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The Female Persuasion: A Novel
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The Female Persuasion: A Novel
Unavailable
The Female Persuasion: A Novel
Audiobook14 hours

The Female Persuasion: A Novel

Written by Meg Wolitzer

Narrated by Rebecca Lowman

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

3.5/5

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Currently unavailable

About this audiobook

From the New York Times-bestselling author of The Interestings, an electric, multilayered novel about ambition, power, friendship, and mentorship, and the romantic ideals we all follow deep into adulthood, not just about who we want to be with, but who we want to be.

To be admired by someone we admire—we all yearn for this: the private, electrifying pleasure of being singled out by someone of esteem. But sometimes it can also mean entry to a new kind of life, a bigger world.

Greer Kadetsky is a shy college freshman when she meets the woman she hopes will change her life. Faith Frank, dazzlingly persuasive and elegant at sixty-three, has been a central pillar of the women's movement for decades, a figure who inspires others to influence the world. Upon hearing Faith speak for the first time, Greer- madly in love with her boyfriend, Cory, but still full of longing for an ambition that she can't quite place- feels her inner world light up. And then, astonishingly, Faith invites Greer to make something out of that sense of purpose, leading Greer down the most exciting path of her life as it winds toward and away from her meant-to-be love story with Cory and the future she'd always imagined.

Charming and wise, knowing and witty, Meg Wolitzer delivers a novel about power and influence, ego and loyalty, womanhood and ambition. At its heart, The Female Persuasion is about the flame we all believe is flickering inside of us, waiting to be seen and fanned by the right person at the right time. It's a story about the people who guide and the people who follow (and how those roles evolve over time), and the desire within all of us to be pulled into the light.

Editor's Note

New release…

This is a story as only Meg Wolitzer could tell it: An intimate yet epic novel about womanhood, power, ambition, mentorship — and what it means to be human in all of its complicated, heartbreaking glory.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateApr 3, 2018
ISBN9780525528173
Unavailable
The Female Persuasion: A Novel
Author

Meg Wolitzer

Meg Wolitzer’s novels include The Female Persuasion; Sleepwalking; This Is Your Life; Surrender, Dorothy; and The Position. She lives in New York City.

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Reviews for The Female Persuasion

Rating: 3.672537711267605 out of 5 stars
3.5/5

284 ratings35 reviews

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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Wolitzer continues to tell great stories written beautifully. These are people I know illustrating the true course of feminism but also living authentic lives filled with joy and tragedy and mundanity and lots and lots and lots of hard work.The Female Persuasion felt, to me (a feminist from back in the dark ages) to be the most authentic fictional take on the nearly impossible task of defining feminism in current times, and in helping to illustrate how the feminism of the 60's 70's and 80's, the good the bad and the ugly, plug into what is happening today, and why it all matters. The book also takes on the complexities of female friendship and the complications of mixing our brand of friendship with competition. (Competition is woven into male friendship and no one thinks twice about it, but a woman who presses her advantage over another woman in the workplace is considered evil by women and men alike.) And Wolitzer goes a step further, and includes male feminists Most of us are lucky enough to count some make feminists among our circle of family, friends and colleagues, many of us have raised at least one, but they don't seem to show up much in books. Faith was sexy, not threatening, in the eyes of a secure male feminist, not just because of the killer boots and the good ass, but maybe more because of the intellectual and emotional challenge she presented. I don't want to include spoilers, but I will say I was also gratified rather than heartbroken by Cory's choices about family and duty.These are big issues, and their treatment within this story was worthy and also entertaining and often very funny. Good stuff.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    As the ME TOO movement continues to make news, this book is a great example of female strength and determination. Well deserving of the praise it has gotten, I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I thought this novel, about a young woman coming of age who forms a mentorship relationship with an older, well-known feminist leader, was eminently readable and certainly captures this moment in our culture. Yet... perhaps it was too long, perhaps it focused too much on ancillary characters and was thus somewhat repetitive. There was something missing here, some a-ha moment in the center that makes everything coalesce. This just fell short of being a truly powerful read for me.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Second-wave feminism meets third (fourth?) wave in this novel about the complexity of women's relationships with each other. The main character is young, insecure Greer Kadetsky, who meets famous feminist Faith Frank at a college event and later goes to work for her foundation. Greer is best friends with an outspoken lesbian and feminist, Zee, but basically blackballs her from working at the foundation out of a kind of petty jealousy that is very human in its imperfection.Of Wolitzer's books, I still like The Interestings best, but this was good, and a fast read. The character development was strong except for Faith, who didn't always feel real to me. Also, having been there in the flesh, I know that the portrayal of second-wave feminism as dominated by affluent white women with their corporate sponsors is a grotesque caricature. But hey, fiction, and this was fun.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    After spending some time thinking about this book all I can really say is that I am completely unsure of what I took away from this if anything. Meg Wolitzer writes well but circles around everything and everyone. After a kazillion digital pages I was disappointed.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    "Greer Kadetsky is a shy college freshman when she meets the woman she hopes will change her life. Faith Frank, dazzlingly persuasive and elegant at sixty-three, has been a central pillar of the women's movement for decades, a figure who inspires others to influence the world. Upon hearing Faith speak for the first time, Greer--madly in love with her boyfriend, Cory, but still full of longing for an ambition that she can't quite place--feels her inner world light up. Then, astonishingly, Faith invites Greer to make something out of that sense of purpose, leading Greer down the most exciting path of her life as it winds toward and away from her meant-to-be love story with Cory and the future she'd always imagined" -Amazon review Wolitzer's style draws readers in - Her characterizations and almost tender, sympathetic details help us immediately embody any character she chooses to focus on. I think her portraits of the male characters were almost as strong as the female ones. Very much an examination of the American feminist movement but without the didactic historical novel approach. As I noted in another one of her books, The Interestings, she dwells in New York City- Eastern state(s) setting & moves back & forth between several characters, so some criticize her sometimes wandering plotlines..but I found it engaging, and some of her insightful lines I wanted to copy down somewhere... and ponder later. Her interest in the themes of female friendships takes center stage here - with lots to enjoy. Definitely a book club worthy read!
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Struggled with the audio book on this one. I am sure people will enjoy it, though.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    So...I know this has gotten some really great press...but it was soooooo needlessly long. Obviously, the author had a point to make but I got tired of being beaten over the head with it. There was some quotable material here, therefore the 3 stars instead of 2.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Finally found the book in Middletown library while looking for another book.An I interesting look at several generations fighting for female equality. Very timely considering the Me too movement, the women's march in DC, and interestingly enough I thought of the Never Again movement with its youthful enthusiasm, integrity, and lack of jadeness. But what happens? Life smacks up against you with all its excuses, adoration of the almighty buck, and personal agendas. I liked this book for its unblinking look at relationships and how over time everything changes.Excellent book. Second I've read by this author. Will seek more.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The Female Persuasion from Meg Wolitzer is, for me, a work of many contradictions or contrasts. Not all of these are strictly textual, many involve my interactions with the work. All in all I did enjoy the novel, though I am not sure if it is because of or in spite of it being problematic in many ways.First, the whole white middle class feminism and the first world problem aspects. These are certainly justifiable comments about the work but, I believe, it does not mean the novel is any more or less good based on those very simplistic observations. Rather I think it speaks to both Wolitzer's known world (and writers generally write about what they know so to say she shouldn't write this would be to say she shouldn't write about her experience with feminism, and I am not interested in silencing any writer) and, yes, the world of these particular feminists. More importantly for the novel itself is the story of people, humans experiencing life as they know it. I understand a reader deciding not to read about them, even if it is only because of their privilege within society and feminism. But to do so also for that reason alone is to ignore the common humanity of these characters with every one of us. These are human conflicts and issues as well as being a part of a larger sociological discourse, and to ignore either because of the other seems every bit as exclusionary as the complaints leveled against many such feminists.Having gotten that out of the way, I was swayed positively by the writing itself. No doubt it is not to everyone's liking, but anyone who makes hyperbolic statements about her "inability" to write or express herself is using absurd hyperbole to vent some other internal issue. I wish people would approach reality when they write these reviews. Wolitzer knows how to write and does so quite well. Not to everyone's taste but then no writer ever has, so that is very good company.I was less convinced about some of the interactions. I think what I found difficult was that I understood what a lot of the feelings and motivations were but I just wasn't convinced that the chosen actions and words are what the characters would have done. That disconnect kept me from being more enthusiastic about the book. Yet I also found many scenes to be so wonderful, mostly in the way they portrayed aspects of relationships, personal and working. I could see these scenes, even some of the ones I questioned in the previous paragraph, quite vividly. Some paralleled moments in my own life so touched me a bit more.I would recommend this to anyone interested in a moderately-paced story about relationships between women, between mentor and mentored, and between one's ideal perception of oneself versus what one becomes (and how we deal with any discrepancy). If you can accept that this is not about a world Wolitzer wouldn't know, and also that there is not much in the way of regret about how things were done, there is a great deal to like here. If you expect a novel to teach you something new about any feminisms of the past or present then you probably won't be satisfied. I can offer a substantial reading list from past courses but even that would have holes and gaps, so maybe take whatever we can from every single source, positively move on from what doesn't help us (without counterproductive hyperbolic criticism for not being what it could never have been), and always look to do what we believe to be right.Reviewed from a copy made available through Goodreads' First Reads.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Very timely book dealing with feminism, sexual assault, taking care of family, dreams crushed, eyes opened. I enjoyed the book. Cory and Zee were the most developed characters. Greer could have been more developed. Faith could have explained things better instead of leaving the rift at the end. There were many story lines but Cory and Zee grow up the most and become adults during the book. The others had some ways to go before becoming fully adult. All lost something on their journeys and what they lost was important. Those losses caused some to grow up while others went into downward spirals before their growing up began. Worth the read.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is my 4th novel by Wolitzer and though she is an excellent writer in terms of her prose style and use of language, I have never rated any of her novels above a 3.5. Her subject matter focuses on women issues and I enjoy this, but I think I don't rate her higher because I don't always buy into her story lines. In this book we are dealing with young women coming into college and dealing with the world of male dominance and the emergence of their desire to connect to issues that impact women. Wolitzer has a key character (Faith Frank) who is a Gloria Steinem type icon of the feminist movement. It shows the key characters(Greer and Zee) dealing with their own sexuality, friendship, and place in the world. It strongly deals with mentorship and the impact that can have on younger people making their way in the world. There are male characters but they are more a sidelight to the story. The book is well paced and a good read but it never totally came together for me. With so many different story lines surrounding the different characters, Wolitzer ends up tying the ending into a tight little bow of resolution. Again, the book deals with lots of different life issues and is a worthwhile read. If you have never read Wolitzer, then I recommend her, especially if you are a female. As an older white male, I enjoyed the book but it did not resonate with me as much as it might for someone else. Always interesting to read a hyped new novel that is already destined to be a movie(Nicole Kidman).
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Here's the updated version of Marge Piercy's feminist novel Small Changes, 1973, which documented the fictional lives of young people making revolution in their living styles, work, and political activism. Wolitzer, in a witty and most deeply sincere dive into both the past and future of feminism, brings us Faith, a Second-Wave Gloria Steinem type, whose appearance at Greer's college inspires her to transcend her shyness (much as Beth did in Small Changes) and plunge into her work at Faith's foundation and her new life in Brooklyn. Greer's boyfriend, Cory, suffers through a heartbreaking family crisis and retreats from his consulting job in Manila to return to their hometown in Central Massachusetts and to a breakup with Greer. The storyline shifts effectively from character to character, including secondaries Zee, Greer's college best friend, Faith's benefactor Emmett, who both move in and out of their lives in critically important ways. I anticipate that this might be my go-to novel for the late middle part of my life, just like Small Changes was for my early twenties. It's hard to believe that Wolitzer, daughter of excellent writer Hilma Wolitzer, and author of nine fine prior novels, could get any better.Quotes: "She had been absorbed in her own unhappiness, practically curating it.""The boys aerosolizing themselves with a body spray called Stadium, which seemed to be half pine sap, half A1 Steak Sauce.""She still owned a whole color spectrum of boots, which let everyone know she had once been a knockout, a sexual powerhouse, and maybe still was.""Greer had noticed, when she was very young, how, looking straight ahead, you could sort of always see the side of your own nose. It would always be part of her view of the world. Greer understood it was hard to escape herself.""Did you ever think of poisoning our teacher?" Elise casually asked her one day."no, " Greer said."Yeah, neither do I," said Elise."The male faculty in their oatmeal tweed and low-slung corduroys that revealed their deflated, tenured asses, and from the female faculty in shaggy, earthy, academic, latter-day Stevie Nicks dress, ambling into the long, less frequently tenured rest of their lives.""This was New York, where famous people drank from the same trough you did.""Greer wondered if everyone had a certain degree of awfulness inside them.""People's marriages were like two-person religious cults, impossible to understand.""Throughout her life, intermittently fearing her parents' eventual deaths, the only positive aspect about that inevitability was that finally there would be no one on earth who would say to her, "Would it kill you to wear a skirt?"
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Story of Greer Kadetsky from adolescence to success as a feminist writer inspired by Faith Franks a Gloria Steinem clone. Well written, good perspective on the timidity of many young women. Fortunately, we grow up and face real life problems with smarts and integrity. I will read more from this author.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    There are two aspects of feminism, says Faith Frank, the elder stateswoman of feminism in Meg Wolitzer's new book. The first concerns individualism, the idea that each woman gets to choose the shape of her own life. The second she calls "sisterhood" and centers around the idea that individual feminism can't take place unless women act together for advancement. Similar disquisitions on feminism occur throughout the book, as the characters give speeches, have conversations, and generally try to figure out what feminism even means these days. After all, as one character says, "I assumed there would always be a little progress and then a little slipping, you know? And then a little more progress. But instead the whole idea of progress was taken away, and who knew that could happen, right?" Although the current political environment is never explicitly discussed, it's clear that by the end of the book the real world and fiction have collided.This book is much more than a feminist screed, though many gems on the subject can be found within its pages. We are also given several deep and complex characters and their relationships, through which Wolitzer explores themes of self-discovery, betrayal, and idealism.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    At times I felt like going through this book with a red pen and crossing out unnecessary observations or cringeworthy descriptions. This book was several hundred pages too long.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Audio-. Loved it until the end.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Although this has a feminist backdrop, the relationships between the characters are more important than the details of feminist thought. There is some acknowledgement of trends and corporatized feminism, but in the end, ideology is less important than the idea of having a voice.

    The characters are all generally sympathetic, though imperfect, and generally well drawn. The plot dips back and forth in time and between characters, and it's an effective device.

    The ending is a little pat, perhaps, but it works.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Well-written and realistic, but left me wanting just a little more...something.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Really enjoyed the different perspectives of feminism and just the general feel of this novel. The different perspectives took nothing away from the story itself, and added a lot of meat to the characters that otherwise wouldn’t have been known.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Tedium. I loved The Ten Year Nap, and I've loved most of her mother's books, but I just couldn't get into this. Just didn't care about the characters, and the long saga of the arc of their lives was just, sadly, boring.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This book was slow for me but kept my interest enough that I wanted to see what happened. To my surprise I felt like it actually gained a little momentum in the last 1/4 or so. There was something about the writing that kept me at a distance from the characters. I felt like even though there was a lot of exposition - I lacked things to relate to with the four we spent the most time with.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I liked large sections of this book, but there were also parts that seemed to drag. I'm starting to wonder if Meg Wolitzer needs a better editor, as I found "The Interestings" to be similarly patchy. The basic plot of this story is good and interesting and many, all maybe, of the characters are well drawn and realistic, as far as I could see.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I really wish GoodReads had half stars, because this would have earned 3.5. However, I just couldn't get it to four. The book is long, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. The characters are well-developed. Each main character (Greer, Cory, Faith and Zee) have at least one chapter devoted to their backstory, their present and we know their future. Each character is flawed, which is great, because as a reader, you can relate; however, I also didn't find myself truly rooting for any of them. The highlight of the book is relationships - with females. Relationships with a mentor, with a mother, and with other women are the focus of the book. It's obviously a book about feminism, but it's not in-your-face with it. Rather, you think about the power of female relationships. I was left thinking about my own relationships after I finished the book. Overall, a solid read.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Very well written fiction about both the feminist movement and the relationships involved. The characters are very human and engendered empathy. The difficulties involved are well presented.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    got about 30% through before i realized how much i just did not care about these people, specifically greer.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    This book made me feel exhausted and bored. It tells the story of a bunch of white feminists in a humanizing but ultimately useless way. It accepts the reality of existing as a human is to compromise, in some ways I appreciated and some I thought were bullshit. While there are beautiful moments of insight and writing, it feels like a giant love letter to the folks who wore pussy hats to the Women's March, and doesn't challenge or invite readers to grow beyond that moment. The author works hard to represent a bunch of perspectives that are already seen every day, and I left this book wondering what exactly she was hoping to accomplish other than gain sympathy for the "plight" of white feminists who want to be forgiven for everything.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Good characterizAtion; you come care about the characters and what happens to them. Good links to current mores and social movements. Thoroughly enjoyed this novel (I also liked her other books.)
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    A satisfying novel of a young woman trying to figure out who she is, and who she is supposed to be in the world. SUMMARYGreer Kadetsky is a shy college freshman at Ryland College. She’s there because her parents could not fill out the financial aid forms that would have yielded her entry into Yale. This isn’t where she wanted to be. While at Ryland, she meets Faith Frank for the first time. Faith, 63, is a feminist icon and has been a central player in the women’s movement for decades. Faith can carry a room with her knowledge and wit, and her suede boots were enviable. Greer is captivated by Faith, and after graduation goes to work for her, interviewing women for their stories and writing speeches. Her relationship with Faith as her mentor becomes complicated. Greer and Cory had been a couple since high school.They had planned on going to college together, but that didn’t happen. Cory was accepted at Yale, while Greer was relegated to Ryland college. Though hundreds of miles apart their relationship survived, and they made plans for after graduation. But once again things didn’t work out as planned for either Greer or Cory. Greer’s best friend, Zee who’s is gay, is also struggling to make a difference in the world. She too wanted to work for Faith Frank. “I think there are two kinds of feminist. The famous ones, and everyone else. Everyone else, all the people who just quietly go and do what they’re supposed to do, and don’t get a lot of credit for it, and don’t have someone out there every day telling them they’re doing an awesome job.”REVIEWTHE FEMALE PERSUASION is a novel about a young woman who is trying to find her place in the world. It about a woman trying to figure out who she is supposed to be and who she is suppose to be with. It’s about the obstacles in her life that prevented her from achieving the things she thought she was supposed to be doing. While the writing was great I found reading it to be a struggle at times, and my interest sometimes faltered. The story was long but interestingly raised a variety of social issues that played significant role in the narrative: privilege, personal/professional ethics, and family responsibility to name just a few. The modern day feminism aspect of the book left a little to be desired. The people in Greer’s life, her best-friend, Zee, her boyfriend, Cory and her mentor, Faith, all played pivotal roles in guiding Greer’s decisions and impacting her life. Greer’s character was at times frustrating, she left me waiting for her to evolve into a stronger, bolder character. All characters were well developed and I particularly liked Cory, and how he handled the difficulties he faced after graduation. Meg Wolitzer is a New York Times best selling author of The Interestings, The Uncoupling, The Ten-Year Nap, The Position, The Wife and Sleepwalking. I listened to the audio version of the book, which was narrated by Rebecca Lowman. Publisher Penguin Random House Audio. Publication Date April 3, 2018.“I do it for women. Not everyone agrees with the way I do it. Women in powerful positions are never safe from criticism. The kind of feminism I’ve practice is one way to go about it. There are plenty of others, and that’s great. There are impassioned and radical young women out there, telling multiple stories. I applaud them. We need them. We need as many women fighting as possible. I learned that early on from the wonderful Gloria Steinem - the world is big enough for different kinds of feminist to coexist, people who want to emphasize different aspects of the fight for equality. God knows the injustices are endless, and I am going to use whatever resources are at my disposal to fight in the way I know how.”
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Disappointing, thin and overlong. Skips over the most interesting part of the story, how Greer finds her voice and finds her way back to Cory,

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