Customer Reviews (1)

Not to be missed!
I can not say enough good things about this intense novel. This book should be required reading in colleges and universities, and I would say High Schools. Awareness can give those who suffer hope, give understanding of true suffering and strength to outsiders, and perhaps shame those would hurt the defenseless.

I bought this book because the author's other books `Skin' and `Trash' are spotlighted in the anthologies `Courting Pleasure' and `Lovers: love and sex stories' by Tee A. Corinne. I enjoyed them both tremendously and sought out this book.

From the back of the book - Greenville County, South Carolina, a wild, lush place, is home to the Boatwright family--rough-hewn men who drink hard and shoot up each other's trucks, and indomitable women who marry young and age all too quickly. At the heart of this astonishing novel is Ruth Anne Boatwright, known simply as Bone, a South Carolina bastard with an annotated birth certificate to tell the tale. Observing everything with the mercilessly keen eye of a child, Bone finds herself caught in a family triangle that will test the loyalty of her mother, Anney. Her stepfather, Daddy Glen, calls Bone "cold as death, mean as a snake, and twice as twisty," yet Anney needs Glen. At first gentle with Bone, Daddy Glen becomes steadily colder and more furious--until their final, harrowing encounter, from which there can be no turning back.
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Customer Reviews (1)

Powerful and not to be missed
Noted as "extraordinary" by the author Tee A. Corinne in her book `Courting Pleasure' and as `...exquisite, memorable erotic work...".

This was the most intense reading I have done in a long time.This should be recommended reading in all colleges and universities.

Not to be missed other titles from the author are - Bastard Out of Carolina, Trash, and The Women Who Hate Me.More information can be found at he author's web page

From the back of the book - A compelling collection of essays, autobiographical narratives, and performance pieces combines updated versions of earlier groundbreaking material with provocative new work.The author probes her experience of being a lifelong feminist activist, controversial sex radical, and a Southern expatriate writer with an attitude.. With humor, passion and enormous conviction, she addresses what it means to be queer and happy about it in a world that is still arguing about what it means to be queer.
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Product Description
The door of the study was closed, and only Nero was to be seen. He, poor dog, stood in the wide hall gazing wistfully at the knob, and pricking up his ears whenever sounds of movement in the room aroused his hope of being admitted. Suddenly he gave a yelp of delight. Somebody surely was approaching the door. The steps--they were a man's--halted.

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Product Description
The twenty-one-million copy bestseller-available again for a new generation of readers Originally published in 1977, The Women's Room was a novel that-for the first time-expressed the inner lives of women who left education and professional advancement behind to marry in the 1950s, only to find themselves adrift and unable to support themselves after divorce in the 1970s. Some became destitute, a few went insane. But many went back to school in the heyday of the Women's Liberation movement, and were swept up in the promise of equality for both sexes. Marilyn French's characters represent this wide cross section of American women, and her wry and pointed voice gives depth and emotional intensity to this timeless book that remains controversial and completely relevant. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (44)

a REAL eye opener!!
this is one of my all time favorite novels. i've owned an original copy for 20 yrs or so, and i've read it time and again. i guess i would consider myself a feminist,(aren't all women in this day and age?) though not a militant one and i love men, those two things aren't mutually exclusive of course, but you don't need to be one to enjoy this book. it's very illuminating and thought provoking to say the least, and though it's fiction (as far as i know), it's very accurate. scarily so. this book has the power to make you hate or dislike men greatly, as the women in the story are basically forced to, by their own circumstances and as you are along for the ride and empathizing, you can feel it too. they are REALLY put through the ringer by the men in their lives, even the ones who love them. of course they are willing participants, to a point anyway, and it's sad. sad and frightening. mostly because it really brings home the point that women DO apparently have a shelf life and are horribly undervalued and unappreciated. that is so wrong, so unfair and well, basically tragic. they are replaceable, interchangeable and worse...USED, terribly used and discarded. they also give away their power or have it beaten out of them by life. definitely NOT a feel good story, but thoroughly enjoyable and fascinating.
one thing i'm slightly confused by: i assume that Mira is the narrator, even though the narrator SPEAKS of Mira in the third person and as someone separate from herself, yet who COULD be the narrator besides Mira? i suppose it's just the author's way to throw you off or whatever the intention was.....

Standing the test of time
I read "The Women's Room" shortly after its publication in 1977.I reread it last month for my bookclub.I recall that my first reading was at least satisfactory.Rereading the book has not been as satisfying an experience.French wrote a polemic that would have best been written as an essay, or, if she insisted on a novel, have been better edited from the almost 700 pages to 300.It is interesting to read as an historic artifact, but great literature it is not.

A Feminist Classic
I approached this book with a little trepidation. I would not consider myself to be a radical feminist, although I think all women should be feminists. The main character, Mira, sort of reminded me of myself.

This is a very long book, maybe a little too long. Here and there French goes off an a diatribe that may be a little over the top for me. This book is set in the late 60's suburbia/early 70's Harvard; there's lots of anti war protesting. A variety of characters, housewives and later students at Harvard are here, with all there experiences and points of view. Some characters, like Val and Mira, are more explored and expanded upon than others, but French ambitiously tries to give view points of many different female experiences.

Overall, I'm glad I read this, I don't even want to try and summarize this novel. Though long, all women should probably read it, and whether you agree with all of the sentiments presented, much of the book is timely and current to 2009.

Review
The book The Women's Room by Marilyn French, is the most poingnant of all the "Women's Liberation" books written during the era of the 1970's in the U.S., when housewives were getting together in Consciousness Raising Groups and finding that they had all been brainwashed, so to speak. This book recounts the experience of one such young housewife and her struggle to reconcile the good things in her society with the bad effects of servitude, demeaning position and abuse placed upon her (and all her women friends) by the men of her age.

This book was so real that when I began to read it in the 70's, I could not get beyond a certain point -- it was too real to me -- it was telling my life and I could not bear to read it, it was so painful. Now I can look back (after having experienced my own "liberation") with some objectivity, the objectivity that going through it and experiencing the process has given me.

I read it now with a wonder that French was so accurate. She is telling my story.

I am going to use this book for one of the required readings for my students, so they will know what others have gone through to reach this point in history.

A Classic that would be required reading if it was by a man
Marilyn French's novel is a blazing classic, sure to last beyond its time, unlike so many of the "women's" novels that are touted by the critics today.Because her novel is so uncompromising and real, when it came out it was often criticized as didactic.Yes, in a way it is, but so was Dicken's Oliver Twist and Hugo's Les Miserables, both of which attained their best critical reviews long after their authors' deaths.

As a college teacher of literature I would assign this novel in my classes. It well repays the effort of any student of history, human nature or feminism. ... Read more

Product Description

Term paper due tomorrow? Need to cram for a test? Or just looking for the best information about a favorite literary work?

Turn to "Novels for Students" to get your research done in record time. Brought to you by Thomson Gale--the world's leading source of literary criticism and analysis--this e-doc contains: plot summary; character analysis; author biography; an overview of the novel's themes, style, and historical context; a compendium of in-depth critical material; study questions; suggestions for further reading; and much more.

Why choose "Novels For Students"? Because no other source offers so much in such a compact package. Trust the experts: Thomson Gale--and "Novels for Students." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (168)

The novel is an easy read and a great book for any of Mr. Harris' fans.
It's hard to imagine how far Mr. Harris has come from the days he sold his books door to door to these days when he can clain to be a decent author.

Unfortunately, in Any Way The Wind Blows, Yancey Harrington Beaxton and Basil Henderson return as central characters in a story that seems more like a feature from a tabloid gossip column than a piece of well crafted and creative literature. While Harris is certain to mention just about every popular African American music and movie star on the scene today, he fails to deliver any new insight with this novel. After reading his previous novels, this one seems like a collage of themes introduced in his earlier work. While I found his previous novels entertaining, just like any good gossip can be, I had a hard time, while reading this novel, getting past the feeling that I've heard this story before. The novel is filled with clichés and didactic in tone. Both of these literary faux pas diminish the story and oversimplify the plot. At times, it seems the characters are only devices for Harris to preach his views on relationships and the role sexuality plays in them. Often times, it's hard to discern if the characters are giving the author the dialogue, or if the author is putting his words in their mouth.

The novel is an easy read and a great book for any of Mr. Harris' fans.

Good Book
I love this book.This man is one of the best authors ever!He will be greatly missed.RIP E.Lynn Harris.

Any Way the Wind Blows
The product was in excellent condition. I had been looking for it in lots of stores. Even though it was an older book they still wanted full price for it. I am grateful to have found it for the price I did and enjoyed reading it.

Absolutely wonderful!
I loved this book. I was excited to find a sequel to "Not a Day Goes By", which was the first I read from him, though I was hoping a book would be made about Yancey and Desmond!

I think I may start from the Invisible Life now

I'm thrilled that the wind blew in my direction; this is fantastic storytelling
I read the prequel to this book, "Not a Day Goes By."I enjoyed that book and wanted a second dose of the author by the name of E. Lynn Harris.Thankfully, I read this sequel, "Any Way the Wind Blows", and was even more satisfied with his creative writing.Harris's style of writing recalls the format of a soap opera because they both jump from scene to scene.In soap operas, this annoys me greatly, but with in his literature, it doesn't bother me at all, even when the best parts are intercepted by other scenes.

Yancey and Basil were once engaged.On the day of their wedding, they called it off because Yancey and her malicious mother, Ava, discovered that Basil was leading a double life; they found out he was bisexual.Basil was once loving and attentive to Yancey, but in both the prequel and sequel of this story the reader finds that he can be a cold-hearted player to men and women alike.Basil does not want anyone to know that he is attracted to me, however, in "Any Way the Wind Blows", many will finally be enlightened.Yancey is a successful recording artist.Her records climb the chart throughout the book.Ironically, her first single, "Any Way the Wind Blows" is about a man who is bisexual.Many of the characters ask Yancey and Basil if this song is about their relationship, and for a long time, they are tight-lipped about it, but, Basil, what you do in the dark will come to the light.

This story concludes very realistically and I appreciate Harris for that.Too often in literature, a story will have an unbelievable ending, but the end of this story is not tied in a bow by no means.Some of the characters have better fate than others, but the end is one you will want to know.I loved this book so needless to say it is highly recommended!
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