A Woman's Life: The Story of an Ordinary American and Her Extraordinary Generation

Despite the title, Linda Green, the protagonist in Susan Cheever's remarkably affecting novel, is anything but ordinary. She may not be famous, wealthy or fodder for gossip columns, but she represents many women. Forsaking her famous family in this her eighth book, Cheever has chosen to pen the story of a typical woman of her generation, someone with several children, a full-time job, and one who is trying to make a go of marriage after a divorce or two. She paints a vivid portrait of Linda Green understandingly and honestly. It's a picture to which women can relate. Perfect child and cheerleader, Linda Green grew up in an era when women expected men to take care of them and the ticket out of a family home was marriage. She became a hippie in the 1960s, lived in a commune, experimented with drugs and open marriage. Now Linda is remarried, teaches school, and leads a conventional middle class life in a suburb of Boston. The heart of Linda's story is the core of many women's stories - growth and self-esteem developing during periods of being on their own, reconciling reality with what parents have told them, and holding a job while still putting family first. In telling the story of Linda Green, Susan Cheever scrupulously mirrors a generation. - Gail Cooke

Linda Green is a fascinating person. Her story is unique, yet she is a microcismfor millions of women, especially those who came of age during the late 60's and early 70's. Yet I wished again and again that Susan Cheever would, well, shut up. She repeatedly interrupted her involving and well-written narrative to impose her own biased opinion. Ms. Cheever would have served her own feminist purposes better by telling Ms. Green's story and allowing her readers to draw their own conclusions about men, women, and relationships. I found Ms. Cheever's observations to be very limited in viewpoint.. For example, she laments Ms. Green's sacrifice of life in the big city as a woman's sacrifice, forgetting that it was actually Ms. Green who wanted to leave there. She emphasizes Ms. Green's services to the household and her "right" to take time off work, without any corresponding respect for the husband's contributions and needs. (By the way, I am a woman and a feminist.) But overall, it was an enjoying, thought provoking read, that would have been even more so had we learned even more about Linda and somewhat less about Susan!