by Julia Bryan Thomas
Overall: I was attracted to this book as I went to Harvard, and I looked forward to getting to know more about my predecessors at Radcliffe College. Radcliffe was the women’s college adjacent to Harvard founded in the late 19th century; the two merged completely in 1999. The Radcliffe Ladies’ Reading Club follows the tumultuous lives of four freshmen at Radcliffe and one bookshop owner in 1954. Told from each woman’s perspective, the book gives glimpses into what motivated these women to attend college at a time when most expected to marry right out of high school. Ambitious Tess wants a different life from her mother; wealthy Caroline only cares about clothes and boys; Merritt has lost her mother and isn’t sure what the future holds; and Evie wants to have some fun. Alice, the bookshop owner, is a woman with a career she loves. But each isn’t what she appears at first glance, and the tensions that arise in the group lead to devastating consequences.
Likes: The book gets a lot of things right about communities of women and teenage girls’ relationships with each other. There’s a lot of jealousy, jockeying for power, judgement, and defensiveness that is spot-on. Characters do things for reasons they can’t articulate to themselves. I enjoyed the quotes from the books Alice chose, including Jane Eyre, Anna Karenina, The Great Gatsby, and Gift from the Sea, and the literary references were well-chosen.
Dislikes: Five points of view is a lot, and some were stronger than others. Caroline’s voice dominates at times, while others, like Evie’s, felt a bit rushed or one-note. And the book group puzzled me. Why did the group only consist of Alice and the four students? Wouldn’t Alice have continued inviting customers to take part? The group meetings might have benefited from additional minor characters. I would have liked more details that made the story specific to Radcliffe, rather than any women’s college. Finally, I am not going to give specifics to avoid spoilers, but I was quite disappointed in the portrayal of men.
FYI: sexual assault, discussion of abortion, miscarriage, physical abuse, emotional abuse, violence, alcoholism.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my advance reader copy. All opinions are my own.
Liz Helfrich 