The Female Persuasion and the Importance of Relationships

When I set down Meg Wolitzer's new novel, "The Female Persuasion," I wasn't sure that the author had accomplished what I thought she had set out to do. Ah hubris! I had brought my own bias to the book, a long held position that women will often undermine other women as evidenced by the 2018 election. I'm still flummoxed that so many women would vote against their own self interests to the extent that they would put an amoral, blustering buffoon in the White House when the most qualified woman in the country was the other option.

So, pen in hand, I was ready to take copious notes when the book talk began yesterday in Naples between distinguished retired professor Dr. Elaine Newton and none other than Meg Wolitzer herself. The first words out of Newton's mouth were "this is not a political novel." What?

The central character, Faith Frank is a renowned feminist scholar, public speaker, author, and editor of "Bloomer," a magazine whose circulation is waning in the post-feminist age. Yes, this novel was written prior to the "me too" movement.

Greer Kadetsy is an acolyte. Shy and bookish, Greer has been raised by her self absorbed parents to be an unseen entity in her own home. Her boyfriend, Cory Pinto, and her best girlfriend, Zee, are the only people who intuit her untapped potential. Until, that is, she stands up and finds her voice during a Q and A at college with visiting lecturer Faith Frank.

This novel, Wolitzer tells her audience, is about intergenerational relationships and power. Power dynamics between lovers, friends, business partners, and in marriages and families. It's also about the ways in which all of us must give and take, sometimes lowering our standards or failing to live up to our ideals, to achieve a greater good.

Readers may follow Greer's rise in Faith's organization with trepidation or with glee depending upon their own life experiences. Greer blossoms under Faith's mentorship, using her talent for writing, for listening, to passionately advocate for the less fortunate. But will success change Greer? She is living the life she and Cory had always planned for but she's still alone in that brownstone in Brooklyn. Will she make amends to Zee for a betrayal early on in her career? Will she remain steadfast to Cory while he struggles with a devastating loss? And what will happen if Faith falls off that pedestal?

Like most of Wolitzer's work this novel is driven by strong characters. There's no doubt that she loves them. Each is complex, at times disagreeable and at others forgivable, even admirable. In other words, they are the fully human beings that Wolitzer is know for creating with insight and kindness. As the discussion wound down, Newton asked Wolitzer to share her thoughts about working with Glenn Close on her Oscar worthy performance in The Wife. How could I have missed that connection? Of course she wrote the book from which the film was made! It all made sense. Close couldn't lose if she had a Meg Wolitzer character to bring forth on the big screen. One look at her face and you just know she's nailed it.