Grab the Lapels

The Longings of Women by Marge Piercy

I was so enamored by Marge Piercy’s novel Woman on the Edge of Time — how it was unique and stuck in my thoughts — that I grabbed several Piercy novels the next time I was at the local used books store. In my basket I had The Longings of Women. It looks like a trashy romance novel with that key and the front cover that flips open to reveal something else. But how could Piercy’s skills let me down?

The Longings of Women alternate three narrators: Leila, Becky, and Mary. I told my mom that the novel reminded me of a weird version of the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future. Really, the entire novel focuses on the economic frailty of women. Mary is 61 and has been homeless for eight years. Her husband cheated on her, and she lost everything, which was a lot. Mary had been well to do while married. Currently, she works as a housekeeper and sleeps in basements or her clients’ homes when they’re on vacation.

Leila is in her 40’s, a tenured professor and investigative journalist who writes books. Her husband, an actor and theater director, thinks he’s a big shot, but truly seems stuck to local-ish plays. Perhaps he can launch one in New York City, but you get the impression his work is off-off-off Broadway. The couple agreed that he could have affairs when his work took him out of town for long periods, but now it seems his adultery has hit too close to home, and Leila is in the process of divorce.

Becky grew up poor with many family members in a small house. People shared bedrooms and bathrooms and money as they all tried to keep it together. She mimics professional women she sees in magazines in an effort to claw her way out of poverty. After earning a degree in Communications, Becky finds a job at a TV station where she is made a secretary, not an anchorwoman. However, her work puts her in the path of a contractor, who takes her out to dinner. Despite his family’s protests — they have money, and Becky is ill-bred — the couple marry when Becky is in her twenties. Before soon, the new husband has lost his job and can’t find work, but likely has found a girlfriend, a golf course, and friends to party with.

So, you see, Mary is what happens after the divorce, Leila is in the process, and Becky is just finding out about marriage to a toxic husband. If that were not clever enough, Piercy overlaps events throughout the novel. In the opening scenes, we know Becky is on trial for the murder of her husband, so Leila goes to prison to talk to her because Leila’s been asked to write a book about the crime. Becky is accused of luring a high school boy with sex into killing her spouse for her. Becky and the boy met while performing in a local play — a theater connection between two characters. Leila’s son is the same age as Becky’s high school lover. Mary cleans Leila’s house. And thought it seems unbelievable, two characters narrowly escape from burning buildings while three people die inside. If you’re not really paying attention, you’ll miss some of these crossovers that Piercy puts in so carefully to remind women that they are all similar, all vulnerable — that the bottom can fall out financially on anyone.

While the title and cover make The Longings of Women seem like a bodice ripper, the true point is to show that women long for shelter, financial security, and respect. An excellent read that was unpredictable.

35 comments

  2. Oh this does sound clever AND excellent. I guess it depends on what sort of reader we are whether we accept the structure and coincidences. Is it a long read?

    BTW, the cover doesn’t look that bad to me, but in the flesh it might look or feel a bit different particularly if the key is an actual flap. Is that what you meant?

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    • The cover has a flap that is shorter and doesn’t reach the edge of the page, which is common in romance novels. Typically, you open the flat and see a straight couple in a sultry embrace. I’m not sure how long it is because mine is the mass market paperback, which means the pages are smaller in size. I do think this book speaks to people at a variety of ages because the three main characters are each a different generation.

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          • But of course we aren’t … I think the youngest is 65 and the oldest about 75! Twelve of us in that group! There are good things about wide ranging ages – such as these wonderful conversations with you. (You have no idea how often I quote my lovely young blogging friend in America!). But there are also good things about being the same age and going through the same things together — we’ve been through babies, school, university students, juggling our careers, retirement, aging parents, and now our own aging. It’s been very special.

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            • You made me smile! Thank you! I do understand what you mean about having the same experiences. Though I feel hesitant admitting it, there is something (for me) intimate about being a woman, so when we open the conversation to be more inclusive of transwomen and genderfluid people, the conversation no longer feels intimate. However, that’s something I have to ask myself: do I want the intimacy of shared experience, or do I want to be more inclusive? The older I get, the more I want intimacy, but that’s something I still grapple with. As for finding someone my age, that doesn’t really work for me right now. My professors are my age. My cohort are 20 years younger.

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              • Yes, I like that description about intimacy and women. That’s exactly why my reading group is for women only. We don’t sit and talk about our husbands – as I think they think, and sometimes fear, we might – but there’s a shared understanding of the world, even when our responses to individual books differ widely, that is so important and, perhaps, validating. I think the word “intimacy” might cover what this is.

                I remember when my mum was a “mature age” student at university in her mid-late 40s. She found some women like her, and one or two of whom became life-time friends. But she was doing a general arts degree, so there was a greater diversity of students than you’d find in something specialised like you are doing.

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                • I didn’t realize your mom went to school in her 40’s. I know your blog is for books, but I wish you had more about your own life and family on there, even what your mom read in school or read to you, etc.

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  3. Looking at that cover, I would definitely thought this to be a bodice ripper. Which leads me to the question, is it marketed that way to try to get women specifically to buy it? Why make it look like a romance cover?

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  6. This sounds a lot more clever than that cover would lead me to believe. It’s wild how recently women have even been able to gain financial freedom (having a bank account or annoying property without a man’s involvement).

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  8. While I didn’t love Woman on the Edge of Time as much as you did, I was hugely impressed by Piercy’s writing. This sounds like another very clever book with complex characters. I think I would assume a book with a cover like this was a cod psychology/self-help book (especially coupled with the title) – my stereotype of bodice rippers definitely comes from Jilly Cooper novels, and all her books look basically the same.

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    • I just Googled the Jilly Cooper novels and am intrigued by how they’ve changed. Clearly, they’ve had reprints with a theme, such as the all white plus a splash of red. Now they have that faceless woman cover that so many books in the romance genre have.

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  10. I enjoyed Woman on the Edge of Time – which I thought both you and Lou persuaded me to read – but I’m not sure this one would be high enough on my list of priorities to pay for it (though Audible has a new best ever offer of 24 books for $239.99 which is a fair discount on the $16.50/book of my first subscription)

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    • I still can’t believe your library doesn’t offer good audiobooks on Libby. Well, good is relative, of course. I suppose I read what’s available, when it comes to audiobooks, instead of seeking out ones I have to pay for. Biscuit is much like you, though. She wants audio no matter what.

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  12. Ooooo this sounds really good! I love the three different stages approach, it really makes it hit home for every kind of reader. Financial independence is so key for me, I take an active role in my family’s finances and I’ll never stop – probably because I read books like this and think ‘what if’? so I always like to have a plan b and c up my sleeve. 😉

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    • I know the show has aged like milk, but I love Sex and the City: The Movie. It opens with a friend of the foursome who was dumped by her man, who paid for all their things for ages but wouldn’t marry her, so the scorned woman publicly sold all the jewelry he ever gave her. It makes Carry Bradshaw think about how she and Big have a home they both invest in, but it’s all technically his. She would lose a lot if he dumped her. That public auction is the catalyst for Carry and Big to get married, and it’s really about financial stability. I think that message could have been emphasized in the film, but it’s not hidden.

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