Choosing my next book rather randomly, I picked up The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin. With its simple style and just over 100 pages, it offers so much insight and comment that I am still thinking about it. Such a hit in 1972, it was followed by a film in 1975, and the term 'Stepford Wife' became an understood description in pop culture.
Ira Levin is the author if such terrific books as Rosemary's Baby and Deathtrap, the longest running Broadway comedy thriller. I also enjoyed Sliver, which predicted the intrusion of surveillance back in 1991. It was a tight knit novel of suspicion and paranoia that was completely destroyed in the film version starring Sharon Stone. I have read they did so many reshoots, the identity of the killer kept changing and then they had no way to end it. The novel presents a great villain with a great ending.
Joanna and Walter move to the town of Stepford with their kids Pete and Kim. Meeting the neighbours, all the women seem bland and enjoy nothing more than waxing the floor. The husbands have high powered corporate jobs in electronics, and invite Walter to join the Men's Association.
Joanna meets two interesting women, Charmaine and Bobbie, who start to investigate what ails the women. Is it the water supply? Are they just imagining it? Can they figure it out before they also become brain dead housemaids? The night when they will prove to Joanna the women are flesh and blood is chilling, although he leaves it all in the reader's mind.
Even knowing the premise from the film and pop culture in general, it was a terrific read. Levin has plotted a four month time frame which accelerates the tension. He also never really explains what is going on, or how, leaving the detection up to the reader. Coming out in 1972 when Gloria Steinem and Betty Friedan became popular, it has a lot of comment on the women's rights and black rights movements, but instead of the thriller it's presented as, is actually a social satire on the villains.
Please, please, stay away from the 2004 remake movie that played up the satire angle.
A mess.
You might know The Stepford Wives, and think it dated, but it's always great to read the original source. So imaginative and entertaining while offering something to think about, I can see why it was a breakthrough hit of its time. The Stepford Wives is perfectly plotted and has a simple style that is deceptively hard to achieve. I keep thinking about it, and would read it again - I'd give it a 10.
1972 / Hardcover / 123 pages
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