I was really disappointed with the way characters were written in this novel - the "three women" are all severely whiny and self-obsessed, especially Beverley and Elena, who act like spoiled and ignorant children. Elena, ironically, constantly criticizes her mother's "bourgeois" and "boring" lifestyle despite depending on her mother for all of her practical needs; in the same way, Beverley seems entirely unappreciative of the way in which the entire family unit shifted itself to accommodate and support her after the stroke(s), and gets angry (!?) when her family doesn't want to assist her own suicide, as though this is something any normal person would ask of their family...whaaat? My main problem with Piercy's writing (that is, of what I have read) is that the female characters require some sort of male figure (usually a deceptive lover) to "catalyze" their own self-development. Suzanne excepted, Rachel, Elena, and Marta all define themselves after and against some incident involving a man. It belies the "feminist" spirit of the novel to have each of the male characters serve as a catalyst for the "becomings" of the female protagonists.And this is another problem with the text - the male characters are written like wooden plot devices with one of two roles: they are either passionate assholes who give great sex and sweep the women off their feet, only to be later exposed as evil; or, they lack any character whatsoever and are literally shells used by Elena, Beverley, and Suzanne to have casual sex with. And Piercy makes it very clear that Elena doesn't care about Sean; she just uses him for protection and sex. Beverley disdains "love" and has purely "superficial" and sexual relationships with men, and constantly acts superior to anyone else who - heaven forbid - seeks out an emotional connection with a man. The same dichotomy is present in Suzanne's relationships: her first marriage, with Victor, is passionate and quick because, "of course," a passionate man doesn't stick around. And her second, with Sam, is "rational," less passionate, for the sake of convenience. This kind of dichotomy is present throughout, in both the female characters and the male characters, as though human beings can either be crazy bohemians with no responsibilities, out for sex and thrills (Elena, Beverley), or, they are "rational," bourgeois, etc. I detest these kind of sharp dichotomies, because I don't think they exist in reality. I wish the male characters were more believable, more than just demonized plot devices, and that the female characters were less...how shall I say this...annoying and one-dimensional.
Three Women is a book that is sometimes hard to read. This is mostly because through most of the book it is very hard to like any of the major characters. They are all so deeply flawed. The three women are Suzanne, a brilliant attorney and legal professor, her mother Beverly, who is a social activist and the third is Suzanne's eldest daughter Elena.The relationships between the mothers and daughters are difficult and had been that way for as far back as any of them could remember. Suzanne is the only child of single mother Beverly and she always felt that she disappointed her mother because she had become more like her aunt Karla than her mother. Karla had taken over some of the care taking of a young Suzanne when Beverly's work took her away from her child. Elena was the product of an affair her mother had and she has a younger half sister Rachel who is in Israel for much of the book.Circumstances bring the three women together: Elena loses her job and her apartment and invites herself to stay in her mother's home as a woman in her late 20s. Beverly soon follows when a stroke leaves her debilitated and needing much care. Suzanne is pulled in so cry many directions at once: the financial dependence of her family including Rachel who is expecting her mother to foot the bill for her wedding in Israel with her fellow rabbinical student Michael. Suzanne shares the 2-flat home with her best friend Marta and her husband Jim. They are two peripheral characters in the beginning but become much more important as the story goes on.Some of the novel is spent in flashback to Elena's teen years and it serves to demonstrate why Suzanne has so little patience and trust in her oldest daughter. Elena needs her mother support but resents it at the same time. She expects her mother to move out of her home office space so that she does not have to share a bedroom with her sister. But she is obviously hurt the it is a home that is no longer hers.So much happens in the book - and Suzanne finally getting a semblance of a love life is only a side story later in the book - that would only be a spoiler to mention here but somehow the characters become much more redeemable in the end.
What do You think about Three Women (2001)?
This is the second Marge Piercy book I have read. And I like her as an author. She is not always easy to read and I have at stages disliked characters in both her books, but she is real. The characters are rounded and full. And very real.The first three women of this title are three generation of a family. Grandmother, mother and daughter; all similar women and yet unable to see the similarities. Beverly, the grandmother and Elena, the granddaughter have a kindred spirit, but all the other relationships are fraught and difficult. Suzanne, the middle woman, truly is in the middle. She struggles with her relationship with both her mother and her daughter, but loves them desperately and is unable to articulate this in a way they understand. The essential sameness between these women; their strengths and weaknesses is what keeps them apart for so much of their lives, but what joins them all together in the end.Beverly has a stroke early in the book, and Elena is fired from her job. This causes all three women to be living together in a small house and to have to finally deal with their stuff, and listen to what each actually needs. This slow realisation of each other is griping and intense and very powerful.The three women are also Suzanne, her best friend Marta, and Elena. Marta lives upstairs in the same house as Suzanne with her husband Jim. When Elena and Jim start an affair, the dynamics between these three women and their complicated interconnected relationships brings another layer to this book. This story runs easily alongside the story of the three relatives, and interweaves interestingly.The third set of three women could be seen to be Suzanna, Elena and her sister, Rachel. Rachel is away most of the book, but her character balances that of Elena. Elena is crazy, impulsive and lands up in trouble often. As she puts it she ‘has broken many people’s dishes.’ Rachel is studying to be a rabbi and in many ways is the more stable sister. Until she too realises how badly she has read someone.There are other triumvirates in the book; it is populated by strong likable women. Mothers, daughters, family responsibility and the love contained within families are the themes that run through this absorbing and lingering book.Well worth a read, but don’t expect it to be easy!
—Kim
This is the third book I have read that was written by Marge Piercy and the third one to which I have given 5 stars. This book is very different from the previous two – Gone to Soldiers and City of Darkness, City of Light. They were very well-researched historical novels. This is a story –actually the stories (past and present) -- of three women, daughter, mother, and grandmother and the women and men who populate their lives (past and present). As always, Piercy‘s writing captures the experiences and feeling of each individual in an extraordinary way. The book is compelling and, because of the generations it crosses, cannot help but draw the reader to self-reflection.
—Barbara
Marge Piercy writes a good novel but is somewhat stuck in the 1960's and 1970's. All must be political and feminist. The three women are actually 3 generations of women in a Jewish family. The elderly mother, Beverly Blume, erstwhile union organizer, suffers a stroke affecting her over-extended lawyer daughter Suzanne, and her granddaughter, Elena, at 27 foundering in messy love affairs and self delusion. Elena's younger sister is studying to become a rabbi which puzzles the rest of the secular family. No male-female relationship works out; female friendship trumps all and family ties bind but also free.Read again in January 2013.
—Barbara
