The Stepford Wives
by Ira Levin, Peter Straub
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Book Summary Information
Author: Ira Levin, Peter StraubEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2002-07-23
ISBN: 0060080841
Number of pages: 144
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
Book Reviews of The Stepford Wives
Book Review: More important for the ideas than the language
Summary: 5 Stars
Ira Levin's "The Stepford Wives" is already one classic of the feminism --or the chauvinism, depending on where you come from. Written in the early 70s the novel was published when all the feminist movement --and the sexual revolution-- was still fresh, so that it allowed a reading that nowadays is a little dated, nevertheless important.
As some have pointed, the book's strength is not the language, but the ideas. Sure it is a quick read. Levin is not worried with the creating of crafted sentences, or using difficult and obscure words --his style is very straight. The major point in "The Stepford Wives" is the story indeed: battle of genders.
The concept of women against men is as old as the mankind, but never has it taken such a dark and creepy bend in the road. In the town of Stepford everything seems to be perfect --as if perfection is a plausible thing. Women are housewives who adore their working husbands. Joanna Eberhart and her family have just moved. Like some women of her time, she wants to have a job, and also tackle her family. Little does she know that such thing is not possible in that place. With a new friend, the spirited Bobbie, she will discover that living in Stepford is not the best place in the world.
Playing with sci-fi and the absurdity, Levin wrote a work that is timeless. He has taken the battle of the sexes one step further. It is impossible not to laugh at some point, and be desperate at others. His plot is a metaphor with a naturalistic approach --this is hard device for a writer, but he can manage that very well. At some point --mostly in the first part of the novel --not much happens. There are pages describing Joanna's day, which, by the way, happen to be very boring. And the writer has a point with that.
For this novel, Levin should be nominated as the undisputable king of the subtleness. Different from many contemporary writers, he creates the mood without giving too much --in this point he is precise. We always have the feeling that we should know a little more --but he leaves much room for the imagination, and it is great. Maybe one of the best disciples of Levin is Stephen King --not all the time, but he has learned a few tricks with the master.
As I aforementioned, this is a quick book, and won't take more than two or three sittings to read, but its effect is everlasting. Just like in "Rosemary's Baby" it is impossible to be tell with precision what is really happening and what is the paranoia. Maybe everything is happening inside the protagonists' head --or not. And this is the creepiest aspect of his novels.
The battle of the sexes and the portrait of time --plus its entertaining aspect-- make of "The Stepford Wives" a timeless book. For further enjoyment I suggest the original movie, the one staring Katherine Ross and Paula Prentiss.
Summary of The Stepford Wives
The internationally bestselling novel by the author of A Kiss Before Dying, The Boys from Brazil, and Rosemary's Baby
For Joanna, her husband, Walter, and their children, the move to beautiful Stepford seems almost too good to be true. It is. For behind the town's idyllic facade lies a terrible secret -- a secret so shattering that no one who encounters it will ever be the same.
At once a masterpiece of psychological suspense and a savage commentary on a media-driven society that values the pursuit of youth and beauty at all costs, The Stepford Wives is a novel so frightening in its final implications that the title itself has earned a place in the American lexicon.
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