THE STEPFORD WIVES

by Ira Levin ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 13, 1972

The Stepford wives -- Stepford is a small exurban community -- are contentedly submissive in bed and happy all the livelong day dusting and waxing and washing. Like commercials. . .or robots. They haven't even time for that Maxwell House coffee break when they come to call on someone new in town. Say Joanna Eberhart. Joanna wonders about their very active Men's Association while the Women's Club was disbanded. In fact only two other women, also relatively recent, seem to be immune to the Stepford hausfrau ethos -- Charmaine who finds time to play tennis until she goes away for a weekend with her husband and comes back ready to be squeezed; then Bobbie, who like Joanna, had planned to move away until she settles into the routine of a vacuum and the hot breakfast. It's not long before Joanna begins to suspect some sort of operant conditioning or perhaps worse? This is only half as long as Rosemary's baby, about a quarter as developed or detailed, but it's fully two thirds as original and you'll really begin to sit up and breathe in by the finale. Whether you read it as a fable of male bonding or of female bondage, you'll read it and so will a great many others. The eye will never be distracted from the page even if your Bendix is walking right out of the cellar. Literary Guild Dual Selection.

Pub Date: Oct. 13, 1972

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Random House

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1972

Categories: FICTION