminism in it and where it goes with it.
I may not have the loved the Cory focus but it may be that she did it because not only is he a feminist, he also takes on a traditionally female role at one point in the book.
I’m reading this now and loving it. There is so much that resonates, both about that time of life and about all the questions of feminism that it raises.
I love Meg Wolitzer, but I am 35% into this and feeling like it’s DRAGGING. I think I want more of Faith and am finding Greer really tiresome. And don’t get me started on Cory. So I came here to see your thoughts and they did not clarify my position. Lol. What to do.
Oh, damn, you’re the one reader I REALLY don’t want to aggravate- and not just because we have that pending retirement compound in Costa Rica planned.
I can totally see the dragging feeling and would say, what comes next is not going to make it worth it for you. Basically, there is an entire side trip into Cory’s life- which bugged me. I’m on the side of bailing. There. I said it.
What could you do that would aggravate me? It is highly more likely I would be evicted from the compound for inappropriate behavior.
All that being said, I nervously opened and started reading this comment. I thought you were going to urge me to push on. And I had already given up and returned the ebook to the library. So imagine my relief. 🙂 And thank you for being honest! Whether I had decided to quit or keep going I appreciate it. I am very sad. I love me some Wolitzer. But damn, it was snoozy and is it just me or is Cory a little, uh, ‘pushy,’ shall we say, on the sex front?
I didn’t notice that about Cory, but felt like she was pushing him as the token feminist male a bit hard. And honestly, I just didn’t care. Faith and Greer were enough of a story.
Inappropriate behavior?! As if. As long as you’re a curmudgeon you’ll be a founding member.
Reading both of their thoughts on their “first time” totally made me squirm. And maybe it was just because he had been immersed in his cousin’s “stash” and didn’t know how to act, but it felt really off to me. That colored how I saw him from then on and maybe he felt like more of a feminist later, but I really didn’t perceive him that way. Something about him just rubbed me the wrong way entirely.
#Curmudgeon4Lyfe
I have totally forgotten that scene. You’re making me think I should re-read it, but then…nah. #lazycurmudgeon