Rating: 
Summary: An entertaining, insightful read
Review: A new door has opened finding this author quite by accident in a second hand book store. Since reading Her Mother's daughter I can't read enough books written by this author. As a woman of 50 I feel -for the first time in my life- that there are other women like me, torn between the old and new way of life. Working and bringing up children. Husbands raised by their parents not understanding that we women are living two lives at the same time and trying to be perfect and please everyone, parents, husband and children and our boss. . The men were not to be blamed, they didn't know any better than we did, it took me 25 years to gently make my husband understand my point of view and to change my own attitude to life. I hope I made a better job bringing up my two sons to this new way of life - the 50/50 way. In my opinion Marilyn French doesn't hate men - as is said in a previous review- , she definitely points out the frustration, torment of forever feeling guilty women our age experience because of the way we were raised. I cannot speak for younger women. The book is compusilve reading, nothing to do with being a feminist, but to understand how women of the fifties and sixties feel and experience life. Fantastic reading, the best ever....and I've read more books than I can remember. I'm certainly advertising this author among my friends and they are just as impressed as I am. Thank you Ms. French.
Rating: 
Summary: A fantastic discovery
Review: A new door has opened finding this author quite by accident in a second hand book store. Since reading Her Mother's daughter I can't read enough books written by this author. As a woman of 50 I feel -for the first time in my life- that there are other women like me, torn between the old and new way of life. Working and bringing up children. Husbands raised by their parents not understanding that we women are living two lives at the same time and trying to be perfect and please everyone, parents, husband and children and our boss. . The men were not to be blamed, they didn't know any better than we did, it took me 25 years to gently make my husband understand my point of view and to change my own attitude to life. I hope I made a better job bringing up my two sons to this new way of life - the 50/50 way. In my opinion Marilyn French doesn't hate men - as is said in a previous review- , she definitely points out the frustration, torment of forever feeling guilty women our age experience because of the way we were raised. I cannot speak for younger women. The book is compusilve reading, nothing to do with being a feminist, but to understand how women of the fifties and sixties feel and experience life. Fantastic reading, the best ever....and I've read more books than I can remember. I'm certainly advertising this author among my friends and they are just as impressed as I am. Thank you Ms. French.
Rating:
Summary: An entertaining, insightful read
Review: I am reading Her Mother's Daughter - its coming to an end, and I know I will miss these characters and their wonderful insights into the lives of women. I am of the younger generation, and I suppose the rules are not as rigid for me , but the roles women are expected to play do not change. As the generations go by, the guilt becomes less ( I hope), but will it ever go away? I spite of having so many depressed women in it- it is suprprsingly not a depressing book, rather, it is uplifting, as introspective books can sometimes be. I would disagree with the other reviewers who have said that the author seems to hate men- it is not so. She does not hate men, only the world-order that favors men... when she says "... it was not a fit life for a man, .. why was it considered a fit life for a woman.."-she brings out the question that every woman has instinctively wanted to ask.
Rating:
Summary: It's hard to imagine!
Review: I have always known that women were a minority race. This book brought it more to the light to me. I have only a few pages left but I know that I love this book and how it makes me think of the women in the past and all that they were up against!While reading I would get so angry and life's circumstances and men and women's roles in it. I don't know how the women did it! But I see it is still there - in the air! Men and Women! And I still get angry! And I know that I have those women to thank for the opportunity to say No! when I feel like it. Great book!
Rating:
Summary: It's hard to imagine!
Review: I have always known that women were a minority race. This book brought it more to the light to me. I have only a few pages left but I know that I love this book and how it makes me think of the women in the past and all that they were up against! While reading I would get so angry and life's circumstances and men and women's roles in it. I don't know how the women did it! But I see it is still there - in the air! Men and Women! And I still get angry! And I know that I have those women to thank for the opportunity to say No! when I feel like it. Great book!
Rating:
Summary: exploring the power of detail
Review: Marilyn French has written a number of good books--each exploring things that are in fact common, every day aspects of life--and thus oft times invisible and not recognized as important. Becasue she is also a good writer and a talented story teller--she is able to keep us reading, all the while making us think about how important these 'small' parts of life really are. In this book she creates characters who are glued together by biology and family culture and yet who are entirely unique individuals who love and struggle with each other as they create their own and each others lives. You come away from it with a sence of the importance of the details of our own lives and the impact of all those 'small' things in our lives on the lives of others. Thus this book can entertain you and leave you with things to think about far into the future--an accomplishment for any novel.
Rating:
Summary: exploring the power of detail
Review: Marilyn French has written a number of good books--each exploring things that are in fact common, every day aspects of life--and thus oft times invisible and not recognized as important. Becasue she is also a good writer and a talented story teller--she is able to keep us reading, all the while making us think about how important these 'small' parts of life really are. In this book she creates characters who are glued together by biology and family culture and yet who are entirely unique individuals who love and struggle with each other as they create their own and each others lives. You come away from it with a sence of the importance of the details of our own lives and the impact of all those 'small' things in our lives on the lives of others. Thus this book can entertain you and leave you with things to think about far into the future--an accomplishment for any novel.
Rating:
Summary: The book of my life
Review: This book had me hooked from the first page. I never thought I was someone to enjoy something billed as "feminist literature", but if said literature is great literature as well...! This story of three mothers and four daughters is simply gripping. We get an inside perspective into each women's life, then an outside perspective of seeing her as her daughter sees her. The story of each life is great and packed with happenings. I felt strangely uplifted as a woman after reading it, although I will think twice about having a daughter now.
Rating:
Summary: A beautiful page-turner
Review: This book had me hooked from the first page. I never thought I was someone to enjoy something billed as "feminist literature", but if said literature is great literature as well...! This story of three mothers and four daughters is simply gripping. We get an inside perspective into each women's life, then an outside perspective of seeing her as her daughter sees her. The story of each life is great and packed with happenings. I felt strangely uplifted as a woman after reading it, although I will think twice about having a daughter now.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing unbalanced view of life
Review: This book was a depressing survey of how women perceive that they are slighted by men. The characters in this book (and the author herself?) blame men for every bad thing that happens to them and on earth, for that matter, rather than taking responsiblity for their own destiny. After reading this book, I had the distinct impression that the author, Marilyn French, hates men and is bent on telling the world about it. Unrealistically, each male character in the book was portrayed as unsympathetic if not downright evil. While there are certainly unkind and bad men in the world, this unbalanced view of life made the author lose credibility. I know that Marilyn French is a well-known author of women's books, but I would never read anything by her again. (By the way, I am female.)
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