I didn't know what to expect when I picked up Angry Housewives: Eating Bon Bons, but within the first 30 pages I got plenty of expectations.
The prologue of this book occurs in the first person in 1998, with Faith describing a scene in a hospital with her friends. The reader gets a small taste of the friends' personalities, but not much else, not even a hint as to who the patient is in the hospital. Then the book cuts back to the winter of 1968, where one snowy night Faith, who is new to Wisteria Lane--oops, I mean Freesia Court, meets four of her neighbors and they ultimately decide to form a book club. This becomes an important lifeline for all five of the women, for reasons we see as the book unfolds.
The five women we meet, and whose stories we follow over 30 years, are (minor spoilers ahead):
Faith-a new mother with twins whose husband Wade, a pilot, is frequently away from home. She comes from a very poor background and has a big secret. To hide this, she constantly fabricates portions of her life to everyone. Not even her husband knows who her parents really are.
Audrey-a sex-obsessed woman whose husband is all in favor of an open marriage on his end.
Slip-an outspoken activist whose husband stays with the kids while she protests the war.
Merit-a shy pastor's daughter who lives in fear of doing anything to upset her violent husband and silently rebels by putting gum wrappers in her chignon (special hairdo).
Kari-an older widow whose prayers are answered when someone asks her to adopt their child.
The story spends a big chunk of time in 1968 and then floats in and out of the years, as the women deal with their inner demons and watch their children grow up. They deal with domestic abuse, alcoholism, adoption, racism, gay rights, political activism, promiscuity, and raising angry teenagers, amongst other issues.
Writing Style
Landvik uses varied writing The first chapter, told by Faith in 1998, kind of jumped around, but once I got through that chapter I was able to read without distractions. The chapter where the women form the book club is narrated by Faith, and after that all of the sections from her perspective are told by way of letters she writes to her long-deceased mother. All of Audrey's and Slip's chapters are told in the first person, while Kari's and Merit's are in third person.
One thing I really like about Landvik's story-telling style from the various perspectives is that it is interesting to see how the women observe what is happening to each other, when the reader already knows in some cases. For example, in one scene Audrey notes that Merit takes a stumble just a few seconds after handing her baby to Faith and finds it odd. The reader already knows that Merit has gotten into the habit of publicly injuring herself on purpose so there wouldn't be any questions if anyone noticed one of the bruises left on her by her husband. At other times the reader learns about progressions in one woman's life, such as a new job or her child leaving for college, through observations made during another's chapter.
Each chapter of the book is its own month, headlined with who is hosting that month's meeting, what book they chose and a blurb about why they chose that book or a memory related to the book. This was a treat for me, as I got some ideas of books to add to my reading list. Usually there is some chat from the book club meeting in the chapter to read what the women think of the book of the month.
My Thoughts
This book served as an interesting reminder to me about the way times have changed. I remember a friend's mother telling me once that her doctor had recommended she drink a glass of whisky for pregnancy pain, and how odd it seemed to me that a doctor would make such a recommendation. Sure enough, these women drink and smoke at every book club meeting in the 60s and 70s, even when they are pregnant. In fact Merit asks her husband, a doctor, if he's sure it won't affect the baby for her to smoke, and he assures her it is perfectly safe to smoke in pregnancy. This is just one instance of how this book reflects the changes in popular opinion over the years. I also found it interesting to read the sections that dealt with Slip’s interactions with her younger brother after he signed up to fight in Vietnam. I was not alive during that war, but have heard several comparisons to the war our country is currently involved in, so reading these sections struck up some interesting conversations in my mind.
At 404 pages, this is not as quick a read as your average chick lit offering, nor would I categorize it as such. However, once I got past the first two “set-up” chapters, I found it hard to put it down and finished rather quickly.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes reading women's fiction. This is a warm story of five women with different backgrounds who bond over their love of books, with some light humor sprinkled in. The only thing that prevents me from bumping it up to five stars is that I felt that the story glossed over a lot of sections of the women's lives. This is understandable, considering it tells the story of five women over thirty years, but such a huge chunk of the book was dedicated to the first year of their lives together that things felt rushed for me as the story moved closer to the end.
This is another entry in laurashrti's National Library Week Write Off. I learned of this book through the book club held at my local library. Unfortunately, I couldn't get a copy of the book through the hold system until after the club had met to discuss it, but I grabbed a flyer with the list of book club selections, and am currently reading the book for the next meeting. Book clubs are a great way for a library to foster a sense of community and spread awareness of specific books, for which I am grateful.
Recommended:
