Down Among the Women

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Rebelling against the 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘴 𝘲𝘶𝘰 that gives them the role not so much of the 'weaker sex', as of the 'accessory sex', functional to the male one, seems inevitable in the course of the story- yet, not all of them have a happy ending after trying. I have little patience for self-consciously ‘quippy’ dialogue at the best of times, and this book is a great example of a text where I kept wishing the author would silence her characters now and again and put more of the onus on the narrator’s voice, which is both a stronger and more subtle instrument. Gradually the plot moves away from Scarlet and through these lives and others, spiralling outwards until certain parallels emerge between all these lives: the sense of male-female relationships as a series of inevitable and painful compromises, both romantic and financial, and the ever-present twin threats of violence and poverty which keep women in their place. The novels Down Among the Women (1971), Female Friends (1974), and Remember Me (1976) focus on various women’s reactions to male-and-female relationships.

We’re introduced to this circle of other women in an initial meeting at Scarlet’s bedside, and we follow them over the course of many years as they have affairs, marry, divorce, and sometimes die. Images Donate icon An illustration of a heart shape Donate Ellipses icon An illustration of text ellipses. Giù, tra le donne, se stai molto, molto attenta e chiudi gli occhi e ti tappi gli orecchi e tieni ben strette le ginocchia tranne in rare occasioni, puoi davvero vivere felice. Respectable wife, unmarried mother, divorcee, femme fatale - these are roles that society demands from Scarlet, Jocelyn, Helen, Susan and Audrey. I had no motivation to pick it up and find out what happened, nearly DNF, the ending picked up a little bit but overall was a chore to read.Weldon paints a truer and harsher image of friendship, womanhood and the flaws of the feminine ideal in this novel than what we expect from novels depicting this period (at least I did). I think perhaps because at this time of my life, this sentence completely resonated: "There is nothing more glorious than to be a young girl, and there is nothing worse than to have been one.

Yet here we all are by accident of birth, sprouted breasts and bellies, as cyclical of nature as our timekeeper the moon - and down here among the women we have no option but to stay. This novel marked the beginning of what I know will be a long acquaintance between me and Fay Weldon, its author. Her friends are no happier: Sylvia, a born victim; respectable Jocelyn, hopelessly trapped in her dull, bourgeois existence; Audrey, who finally breaks out of her conventional life; and Helen, beautiful, vibrant, and doomed.An icily funny account of a dawning feminist sensibility in a world where the romantic ideal of love and domesticity ruled. If we look upward, it’s not toward the stars or the ineffable, it’s to dust the tops of the windows. ONCE AGIN I AM SITTING AND LAUGHING AT THE ANTICS OF WOMEN WHO SHOULD KNOW BETTER -NEEDLESS TO SAY THIS IS A GREAT READ. As a feminist, I am aware that many women in our Western society are still victims but, apart from trying to work their way out of their misery by latching onto a male as support, they don't stir themselves to make life better. All of these women, in whatever their own circumstances, are unhappy and bitter and although there are moments of relief and redemption, each of them are more than willing to throw one another under the (metaphorical) bus when suits.

Follow Wanda, the tough 1930s radical, her daughter Scarlet, unmarried, pregnant and frightened, and Scarlet's friends -- born victims, snobs, obsessive lovers -- in their absurd, nightmarish, often hilariously awful liaisons.

The novel also follows the lives of Scarlet’s friends: Sylvia, a born victim; respectable Jocelyn, hopelessly trapped in her dull, bourgeois existence; Audrey, who finally breaks out of her conventional life; and Helen, beautiful, vibrant, and doomed. More Hamburger icon An icon used to represent a menu that can be toggled by interacting with this icon. Eighteen-year-old unmarried mother Scarlet, a lost child recovering from her first abortion, looks at the world with her friends and begins to see the truth. There’s Helen, who begins as a model working with artists known only as X and Y; an affair with X soon turns into a far more complicated sort of menage a trois.

with heavy handed metaphor on every page Weldon also begins to develop her unique turn of phrase and is bitter, pessimistic, true. Hovering about are Scarlet's friends and protegÈes, all of whom exist only in relation to the men whose beds they grace, covet or leave. Praxis (1978) is noted for the development of its heroine, who endures in the face of repeated disasters. So begins Fay Weldon’s novel, opening onto 1950s London, where Wanda, a former radical who has left her husband, has raised her daughter Scarlet to be as tough and independent as she is.The part that was the most interesting to me was how cruel the women could be (especially to each other) when they were unhappy and bitter because of it.