Three Women - Lisa Taddeo

I went into this book knowing very little about it. I’d seen the cover and expected an historical fiction about some wealthy ladies, or something of the sort. What I wasn’t prepared for, was the way I ended up feeling about this book. Don’t get me wrong, it isn’t that it’s bad. It’s a good yarn, a gripping read... and it deals with important topics. It comprises the stories of three real women, whom Taddeo spent countless hours with in preparation for writing this novel. But I’m really sad to say that it left me feeling uneasy and a bit... icky.

I’d essentially describe the book as pornography. I’m not a prude, promise! We all like a bit of a saucy scene now and then, but this took it to unnecessary levels in my opinion, and focused more on the sex than the story. Plus, as I mentioned a few posts back, I’ll never look at a Cadbury Creme Egg the same way ever again. What really bugged me was that I felt that the men dominated this book. I know that was essentially what the author was trying to get across, but I feel that the women should have been the architects of their own stories, even if they didn’t feel that they were the architects of their own lives at times. I read one review that the women were almost portrayed as caricatures, which I agree with - it was like a teen movie at times, and the dialogue often ridiculous.

Essentially, the three women have each been through traumatic experiences with predatory or advantage-seeking men: one had an affair with a teacher; one is unwillingly drawn into an open relationship with her husband; and the third is in the midst of an affair with her high school sweetheart despite him treating her like a piece of dirt on his shoe.

I just feel in essence that this book does very little justice to the women it portrays (might I add that there was not much to be seen in the way of diversity...), and somehow a novel which purports to be all about women is, in fact, all about men.