A Short History of Women
Ratings1
Average rating4
15
Ratings1
Average rating4
A profoundly moving portrait of the complicated legacies of mothers and daughters, A Short History of Women chronicles five generations of women from the close of the nineteenth century through the early years of the twenty-first.
Beginning in 1914 at the deathbed of Dorothy Trevor Townsend, a suffragette who starves herself for the cause, the novel traces the echoes of her choice in the stories of her descendants—a brilliant daughter who tries to escape the burden of her mother’s infamy; a granddaughter who chooses a conventional path, only to find herself disillusioned; a great-granddaughter who wryly articulates the free-floating anxiety of post-9/11 Manhattan.
In a kaleidoscope of characters and with a richness of imagery, emotion, and wit, A Short History of Women is a thought-provoking and vividly original narrative that crisscrosses a century—a book for "any woman who has ever struggled to find her own voice; to make sense of being a mother, wife, daughter, and lover" (Associated Press)
Reviews with the most likes.
This is the kind of book that slowly catches up to you and by the time you finish, leaves what you know will be a lasting impression. It's told in short story format, episodes in the lives of about 6 or so women and their common ancestor, a suffragist who starved herself in protest for the right to vote. I liked it because it explored women in many roles, and in those roles across the 20th century - scientist, activist, mother, wife, friend, daughter, etc . . . And no one role was more favored or more prominent than the other. Well, except perhaps daughter. It's (yet another) one I think would be enhanced by a discussion with my book club!
