The Female Persuasion

A Novel

By: Meg Wolitzer

Narrated by: Rebecca Lowman

Length: 14 hrs and 49 mins

Publisher's summary

New York Times Best Seller!

“A powerful coming-of-age story that looks at ambition, friendship, identity, desire, and power from the much-needed female lens." (Bustle)

“Ultra-readable.” (Vogue)

From The New York Times best-selling author of The Interestings comes an electric novel not just about who we want to be with but who we want to be.

To be admired by someone we admire - we all yearn for this: the private, electrifying pleasure of being singled out by someone of esteem. But sometimes it can also mean entry to a new kind of life, a bigger world.

Greer Kadetsky is a shy college freshman when she meets the woman she hopes will change her life. Faith Frank, dazzlingly persuasive and elegant at 63, has been a central pillar of the women’s movement for decades, a figure who inspires others to influence the world. Upon hearing Faith speak for the first time, Greer - madly in love with her boyfriend, Cory, but still full of longing for an ambition that she can’t quite place - feels her inner world light up. And then, astonishingly, Faith invites Greer to make something out of that sense of purpose, leading Greer down the most exciting path of her life as it winds toward and away from her meant-to-be love story with Cory and the future she’d always imagined.

Charming and wise, knowing and witty, Meg Wolitzer delivers a novel about power and influence, ego and loyalty, womanhood and ambition. At its heart, The Female Persuasion is about the flame we all believe is flickering inside of us, waiting to be seen and fanned by the right person at the right time. It’s a story about the people who guide and the people who follow (and how those roles evolve over time), and the desire within all of us to be pulled into the light.

©2018 Meg Wolitzer (P)2018 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"Avid readers of Wolitzer's work won't be disappointed by this new audiobook. The subject matter is timely, and Rebecca Lowman's narration is perfect.... In fact, Lowman often crosses into that ineffable narrative zone wherein she herself disappears and the story alone takes center stage.... Lowman always returns the listener to an empathetic place with warmth and skill." (AudioFile)

"The novel could not be any more timely, even though its length and the completeness of its world suggest to me that it must have been conceived before the recent upheavals and protests.... The Female Persuasion has gone straight into my library of favorite novels ever, on a shelf next to David Copperfield, Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, Lonesome Dove, and Love in the Time of Cholera." (Nick Hornby)

"A dynamic, sprawling novel...Wolitzer has always been expert at capturing an emotion in a single image, and in this book she luxuriates in her skill." (The Atlantic)

"[Wolitzer is] old-fashioned in the best sense, a spiritual descendant of writers like Elizabeth Gaskell and Charlotte Brontë. Her novels blend philosophical matters with acute social commentary, grappling with ideas as robust as the characters she brings to life." (Wall Street Journal Magazine)

No new ahas

characters not unique or well defined. the fact that in chapter 7+ city cited was pronounce Quita rather than Quito really annoyed me specially since that city is my birthplace

Enjoyable

The best part of this book was the way it was written. It really was written beautifully. The story was good but not sure if I would recommend to others. The narration was fabulous.

Great but at times hard to follow

The story gets a little difficult to follow at times since it goes back and fills in details about a person or an event, but overall it was great.

Beautiful Narration

I love a good Meg Wolitzer story, and this one didn’t disappoint. The narrator did an excellent job of capturing all the characters and delivering the story in a truthful, moving way that was true to the text. I was sad when it was over!

To predictable.

Would NOT have read it if I wasn't leading a book discussion about it. Not terrible but mediocre.

Why is it I forget how amazing Wolitzer is?

Really! I’ve only read this and The Interestings and wow! Wolitzer really is on a whole other level. A perfect little (not so little) novel this is! It is very similar in tone and style to The Interestings, the protagonists are even sort of similar, but I think I prefer this one. It is at once about bigger ideas and about smaller things. The Interestings was a but mote epic, more characters, more plotlines, here it’s mostly about the history of white feminism from the 70s to Trump’s election. I’ve seen many people criticizing the book for being a white feminist book and I really don’t understand. The book itself criticizes white feminism, it acknowledges the privilege and “whiteness” of second wave feminism. But it also shows you how there’s something to it, like an old car or old video game— perhaps not the trendiest thing tight now but it did it’s job back in the day. Don’t expect this book to tell you what/how feminism should be, its not a moralizing book at all surprisingly (although it will make you question things). So please stop it with that dumb criticism. It’s as though someone told me not to read Tolstoy or Woolf or Shakespeare or [insert old author here] or about a historical character because their moralities don’t align with contemporary philosophies. While reading we have to be conscious that novels are not philosophies, they’re stories about flawed people. Yes, Faith Frank does controversial things, white privileged upper middle class cis things... but I found her more realistic and compelling because of this! This doesn’t mean I think her the best feminist out there (if she existed), but I do find her an interesting character. Also, the book never suggests the only way to be a feminist is Faith’s... time and time again the book reminds you there are other types of feminism... FAITH FRANK HERSELF SAYS THIS MANY MANY MANY TIMES! Zee’s for example, Noelle’s, Corey’s, even Greer’s. It distinguishes time and time again between the more philosopher feminists that write books and give talks and want to things on a larger scale, and the feminists of the daily life, the ones that go and do the work, the activists. One of the central conflicts of the novel is actually this: can there be a perfect feminist? One that helps large groups of people while also not betraying some of her values, one that can play the games of politics in an ethical way while remembering the reason she’s fighting for? Is there a right way to feminism?
So that’s my defense of the book on its feminist front. The book shines in so many other ways, please don’t let this persuade you not to read it.
The book (as much of Wolitzer’s writing, from what I’ve read) is like life itself. There isn’t a “plot,” there isn’t a “climax,” it all leads somewhere and nowhere at all. Its an intricately constructed novel, with many twists and turns, just like life is... but there isn’t like a main conflict or anything of the sort. Yes, things happen in the end, exciting, life changing things, but at the same time I wouldn’t want someone to go into this novel thinking it will be a heavily-plotted story. It’s a bit more focused than The Interestings I’d say, with a more streamlined story arc, but nothing extremely linear.
The center of the story is the relationship between Greer and Faith, that mentorship that happens when an older, caring person with a lot of ideas takes under her wing a shy but smart girl with a lot of potential and ideas. It also delves into the mind of Zee and Corey, Greer’s college best friend (a queer, vegetarian activist) and her high school boyfriend respectively. The characters are deeply imagined, they speak distinctly, they think in particular ways, they struggle with particular things. This novel does one of those weird things that no matter whose mind you’re in, you’re hooked. Whether it was Greer, or Faith thinking about her past, or Corey dealing with some tragic accident, or Zee working as a teacher and falling in love... it was all interesting!!
And those last pages!! UGHHHHH!!!! Perfectt! The last line! Incredible! All this book!!!! Finished in like 3 days.
My only criticism is the title. It’s an okay title, on its own I like it, but it’s like not relevant in the book.
I do think though that if you’re not able to follow someone like Faith Frank—even with my explication that the book never paints her as perfect, it’s only Greer who sees her this way—then this perhaps may not be your book.

Kept me listening...

I'm usually a little conflicted about Meg Wolitzer's books. I don't love them, but I can't stop reading. This story was more compelling in a lot of ways than her other books that I've read. If you've spent anytime at all reading feminist blogs you'll get a kick out of this.

Meh

Nice message about the challenges women face, but the story wasn’t terribly compelling and the writing was mediocre.

AMAZING

Meg Wolitzer rocks it yet again with this beautiful exploration of feminist culture as told by Rebecca Lowman, whose voice is so perfect for the piece. I was sorry to have it end. A++++

What a book! What a presentation!

Loved the story from beginning to end, but the narrator's talent turned an xcellent and provocative book into a compelling experience!