This was one of those books I knew nothing about when I picked it up at Borders in Louisville, because it was on sale, but I had a hard time putting it down – kept reading it in the mornings and evenings, not just before going to bed. The thing that holds the women in the book together is a book club – they get together once a month to discuss a book - one the host of the month has suggested. The women are quite different in the beginning of the book – though they live in a good neighborhood of Minneapolis and have or have had husbands earning a decent salary. Faith came from a drunk mother and a father who left when she was born. Merit was the beautiful one that escaped from her family led by a strict minister and married Eric, a doctor who abused her. Audrey was the sexy one who had some wealth of her own. Slip was tiny in size, but very strong physically and mentally. She was the great liberal who fought for all sorts of causes. Kari was older and had lost her husband and had never been able to have children, but loved them. This book takes us through the lives of these women, their families and those around them from 1968 to 1998. They create a supportive family for each other through the book club, as they each go through various crises. I liked the way each time period was depicted – they all smoked and drank, even when pregnant, in the beginning. Their children were a big part of their lives and the novel. Many issues were raised, the anti-war movement, effects of Viet Nam on vets, homosexuality, biracialism, abuse, and much more that is dear to my heart. These were life stories, and not sappy romances (like Nora Roberts ends up pairing people too perfectly.) Some had great partners, some divorced, some stayed single and found happiness anyway. And of course, I loved the book theme. Though the books sometimes don’t even get mentioned in a chapter, each chapter begins with the host, name & author of the book, why it was chosen, or food served with it. I have pulled out the titles as a potential reading list for myself. And I know I will try reading Landvik’s other books. (finished reading this early June)
The books mentioned in Angry Housewives and my comments if I’ve read them:
Hotel by Arthur Hailey – maybe I’ve read this, I’ve forgotten
Soul on Ice by Eldridge Cleaver – read long ago
Middlemarch by George Eliot
On the Road by Jack Kerouac – tried reading in the last few years, but couldn’t get into it
Main Street by Sinclair Lewis – I’ve read Lewis
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion – I’ve read Didion
The Song of the Lark by Willa Cather – I’ve read a few by Cather
Dr. Faustus by Thomas Mann (a banned book)
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe – read in mid-late 1970’s
Everything You Wanted to Know About Sex But Were Afraid to Ask by Dr. David Reuben – read in high school and hid under my mattress
Fear of Flying by Erica Jong – read
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
The Total Woman by Marabel Morgan – I think I tried to read this, I was definitely aware of it
Roots by Alex Haley – saw most of it on TV
The Grass is Always Greener Over the Septic Tank by Erma Bombeck – read this and a few of her other books
Tobacco Road by Erskine Caldwell – sounds so familiar
Terms of Endearment by Larry Mc Murtry – saw the movie
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith – just had to answer a reference question about this the other day
My Home Is Far Away by Dawn Powell
In the Spirit of Crazy Horse by Peter Matthiessen
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole – read, but can’t say I liked
Out on a Limb by Shirley MacLaine
The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler – read last year
West with the Night by Beryl Markham – read
The Fountain Overflows by Rebecca West
The Awakening by Kate Chopin
Handling Sin by Michael Malone (funny)
The Stand by Stephen King – I’ve read some of King and don’t want to read any more
My Antonia by Willa Cather – read
Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway – read
The Beginning and the End by Naguib Mahfouz
Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset – I have read something of Undset in Latvian
Ladder of Years by Anne Tyler
Eastward Ha! By S.J. Perelman (funny)
Love in the Ruins by Walker Percy
Others mentioned:
Martian Chronicles - read
Age of Innocence
The Drifters by Michner – read a few of his books
A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor
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