The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer || Book Review

Confession: I went for the cover.

I’m a sucker for colourful things, okay??

Okay, I did read the blurb and it was somewhat catchy enough to check out at the library and bring home. As I’ve mentioned before, I try to read diversely to see things from different perspectives and gain insight into how others think and draw a line of understanding.

This book? I have no idea what went wrong.

DISCLAIMER: This review could contain possible spoilers based on my opinions. All opinions and views are my own.

Book review: The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer #bookreview #megwolitzer #thefemalepersuasion #contemporarybooks #booktwt #bookaddict #booktwitter
Tweet

Originally published: 2018

Pages: 640
Format: Paperback

Plot from GoodReads:

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.

Thoughts:

I’m honestly still trying to wrap my head around the point of this book. Yes, it is clearly about feminism but it was more about complaining about privileged women and them not using it for the right reasons.

The plot kept addressing the same small repetitive problems but there were no new ideas or pushes forward to help the feminism rise in the book. Basically, look at the book and look at the world, and it’s exactly the same thing. There was nothing inspirational or illuminating to find.

I liked Greer at first but her actions against some of the characters in the book, burning bridges to help herself along and her selfishness, made me feel like I didn’t really care for her going forward. Again, the irony for a main character while you have a strong message coming out of the book was disappointing. Yes, no one is perfect, but you can’t make the same mistakes and not see your fault in them. She constantly showed contradicting behaviour.

I couldn’t find any reasons to like Cory in the beginning; superficial and slightly obnoxious, and then following on his actions in the book made me care for him even less. In fact, I kind of hoped he would just disappear completely. Then later on the book, he makes a huge turn around, not that his past crimes are that easily forgiven, but he turns out to be the one character who actually shows some character growth. The irony in a book about focuses on feminism.

The book was too character driven, even thought the characters lacked depth, and not enough focus on the message the book should’ve been pushing through.

None of the characters stood out to me, none I related to and only Cory, irony again, made some waves in the plot.

Overview:

The book left a hateful taste in my mouth, with the lying and backstabbing, and I wonder if the author was trying to achieve just that: inflamed emotions of anger and injustice.