The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin, Peter Straub Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Stepford Wives
Book Review: One of Ira Levin's best
Summary: 5 Stars
Ira Levin is my all time favorite author and he has written some incredible books. I feel this one is one of his best (second only to This Perfect Day, my all time favorite book)
The Stepford Wives is short and incredibly easy to read, with such an original chilling idea that has become a cult classic, had two movies made out of it (the first one is pretty close to the original story, the second one is pretty far off but worth watching because it is funny).
The book starts off intriguing right at the beginning. The Eberhart family has just moved to Stepford and Joanna Eberhart, a budding photographer, wife and mother, is looking to meet new friends. She is suprised to find that many of the women she meets are dull and all they want to do all day is cook and clean. Suspense builds well in this story as clues show up to why women are so odd in Stepford, and what is really going on at the men's association, a big mansion with a club for men only. Things really get chilling when Joanna's friend Bobbie who is a normal, messy woman with a personality goes away on a weekend with her husband and returns as a woman who loves cleaning all day. I won't say more but do read the book!
Book Review: Original but not terribly moving
Summary: 3 Stars
A fun morning read of a few thousand words. The men of Stepford are replacing their wives with obedient, sexy robots who love housework. A bit of a satire on men who want such women, but overall, nothing special.Book Review: Quite a good book
Summary: 4 Stars
It was good, that we could read a book in the English classes. I didn't know the novel Stepford Wives, but I was suprised about the book, because I don't think, that the title and the front of the book looked very promising. But the story is good. I like the fact that Joanna is such a powerful, lovely woman. She has her own life, and she doesn't only care about housework. The men aren't sympathetic, they deal with women as if their only duty was to stay at home the whole time and clean the home like it was some 50 years ago. I suppose that there are some men who would still to turn back the wheel of time. My only criticism is the end, which is a little bit unbelievable. Why does Joanna go with the men to Bobbie's house? She knows that they want to kill her. I don't think that this is very logical. Joanna isn't stupid, why should she do that? Why doesn't she run away to get help?Book Review: Stepford Robots
Summary: 4 Stars
The book Stepford wives is a very well written book about a family who has moved to Stepford, which is a very old fashioned town without any rights for women.I think the story is very interesting and fits well to the time, when women had a very bad time as working and political interested individuals
The fact that the women of Stepford become robots was unfortunately noticeable too early, so that the whole tension was over in the middle of the book.
Book Review: Surprise guilty pleasure
Summary: 4 Stars
I was fortunate enough to find this little book in a used book store for 25 cents and I was glad I did. I flew through this in 2 hours and couldn't put it down. Joanna Eberhart is seemingly content with the move to the suburbs and is hopeful for a brand new start. However, things are not always as they appear. Her neighbors are beautiful, vapid, and obsessively content with their household chores. Joanna is a no holds barred feminist and so finds their behavior strange. She manages to befriend two other women new to Stepford and they too, are concerned with the lack interest displayed by the Stepford wives. One by one, her new friends are whisked away by their husbands on a "weekend for two", only to return beautiful and suddenly bent on domestic duties. More disturbing is the fact that the husbands belong to a "Mens' Only" association and women are not allowed. That is how it begins. The husbands join the elusive and mysterious group and strange things begin to happen. Joanna tries to alert her husband to these strange occurances and is distraught by his theory and his advice to talk to "someone". Who can she trust now? She soon discovers that the Stepford women were active in Feminst groups but disbanded years before. Will Joanna be next? Or is it all in her mind? You'll have to read this to find out. This book was a complete surprise, not to mention disturbing. But as a guilty pleasure read, I highly recommend it!