A Short History of Women

by Kate Walbert and Ruth Moore

Book Overview

NOMINATED FOR THE LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE

A profoundly moving portrait of the complicated legacies of mothers and daughters, A Short History of Women chronicles five generations of women from the close of the nineteenth century through the early years of the twenty-first.

Beginning in 1914 at the deathbed of Dorothy Trevor Townsend, a suffragette who starves herself for the cause, the novel traces the...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 141659499X
• ISBN13: 9781416594994
• Release Date: June 2010
• Publisher: Scribner Book Company
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.2" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Super service

This was the fastest delivery of a book that I have ever encountered. Book was in better condition then I expected.

Fantastic, marvelous, beautiful!

I have never read this author before, but I love historical fiction, and cannot put this book down. I am reading it slowly and absorbing the characters, the time lines, the relationships of this family. It is amazing to me how K. Walbert just transports you from here and now into her universe- the language of the early 20th century England, for example- completely entrancing, beautifully woven stories of hope, loss, and really what drives people to do what they do. Bravo!!

Perfect book for (loving) discussion

"I write to find out what I'm thinking," Kate Walbert quoted Joan Didion in a round table discussion with Charlie Rose. By the time I viewed that program with the other four(women) authors nominated in 2004 for the National Book Award, I had already read and been mesmerized by this book. As a former teacher and founder/participant in many women's book groups, I can't recommend this book enough. I long to talk about it with friends, so we can appreciate Walbert's "wickedly smart" writing ... so we can look at the sweep of history from before the Great War to post Nine-eleven, to see what's changed and what's endured ... so we can place Walbert appropriately in a hierarchy of favorite authors (including Virginia Woolf, Ian McEwan, Richard Russo???). But what women readers will especially enjoy is asking (privately or publicly) the question that each of Walbert's generations wrestles with: Did I find something worthwhile to do in life? Did I accomplish anything? Because of the book's structure, this question is posed against the backdrop of our own family trees, giving each of us an opportunity to play with our own histories and voice. One final observation: Though Walbert doesn't cornily quote "Dover Beach"(as the novel "Saturday" does), still Matthew Arnold's final stanza summarizes the themes Walbert has woven throughout her novel: "Ah, love, let us be true/ To one another! for the world, which seems/ To lie before us like a land of dreams,/ So various, so beautiful, so new,/ Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,/ Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;/ And we are here as on a darkling plain/ Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,/ Where ignorant armies clash by night." Walbert's last line shows a glimmer of hope and love. Perhaps her next novel will have a bit of joy.

Demands our Full Attention

There are some books that I like because they are satisfying in all ways. They are neat, tidy, and don't miss a trick. There are other books that I love because they are unsatisfying, even unsettling. This is such a book. It has left me wanting more. More from the author (I will be looking into her other books for my summer reading), but also wishing the book went on longer, giving me more and more about these characters she has crafted. I want more not because they aren't fully developed (because they are), but because I want to follow these characters even longer. I have to say that this is one of my favorite reads in a while. I loved the sliding around through history (from 1898 through 2007), living with different generations of the same family, sensing the way women's lives and issues have changed (and not changed). Because of the sliding and shifting that does occur, this is a book that demands your attention--full attention--and I loved this sense of the book making sure I was involved, that I was really listening to it and its characters. I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for an intelligent, interesting read, especially if you are interested in women's lives through the twentieth century.

Short History, Thrilling Achievement

Kate Walbert's the sort of writer's writer who produces exquisitely crafted novels that get great reviews, win awards, and somehow simply don't strike it big with the general public. Here's hoping her latest, A SHORT HISTORY OF WOMEN, changes that; it deserves a wide readership, male and female. The narrative follows five generations of a family through most of the Big Events of the twentieth century; women's sufferage, the World Wars, AIDS, terrorism, contemporary urban angst, and on through the familiar litany of woes. Her marvelous accomplishment is that, although the book is rigidly structured, it never feels schematic or cliched; the fresh, detailed observation, scrupulous, inventive use of language, and intriguing characterizations make this a richly rewarding experience that will linger in the reader's mind for a long while after putting down the book. The best sort of popular fiction, and highly, highly recommended.