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Rating:  - Another Unforgettable Piercy Offering
Marge Piercy's books stay with you long after you've put them down. There are segments of many of her past books that have never left me, and "Three Women" has already joined the ranks of her finest, in my opinion. Piercy is a writer of such power that it is impossible to read her work and stay unmoved or uninvolved. In this case, her brilliant, poignant, and yet somehow defiant portrait of Beverly, the aging activist suffering the indignities of a stroke, are simply unforgettable. It made me explore another way of thinking...to look beyond my own sensibilities and dearly held beliefs into another area. But don't be put off. Like all of her books, Piercy's Three Women is a fast, fascinating, and worthwhile read. I would like nothing more than to sit in a quiet, cozy corner with Marge and just listen to her talk. She is a gift.
Rating: - Another Unforgettable Piercy Offering
Marge Piercy's books stay with you long after you've put them down. There are segments of many of her past books that have never left me, and "Three Women" has already joined the ranks of her finest, in my opinion. Piercy is a writer of such power that it is impossible to read her work and stay unmoved or uninvolved. In this case, her brilliant, poignant, and yet somehow defiant portrait of Beverly, the aging activist suffering the indignities of a stroke, are simply unforgettable. It made me explore another way of thinking...to look beyond my own sensibilities and dearly held beliefs into another area. But don't be put off. Like all of her books, Piercy's Three Women is a fast, fascinating, and worthwhile read. I would like nothing more than to sit in a quiet, cozy corner with Marge and just listen to her talk. She is a gift.
Rating: - For all Mothers, Daughters, and Grandma's
I have learned so much from Marge Piercy's books and this one is no exception. I didn't always like the book because it is uncomfortable to read about a powerful woman so weakened by a stroke. And the young girl's lifestyle may turn off some readers. But the characters have stayed with me - I read this book when it was first released. Last summer, when my grandmother died after a fall that incapacitated her mind, this book came back to me. I found it amazingly helpful to view the accident from the perspective of the grandmother in this book. Marge Piercy is incredibly gifted. She brings readers into different worlds. Her books have helped me find the perspective and inner strength to be a strong person who can stand on her own.
Rating: - Good Novel, Awful Cover!
Poor Marge Piercy, her novels are so serious, and so political, and yet they are so often saddled with the most ridiculous cover art! Piercy has no equal in weaving multiple characters and plot lines into an intellectual page-turner. She's been doing it for thirty years. The central plot of this novel, although there are many side plots, concerns mom/grandma/daughter all living together after grandma has a stroke and daughter loses her job. It's quite a page-turner as we discover a mystery from the daughter's past, a relationship unfolding for the mother, and the difficulties encountered by the grandmother.
My only complaint with the book was that the portrait of the attorney's work did not ring true to me as an attorney, and I found the anecdotes of the grandmother's career as a union organizer to be rather cliched. (This character has been beaten up by Union bosses AND has been firebombed by the Klan AND....okay, we get the point, Marge.) However, this is still a first class read.
Rating:  - How we are inside
I am identifying I know with the young woman in the book I just read and her grandmother. Her gram was a power. She was very political and very verbal until this incredible stroke that took her down. She could not reconcile herself to this person. She looked in the mirror and she did not see herself and she could not stand it (I know this feeling so well)- before this she had liked the power of her body and what it could do for her - her ability to take lovers and enjoy her body and the other person's. And now, she was suddenly a nothing.
Her granddaughter on the other hand seemed to be an accident waiting for a place to happen. She was on this crash course to distruction but she did come to terms with who she was and where she planned to go - by the end of the story.
I am so moved by the book that I can think of nothing else at this moment. I feel as though I have been living in their house this week and have also been supported by the one in the middle of this story - the daughter - the one who had to put the bread on the table while the mother fell apart and the daughter almost self-distructed. I know that some people do not like to read painful books or books that make then think. When their words and stories wrap around me partly with the silky feeling of a story I love, and partly scratching me into thinking - I know I have been inside a good book.
I remember reading GONE TO SOLDIERS and loved it also. I have read others, too, and I am ready to go get all of her books again because her work is powerful. I could find myself in all of the women in the book at different times in the story. That was what kept me inside the story.
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