In the Name of Friendship

by Marilyn French

Book Overview

Marilyn French's seven million copy bestseller The Women's Room crystallized the issues that ignited the women's movement. Now the acclaimed author updates that classic with a new exploration of the truths and realities behind women's lives. In the Name of Friendship dares to investigate how the women's movement changed the lives of those it touched and what hurdles it left to cross. Set in the Berkshire Mountains of western Massachusetts, this wise...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1558615210
• ISBN13: 9781558615212
• Release Date: May 2006
• Publisher: Feminist Press
• Length: 250 Pages
• Weight: 1.46 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.5" x 6.4" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

Stick With It

This novel was my first exposure to the work of Marilyn French. Yes, there is not really a semblance of plot. Yes, the dialogue at times sounds as if it is all being spoken by the same person. Yes, there are dead spots. But read with patience (and also with the sense that, in a way, this is not a "realistic" novel.) Read it for the ideas. For the descriptions (which get better, more pungent, as the novel progresses). For the way each woman parses the institution of marriage. For instance, I had never considered before what a lot of lying women sometimes have to do to set their partners at their ease. Or, as French puts it, to make them "tractable." French poses the question: Weren't our mothers or grandmothers (who may have been more prone to lying to keep harmony at home) then guilty of a form of theft? French tells the story of a woman being taught the principles of the Koran. The Prophet tells the woman "You shall not steal." The woman responds that her husband "is a stingy man. I only stole provisions from him." The Prophet replies: "That is not theft." That was not theft. That was marriage to a stingy man. (This exchange takes place on p. 199. The entire novel is 382 pages) Another passage has one of the characters, a composer named Emily, ruminating on the sex lives of great (male) composers like Tchaikowsky, Brahms, and Ravel: "So strange, Emily thought . . . that the composers who wrote the most seductive music, the music of eros, lush and rhythmic and sexy as hell, were men who never had sex . . . " BWAH HA HAAA! The passage gets better. It's on pp. 206-207.

This is a great book!

This book fulfills all my requirements for a great novel: I loved the characters, their stories helped me understand my own, I wanted to read more about them, I was never bored, the writing is fluid, French's ideas grow wonderfully out of "The Women's Room," but here are more mature, as are several of her new characters. I have run a book group for 15 years, and this is the book we will be reading for July. In addition, I teach college English and will heartily recommend this page-turner to my students. I couldn't put it down!

Written with clarity and wisdom

The main characters are relatable. The story is one of women supporting one another across generations. It's a history lesson. It's a dose of hard reality. It's a celebration of progress. It's recognition of the difficulty of being a woman and trying to find a balance between independence and dependence, work and family, passion and practicality. In the end, it's hope for the future.

Foremost feminist writer today

The author of The Women's Room proves why she is the foremost feminist writer today about how women relate and interact