The Book Club For Troublesome Women DEALS
It’s safe to say that important and groundbreaking pieces of literature are published every year. These are stories that resonate with an entire generation, weaving their way into the cultural fabric of their time. For an unfulfilled housewife in the early 1960s, chances are those stories were few and far between. That said, there is one particular novel that helped to launch a cultural revolution and begin to change the way that a generation of women believed that they were expected to behave.
This is the basic premise of Marie Bostwick’s latest novel, The Book Club for Troublesome Women. Filled with heart and humor and set at a time of major change in America, it’s not to be missed.
Thank you to the publisher for providing a copy of The Book Club for Troublesome Women for review. Minor spoilers ahead!
The Book Club for Troublesome Women: Synopsis
For housewives Margaret Ryan, Viv Buschetti, and Bitsy Cobb, life should be grand. It’s the early 1960s, and they live in an idyllic suburb in Northern Virginia. They have stable lives and stable husbands. What more could one ask for? But each woman feels that something is missing. When Margaret decides to start a book club, the others agree out of boredom and searching for something to occupy their time.
When Charlotte Gustafson – the eccentric new arrival to the community – suggests that they read Betty Freidan’s recently released novel The Feminine Mystique, the women have no idea that their ideals and feelings about their own lives to this point are about to be put to the test. Before they know it, they’ve dubbed themselves “The Betty’s”, and each of them is forced to acknowledge the missing pieces of their lives, and the sense of unfulfillment that follows them wherever they go.
What must it feel like to be like that, a woman who wasn’t afraid to make demands or stir up trouble?
What starts out as a fun respite from their everyday lives becomes a test of relationships in their lives, and they’ll all need to decide whether or not they’re willing to fight for their dreams, and stir up a little trouble along the way.
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What I Liked About The Book Club for Troublesome Women
The catalyst for the book club Betty’s to take stock of their lives is Betty Friedan’s groundbreaking novel The Feminine Mystique, a novel published in 1963 that sought to challenge the post WWII notion that women only existed to function as wives and mothers, and nothing more.
Friedan coined the term “feminine mystique” to describe the prevalent notions of the period that women were expected to be content with their tasks as mothers, with their marriages, and with domestic chores day in and day out. In shedding light on the unhappiness of many housewives across America, the novel helped jumpstart a cultural revolution for women who had felt silenced for generations. It stands to reason that this novel would have had an impact on many women in similar positions who read it at the time of its publication.
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Subscribe to our weekly newsletterThe Characters
While there are numerous things to love about this book, the standouts were absolutely the characters themselves and their friendships. Each woman is well written and fleshed out, and they have distinct and individual personalities. Margaret, the aspiring writer, who never pursued her dreams for fear of failure. Viv, the mother of six who misses the fulfillment that she got from working as a nurse. Bitsy, the girl who married young instead of finishing her veterinary degree. And Charlotte, the long-neglected wife who longs to become a celebrated artist, but is scared to put her work out into the world.
Each character experiences their own heartaches and hardships throughout the course of the story, and must reconcile their unhappiness in their marriages, or just their lives in general. I loved the banter between the four of them and appreciated the disagreements between the characters as much as the support that they provided to each other.
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The Setting
Post WWII saw many families opting to move away from large cities and settle into more suburban “planned communities”. These neighborhoods consisted of well-manicured lawns, white picket fences, and spacious backyards in which one’s horde of children could run free. These communities did – and sometimes still do – create a sense of isolation from the more urban and heavily populated areas nearby.
The setting in The Book Club for Troublesome Women showcases several excellent juxtapositions between the calm, quiet suburbs and the hustle and bustle of the city. It also helps to shelter the characters from some harsher realities, which makes the narrative of the story all the more poignant when they experience a dose of the less pleasant aspects of life. The strife experienced by the characters also demonstrates the reality that even living in a seemingly idyllic neighborhood doesn’t shelter you from the harsher side of life.
What I Didn’t Like About The Book Club for Troublesome Women
If I had to take issue with any aspects of the story, it would perhaps be with the pacing as well as the ending of the story. There were some portions that seemed to lag, which made the length of the story feel a little bit drawn out.
Also, while I greatly appreciated the difficulties faced by all of the characters, I would perhaps have appreciated it if the ending hadn’t felt the need to wrap everything up so neatly. Life is messy, and so much of that was demonstrated throughout the earlier chapters that I would have preferred a little bit less of a clean-cut ending for all parties.
That said, I was grateful to see that the story doesn’t paint every aspect of feminism of the time period through rose coloured glasses. The characters themselves acknowledge that even an innovative work like The Feminine Mystique focuses on only one subset of women – middle class housewives – without taking the time to dig into women from multiple walks of life. It’s nice to see a novel that praises an iconic piece of literature and still acknowledges its flaws.
Final Thoughts
The Book Club for Troublesome Women is more than a simple story about a group of women stumbling upon an interesting read. It’s about finding your inner power as a woman, the true nature of supportive friendships, and forging your own path in the face of opposition.
Through witty dialogue and intelligently written characters, Marie Bostwick has crafted a story that speaks to generations both past and present, and taps into societal issues that affect women of all ages even today. The Book Club for Troublesome Women is available on April 22nd, 2025, wherever books are sold.
*Disclosure: We only recommend books that we love and would read ourselves. This post contains affiliate links, as we are part of the Amazon Services LCC Associate Program and others, which may earn us a small commission, at no additional cost to you.
The Review
The Book Club For Troublesome Women
The Book Club for Troublesome Women is more than a simple story about a group of women stumbling upon an interesting read.
PROS
- Characters
- Relationships
- Inciting Incident
- Setting
CONS
- Pacing
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