Review: The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer
More often than not, I find books that are 'hyped' by mainstream media to be disappointing. The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer is one of these books that have been a New York Times bestseller, and so fittingly is the first book that I am reviewing that I did not enjoy reading. The biggest issue I found with the story is the main character Greer, who is hugely unlikable.
In the beginning, we find Greer reeling with resentment towards her parents because she had to go to a state school she was offered a full-ride to versus going to Yale, which her parents could not afford, partly since they filled out her financial aid papers wrong. Between not being able to go to the college of her choice and her parents being stoners, these are the only obstacles in life, and in this entire novel, she will have to overcome. Somehow though, she will manage to drag out the emotional damage these two obstacles caused her until the end.
During her time at University, Greer is trying to find her calling. Instead of finding her own, she piggybacks off the life calling of her token friend, Zee. Greer gets a glimpse of what her purpose should be after being sexually harassed at a frat party one night and later finds out that other women on campus have been too by the same guy. Zee stands by Greer's side and suggests that they make a public stance, which they do by making t-shirts. One night on campus, a leading figure of the feminist movement Faith Frank comes to campus to give a lecture, and both Greer and Zee are wearing the t-shirts. Zee is beyond excited because Faith is an icon to her, and she wants to hear her opinion on what they should do. At the lecture, though Greer feels so inspired, she raises her hand to ask a question during the allocated time at the end of the lecture and is the only one who got to ask one. Later on, Greer goes to the bathroom where Faith so happens to be too. Faith gives Greer her business card, and instead of sharing the information with Zee, Greer feels too unique from her mediocre exchange with Faith to do so.
When Greer graduates, she emails Faith about working for her. After working at a job that made Greer unhappy for a hot second, she is hired by Faith. Faith becomes a mentor to her. It is through Faith she learns that to become a female public figure, you have to make a lot of sacrifices. For Faith, that meant not having a close relationship with her son, not a lot of friends outside of work, no longer-term romantic relationships, trying to stay relevant, and having to do questionable things for the greater good. None of the points previously listed were anything profoundly new nor left an impression on me as the author had no other interesting points to make about them. However, since Greer thinks she is mostly above all of this, she ends up quitting once she finds out about an aid program falling through, and goes on to marry her high school boyfriend and become a writer. In the end, Greer is just another character in the literary world with a basic white women feminist character arc.
The only two people in this novel that I enjoyed were Cory and Zee, mostly because they had some form of complexity. They also happened to be the token Portuguese immigrant boyfriend and lesbian friend. Cory got to go to the University of his choice, had a great job after graduation, but then suddenly it all came crashing down. One of his family members died, and Cory had to move home and resort to being a maid to take care of his mother, who suffered a mental breakdown. Greer at first sympathized for Cory, but after he no longer was progressing at the rate Greer wanted him to, it became too much. I was happy that Cory broke up with her, but then, in the end, they got back together so not too much of a victory. Then Zee, after graduation, moved home and was working basic jobs because she wanted to work for Faith also, but they had ‘no' jobs, according to Greer. Zee then joins a program where she became a teacher at an inner-city school and faces challenges every day, such as being inadequately trained to be a teacher and one of her students going into labor. In the end, though, Zee grows to love her job and finds purpose in it.
I found The Female Persuasion to be just another poor attempt at making a white female character interesting or complex by making her go through an intellectual feminist journey. Greer was the least enjoyable character with a minimal personal transformation, and yet she achieved everything she wanted. While Zee and Cory were the only characters that did not get everything they wanted, they found satisfaction with what they had and, in the end, were the only ones I could relate to. If the author did not make the main character so shallow, I would have enjoyed the aspect of female empowerment Wolitzer was trying to get at. Wolitzer was attempting to create a narrative where an older successful woman mentors an up-and-coming woman in her field; however, she fell flat at delivering it. I am curious to hear if Wolitzer's other novels are like this or if this is an anomaly. I can not bring myself to read another one of her books, so if you have read any others, please let us know!
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