Virtual Book Club: The Female Persuasion and The Power

Today, I bring you a virtual book club discussion with Jennie Rothman, who was brave enough to volunteer to discuss books with me for your consumption!  I met Jennie MANY years ago when I was a summer associate and then an associate at Hughes Hubbard and Reed, and we later reconnected on Facebook and Goodreads, and she is definitely a trusted reader friend.  We both separately read the book The Power by Naomi Alderman for our respective book clubs this year, and then Jennie read The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer and recommended it to me, and suggested that discussing them together for the blog could be interesting since, although they are very different books, they both deal with feminist themes.

Our discussion took place over e-mail, a lightly edited version of which is below.  Enjoy!

Jen:  I just finished reading "The Female Persuasion" - thank you so much for recommending it!  I would have gotten to it eventually because I loved Meg Wolitzer’s “The Interestings” - though I think I loved this one even more.  The writing was just so great, it literally hooked me immediately, and the characters seemed very real.  I also loved how all the feminist discussion was woven throughout in a way that was thought-provoking without being didactic.  For me, it just missed 5 stars because I thought it meandered a bit from the middle on, but I think it still will probably make my top 10 list this year and I already started recommending it to people while I was reading it!   What did you think?

Jennie:  I'm so glad you liked "The Female Persuasion" and are recommending it.  I was immediately drawn in by the characters and really related to being a young college student searching for identity.  (I minored in Women's Studies.  This was very familiar territory.)  I found the characters to be real-ish.  Some of the plot points seemed too neat (Zee's name and family dynamics) and or over-simplified, like Greer's and Cory's undying love.  Overall, though, I was very compelled by the characters and eager to see what happened to them.  

I loved the way the book examined different types of feminism and the compromises that each requires.  I liked the juxtaposition of Faith Frank's "soft" feminist with more radicalized perspectives.  I was particularly drawn to the theory she posited in "The Female Persuasion" that women "could be strong and powerful, all the while keeping their integrity and decency."  It would be nice to believe that's true, but it certainly did not pan out that way for Faith or Greer.  

Which takes me to another book we both read recently, "The Power," by Naomi Alderman.  In that book, women discover that they have an internal electric ability, thus giving them power over men.  Although this book was SciFi, I was hoping it would show that the world would be different if women were in power.  Suffice it to say, it was not a kinder, gentler world when women were in charge.  

So, 2 alternative fictions, both depicting a pretty murky future for women.  How did the 2 books affect you differently?  What did you think of "The Power"?

Jen:  A fact about me that surprises some people who only met me recently is that I lived in Womanist House for 2 years in college!  I’m not the most actively political person but have always considered myself a feminist for as long as I can remember, which is one reason I really enjoyed the explorations of what feminism means in "The Female Persuasion."  

I really related to the college students in the book too, though it was weird to realize that we are actually closer in age to the Faith Frank character who is in her early 60s when the book starts than we are to the young idealistic college students!   Given that Meg Wolitzer is nearing 60 herself, I was really impressed that she could capture the young characters so vividly and realistically.  (Another piece of Jen trivia - I actually met Meg Wolitzer when I was a kid!  My uncle dated her briefly and brought her to Thanksgiving one year.  She was not yet a famous writer back then, but her mother was a famous-ish writer.)

As for "The Power" - it was definitely dark and kind of disturbing, but I thought it was really good and also thought provoking.  I picked it for my book club but I was the only one who liked it - several people hated it so much they said they couldn’t even bring themselves to finish it.  The characters weren’t particularly likeable or relatable - interestingly the one male POV character was the most sympathetic.  But it was definitely a book that made me think. 

Although the book took place mostly in the time where society was just changing as a result of women developing this electrical ability, the notion that if women had more physical power than men they would behave just as badly as men have in the worst times in history is definitely a depressing one.  I’d like to believe that it is not the case.  But either way, I’d still rather lived in our own flawed world as reflected in “The Female Persuasion” than the world of “The Power.”

I definitely would be interested to hear what younger women think of both of these books.  I gather that unlike the characters of Greer and Zee in "The Female Persuasion," a lot of young women today reject at least the term “feminism,”  and I wonder if they would find the portrait of these members of their generation as compelling as you and I did.

Jennie:  My book club read "The Power" too.  Unlike in your book club, most people liked it.  I was definitely intrigued by the world it described and the creation of the new reality.  I hadn't really thought about the fact that the male character was one of the most sympathetic characters.  I wonder if we view him that way because he was more "feminine" (as per our culture's definition)?  

I found the illustrations and artifacts in "The Power" thought-provoking, if confusing.  It was only after I read a review of the book that I realized that the "bitten fruit" objects used in the art were Apple iPads & iPhones.  Amazing that something so commonplace could become so unknown to me.  I also really enjoyed this passage from the book's Acknowledgements, describing some of the art depicted in the book:

The illustrations are by Marsh Davies.  Two of them -- the "Serving Boy" and "Priestess Queen" -- are based on actual archaeological finds from the ancient city of Mohenjo-Daro in the Indus Valley (although obviously without bits of iPad attached).  We don't know much about the culture of Mohenjo-Daro -- there are some findings that suggest that they may have been fairly egalitarian in some interesting ways.  But despite the lack of context, the archaeologists who unearthed them called the soapstone head illustrated here* "Priest King," while the named the bronze female figure here* "Dancing Girl."  They're still called by those names.  Sometimes I think the whole of this book could be be communicated with just this set of facts and illustrations.

I hope that whichever way our society goes (which is, frankly, kind of in doubt at the moment), that we are at least unearthing some of these ingrained assumptions and bringing the fallacy of them to light.  

In the end, I'm glad I read both of these books.  They challenged me while entertaining me.  I, too, would be curious on a younger woman's take on them.  If you end up getting that perspective, please share!

Jen:  Glad to hear that your book club liked "The Power" so I wasn’t just an outlier forcing my book club to read a dud!  

I found the illustrations/artifacts in "The Power" kind of confusing too, and I definitely didn’t pick up on the Apple products.  I didn’t like how it started with that weird letter as if the book was someone else’s manuscript either.  But by the time I finished the book, I got that all of that stuff was to suggest that the new order had lasted for a long, long time. 

Speaking of feminist books, have you read "The Handmaid’s Tale?"  I read it back in high school, but have been meaning to re-read it since watching the Hulu show.  Which is amazing, by the way, if you haven’t watched it, though extremely disturbing/depressing.  

Jennie:  I found the framing device interesting and thought it served as an example of what life was like in the new world order.  Someone in my book club pointed out that the fictional male author in the framing device was named Neil Adam Armon, which is an anagram of Naomi Alderman, the actual author of "The Power."  So, more cleverness on the part of the actual author.

I did read "The Handmaid's Tale," probably in college.  Beyond the general outlines, I don't remember a ton.  And I've been meaning to watch the TV show, but haven't gotten around to it yet.  I just reminded my husband that we should really start it.  And, fittingly, Margaret Atwood is the first person thanked in the Acknowledgements of "The Power" and is apparently a mentor of Naomi Alderman's, so it's only fitting that you would be reminded of "The Handmaid's Tale."  Another interesting book with an alternate feminist world order is "Dietland," by Sarai Walker.  It's about to be a TV show as well, on AMC, created by Marti Noxon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer exec producer) and starring Julianna Margulies.  So, something else to look forward to.  I recommend the book as well.

Jen:    I have vaguely heard of "Dietland" but never read it, just looked it up and it sounds really interesting.  And I LOVED Buffy so I will definitely have to check out the TV show.  I'm going to borrow the book from the library so I can read it before the show starts - I'll let you know what I think!

Anyway, thanks for doing this with me!  I hope it was as fun and interesting for you as it was for me! 

Jennie:  This was fun for me too!

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Hope you enjoyed our discussion!  If anyone else ever wants to do a virtual book club with me, just let me know!