Book Review by Anna Karras

The Book Club for Troublesome Women

In 1963, the standard “good life” for a woman in America looked like this: a husband with a good job, three kids, a nice house in the suburbs, and a station wagon. Margaret Ryan had these things, but the outward picture was not the reality. She and her husband stretched themselves financially to get their house, money was tight, and Margaret didn’t have a spare moment beyond caring for her family and home. Truly, she felt a little let down by life. But a new neighbor moved into their neighborhood and changed everything.

Margaret was fascinated by Charlotte Gustafson when she went to deliver a batch of welcome cookies to her doorstep. Charlotte, from New York, was sophisticated, worldly, and blunt – everything Margaret was not. On impulse, Margaret asked Charlotte to join her book club (which had been nonexistent until that moment), and Charlotte agreed as long as she got to choose the first book. Her selection? Bett Friedan’s newly published The Feminine Mystique.

The women are joined by Margaret’s two close friends Viv and Bitsy for the first meeting. It was a bit of a disaster: the conversation was stilted and uncomfortable. Charlotte, taking charge, mixed a batch of cocktails and finally the women began to open up. A tepid book club had transformed into a safe space where they could be honest about the ways they, as women, had been sold a bill of goods as to what they should want out of life.

Bostwick weaves the stories of the four women together as they navigate an environment resistant to their growing sense of frustration and anger at being relegated to the kitchen and the nursery. Viv, dismayed to discover at 41 years old she was expecting her seventh child, is contrasted by Bitsy, newly married to an older man and struggling with infertility. Margaret pushes the boundaries of what her editor will accept for publication and Charlotte soundly ignores her mental illness, which may be her undoing. Gone are the coffee klatches where the women gather to discuss recipes and effective ways to get rid of grass stains, replaced by real and complex friendships where women support each other.

The Book Club for Troublesome Women will remind some of what life used to be like, while teaching younger generations of women what our mothers and grandmothers fought to give us: freedom. And not just freedom to have our own credit card or plan when and how many children we want to have. They also gave us the right to have our ideas and opinions given voice.

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∞ Author Profile

Marie Bostwick grew up in the Pacific Northwest, a big reader from a young age. While she received a degree in communications, her big love is writing fiction. She lives in Washington State with her husband, has three grown sons, and a myriad of hobbies. Bostwick has been writing for over 20 years, and The Book Club for Troublesome Women is her eighteenth novel.