Synopsis
Respectable wife, unmarried mother, divorcee, femme fatale - these are roles that society demands from Scarlet, Jocelyn, Helen, Susan and Audrey. But things do not slot neatly into pigeon holes, and as the women negotiate around the events in their lives, they discover their real selves.

Product Details:
# Paperback 240 pages (October 1, 1973)
# Publisher: Penguin Books
# ISBN: 014003613X

From a review at Amazon.com
"Down Among the Women"--a novel by Fay Weldon begins in the year 1950 and follows the lives of Wanda, her daughter Scarlet, and Scarlet's four friends--Sylvia, Jocelyn, Audrey, and Helen. The novel follows each of the characters through several decades.

Wanda is really quite an extraordinary character. She's a divorced teacher whose independent thinking brings a school inspector to investigate and "report certain things to the Education Authority." Wanda's spotty daughter, Scarlet, finds herself as an unwed mother with extremely limited choices, and as a result of dire poverty she marries most unsuitably. Sylvia lives with a bully of a married man while waiting years for his divorce to finalize. Jocelyn marries well and becomes a bored, boring housewife and "can talk of nothing but hairdressers and hats." Audrey gives up a brilliant career in publishing, and moves to the country with her husband to "live next to nature." In a dilapidated house with no electricity, Audrey breeds numerous times, juggles a vegetable garden and a hen house, while making cottage cheese in stockings. Helen--a refugee--floats along until she becomes embroiled in a disastrous affair with an artist.

This is not one of those touchy-feel-good books about women's friendships. One of Weldon's favourite themes is that women are their own worst enemies--women turn on each other, betray each other, and are capable of the most savage behaviour towards their own sex. Women are not to worry about men being the enemy as that's beside the point. Women--according to Weldon--are driven to insanity by their lemming-like desires to please the men in their lives, and for this, women--ultimately--only have themselves to blame. Weldon's view of the female mind is vicious, direct, and quite unforgiving. Weldon is largely regarded as a feminist writer, and I think that is a rather reductive description. She is beyond feminism, and her novels strive to examine women's accountability--not only for their own lives--but also for their entire sex. Weldon's novels are about women--for women--and the message is "in the end, men are irrelevant. Women are happy or unhappy, fulfilled or unfulfilled, and it has nothing to do with men." And once the characters in "Down Among the Women" stop feeding notions of feminine ideals, and get on with pleasing themselves, they are a lot better for it...

Available as Trade, BookLoan or BookRing - Verfügbar als Tausch, BuchLeihe oder BuchRing

RELEASE NOTES:

Wanders into YAEB - Yet Another English BookBox

taken out of the YAEB - Yet Another English Bookbox

Will be released at a Meet Up soon

RELEASE NOTES:

Book was released next to a hair dryer.