I read this book for my reading group and, to be honest, it was a bit of a slog. The book is set primarily in 1860s and 1870s New York, in the aftermath of the American Civil War. Now that slavery has been abolished, the women of the abolition movement are turning their full attention to winning their own rights. This book is told from the viewpoint of four different characters, three real-life figures - Victoria Woodhull, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Anthony Comstock - and the fictional Freydeh Levin, a widowed Russian-Jewish immigrant to the city, struggling to make her own way.

I felt quite hampered by the fact that I'm not American and have little-to-no knowledge of this period of US history or of the early women's movement in the US. I had never actually heard of the three historical figures whose story Piercy attempts to tell and I feel that she wasn't always successful in making them accessible to the unenlightened. Piercy seems to have been determined to write a political history of the period, throwing in as many names and events as possible, even where they had no direct bearing on the narrative. By contrast, the story of Freydeh's attempts to better herself and make a living in a strange and inhospitable city was far more interesting.

Even so, I was unable to make much of an emotional connection with Freydeh and those close to her, and none at all with the other characters, although Comstock, the 'moral' campaigner, did at least provoke a strong dislike in me. The book is neither structured nor concise enough to provide a history, nor entertaining or story-driven enough to be a novel.

Once I got used to the different writing style, the story fell into place for me. The story was sprawled out during a time when American was changing its identity, so a story placed there would need some serious pulling off.

Each chapter was told by a different view: Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Victoria Woodhull, Anthony Comstock and a fictional character called Freydeh Levin. While it was good to hear from four different views, I found that this disrupted the flow of the story. And some of the chapters got bogged down at times by stilted dialogue.

My favorite part started about 60% into the story, when the four characters all start crossing paths. And this book definitely got me interested in the women's rights movement that now my book wishlist has grown.

Worth a read if you're interested in this period in history. ( )

made me want to read more about the historical characters involved ( )

Historically informed fiction connecting the lives of Victoria Woodhull, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Andrew Comstock, and a couple of fictional composite characters. The story of the U.S. women's suffrage movement from it's pre-Civil War abolitionist roots to the early 20th century. Also the relationship to birth control, abortion, and women's sexual freedom.

The book is an interesting read, though Marge Piercy is cornered a bit by the amount already written about the women suffragists. The most interesting characters are the fictional composites. The parallels to the political and legal conundrums of this first decade of the 21st century are almost eerie.

Perhaps this book is worth the read primarily because of the saying: "Those who refuse to acknowledge history are doomed to repeat it." ( )

This follows the lives, in separate chapters set mostly in New York City mostly in the 1870s with one flashback and an epilogue carrying the stories forward, of Elizabeth Cady Stanton & Susan B. Anthony, Victoria Woodhull, Anthony Comstock, and a young Jewish widow who works her way out of poverty after immigrating from Russia by making & selling condoms (this anonymous woman provides the richest story line). It's interesting material & interesting characters, but badly written & not as interesting as it should be. ( )