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5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant and Dark, May 1 2009
Something is rotten in the town of Stepford. Having moved there at her husband's insistance to give their children a better life, Joanna Eberheart takes her time to be won over by the small town. Slightly bitter at leaving behind a budding photography career in New York, she hopes that she be able to find a fellow shutterbug in the town and perhaps a fellow feminist.
Joanna soon discovers that there is no time for feminism in Stepford. There is little time for anything else but housework. Every woman she speaks to keeps to herself and cleans their houses. They have time for nothing else but house work. Joanna is a little disappointed and despairs of ever meeting a normal woman in Stepford when she meets Bobbi, another new Stepfordite. Bobbi moved to Stepford two months before Joanna and the two women strike up a quick friendship. Her husband Walter decides to join the Men's Association, the men's club in Stepford.
Bobbi has also noticed the Stepford woman's penchant for housework. She also mentions that all the woman have perfect bodies and aren't too swift upstairs. They aspire to bring the woman's movement to Stepford and try to drum up interest in a woman's liberation group, with poor results. None of the women think woman's liberation is important, and how could they join such a group when there was so much house work to do?
They do meet one woman, Charmaine, who is interested. Inviting them up to play tennis for an afternoon, they learn that Charmaine's husband Ed also belongs to the Men's Association, as does Bobbi's husband. They also learn that women who come to Stepford change for some reason. One of Charmaine's past tennis partners, who used to love tennis, now cleans her house all day like the rest of the Stepford wives. Then Charmaine herself changes; her tennis court is filled in and she is always beautiful, always immaculate.
Bobbi and Joanna are now convinced that something is happening in Stepford. They even decide to have the water tested, to see if there is a chemical present that turns women into pan scrubbing zombies. When Bobbi goes away for a weekend and comes back as a Stepford Wife, Joanna knows that her time is limited and that she may be next. When she finds out the truth, it will shatter everything she believes...
Everyone has heard of "The Stepford Wives". Whether it's the 1975 movie that was made from Ira Levin's 1972 physiological thriller, or the 2004 remake, the word "Stepford" has become a part of our vocabulary. The original movie has achieved cult fame, but the book is by far the better deal of the two. Like most movies based on books, the book is far better.
What I loved about the book was that it had a lot more to do with feminism than the movie did. It made more of a comment on the woman's movement and female independence. This seemed to be lost in the movie. As well, the characters were more finely defined, more developed. There is a sense of familiarity with the characters in the book that was lost in the movie, as if Joanna could jump up from the pages and come to life.
What really threw me for a loop was how creepy the book was. At 146 pages long, you don't expect such a slim novel to have the impact it did, but "The Stepford Wives" creeped the stuffing right out of me. I have never read any of his work, so had little idea what to expect. Needless to say, I was hooked. I started the book in the morning and finished it that afternoon.
It is clear after reading the book why it has played such an important part in pop culture. Though it is a little dated, the novel is still a wonderful commentary on feminism and conformity and independence. The writing is crisp and stripped down, simple. The characters are real, flawed and live off the page in our mind.
In short, everything that makes great fiction is in "The Stepford Wives." If you want an excellent, creepy read, look no further than the town of Stepford.
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2.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointing, Nov 30 2008
The term, "Stepford Wife" is so well-known today, it's hard to believe it all started with this little novella. In it, Joanna and her husband move out of the big city to the idyllic suburb of Stepford, Connecticut, where life seems perfect. Joanna hopes to be active in Women's Lib activities but soon finds all the wives in town want nothing more than spotlessly clean homes. And all the husbands go to the Men's Association every night. Why?
Having loved the 1975 movie version of The Stepford Wives, I expected the book to be just as intense, but it was a big let-down. The book isn't the least bit scary - or interesting. The writing is spare and uninvolving, the characters sketchy and bland, and there's no action. The story is frozen in 1972 with all the references to Betty Friedan and NOW.
If you're looking for thrills and chills, watch the movie. Even the silly 2004 remake is more interesting than the book.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Scary Movie, Aug 9 2004
By A Customer
The original Stepford Wives was far more terrifying than the re-make.In the 1970s, women's lib was at it's height and lets face it: it scared men. They didn't know if we were going to take their jobs, leave them or what. We were becoming finacially independent and for many men, the did not like losing this sort of control over their wives. It meant that they could leave if they weren't happy. So what to do? Why you make women all docile, dependent and dumb as a post with absolutely no ambition beyond making you very happy, (...). What was so disturbing isn't really about the possibility of this happening---we probably won't have the technology to make life like robots like this for another 200 years--but the question it raised "IF we DID have the technology, would men in fact, murder their wives and replace them with docile replacement robots? While men in general I think have come to accept a woman working outside the home, there are still men out there that most certainly WOULD do this if they could.
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