Book #7: A Short History of Women

Title: A Short History of Women
Author: Kate Walbert

A Short History of Women follows five generations of women, all from the same family, beginning around the turn of the twentieth century and ending about 100 years later. Dorothy Townsend, the woman whose story started it all, is a Cambridge-educated (though not degreed, because that wasn't allowed at the time) suffragist who starved herself to death to make a stand in the fight for the vote. The women who come after Townsend, her daughter the chemistry professor, her granddaughter the stay-at-home mom-turned activist, her granddaughters (a yuppie banker and a potter) and her great-granddaugher (a college student) all look to the original Dorothy as their symbol, their inspiration, and often their nemesis. They're a family of strong women, but not always sure what they want to stand strong for.

The book is written as about a dozen vignettes or short stories, each with one of the women in the family as the center. It jumps back and forth chronologically. While I thought the stories were interesting enough on their own, I didn't really see any kind of overarching "theme" that would have made the book qualify as a novel. I've read other books about families written in a similar way, Angela Hallstrom's Bound on Earth comes to mind as the best example, but after reading Angela's book, I saw how the stories came together and why she chose to profile people at different times and in different crises. After reading A Short History of Women, I wasn't so sure.