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    Sex Wars: A Novel of Gilded Age New York
    Unavailable
    Sex Wars: A Novel of Gilded Age New York
    Unavailable
    Sex Wars: A Novel of Gilded Age New York
    Ebook617 pages9 hours

    Sex Wars: A Novel of Gilded Age New York

    By Marge Piercy

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Post–Civil War New York City is the battleground of the American dream. In this era of free love, emerging rights of women, and brutal sexual repression, Freydeh, a spirited young Jewish immigrant, toils at different jobs to earn passage to America for her family. Learning that her younger sister is adrift somewhere in the city, she begins a determined search that carries her from tenement to brothel to prison—as her story interweaves with those of some of the epoch's most notorious figures: Elizabeth Cady Stanton; Susan B. Anthony; sexual freedom activist Victoria Woodhull, the first woman to run for president; and Anthony Comstock, founder of the Society for the Suppression of Vice, whose censorship laws are still on the books.

    In the tradition of her bestselling World War II epic Gone to Soldiers, Marge Piercy once again re-creates a turbulent period in American history and explores changing attitudes in a land of sacrifice, suffering, promise, and reward.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateMay 25, 2010
    ISBN9780062014399
    Unavailable
    Sex Wars: A Novel of Gilded Age New York
    Author

    Marge Piercy

    Marge Piercy is the author of seventeen novels, including the national bestsellers Gone to Soldiers, Braided Lives, and Woman on the Edge of Time, seventeen volumes of poetry, and a critically acclaimed memoir, Sleeping with Cats. Born in center-city Detroit, educated at the University of Michigan, the recipient of four honorary doctorates, she has been a key player in many of the major progressive political battles of our time.

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    Reviews for Sex Wars

    4/5

    83 ratings7 reviews

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    • 2/5
      I’ve been a fan of Marge Piercy for years, but I found this book a little rushed and abrupt. It’s a fictionalized account of the post-Civil-War period in the US. Succeeding chapters are from the viewpoint of Victoria Woodhull, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Anthony Comstock, and a young Jewish immigrant named Freydeh.

      Piercy tells us what’s going through the minds of these famous people, but in the process, she flattens them. It’s an interesting period, and her characters are all interesting people, but stylistically, they’re the same. Even though they’re thinking about such different things, they all think in the same way. None of them seem particularly passionate.

      I felt that Piercy brought the most life to her only completely fictional character. Only when it comes to Freydeh does Piercy let the story itself guide the reader.
    • 4/5
      This was wonderful. I liked getting an idea of what these women's lives might have been like. Piercy does a wonderful job of using facts and her imagination to really flesh out these people who are usually very 2 dimensional subjects of grade school reports.
    • 4/5
      Marge Piercy knows how to find the facts and craft a mesmerizing story around them. The setting is the last half of the 19th century New York, the topic is sex, gender and economics and the cast of characters include real people we all know a little about with a few fictitious ones thrown in for emphasis. There's Elizabeth Cady Stanton - intelligent, mother of 7, freethinking, irreligious and very sensual; Susan B. Anthony - straight laced, strictly moral, a fierce supporter of marriage though unmarried herself, indefatigable in working for woman's suffrage; Victoria Woodhull - spiritualist, outspoken free love advocate, a good mother, financially savvy, determined to make a difference in the world; Cornelius Vanderbilt - sexually semi-impotent, financially ultra potent; Henry Beecher - charismatic preacher and womanizer; Anthony Comstock a sexually obsessed pre incarnation of Rick Santorum; and the fictional Freydeh Levin - widowed Russian Jewish immigrant, condom maker and adopter of abandoned children. I liked Freydeh's story the best probably because, as a fictional character, it was easier to direct her story along emotional lines, but all these characters grabbed my attention. Marge Piercy has helped me understand Gilded Age New York better and has illuminated the culture - sexual wars that are continuing to this day. When will the prigs ever give up?
    • 4/5
      An incredibly interesting and engaging novel of Reconstruction - Gilded Age America and the cultural and social upheaval going on during those years. Writting is great, and the human stories are well researched and interesting.
    • 3/5
      Once I got used to the different writing style, the story fell into place for me. The story was sprawled out during a time when American was changing its identity, so a story placed there would need some serious pulling off.Each chapter was told by a different view: Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Victoria Woodhull, Anthony Comstock and a fictional character called Freydeh Levin. While it was good to hear from four different views, I found that this disrupted the flow of the story. And some of the chapters got bogged down at times by stilted dialogue.My favorite part started about 60% into the story, when the four characters all start crossing paths. And this book definitely got me interested in the women's rights movement that now my book wishlist has grown.Worth a read if you're interested in this period in history.
    • 4/5
      Historically informed fiction connecting the lives of Victoria Woodhull, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Andrew Comstock, and a couple of fictional composite characters. The story of the U.S. women's suffrage movement from it's pre-Civil War abolitionist roots to the early 20th century. Also the relationship to birth control, abortion, and women's sexual freedom.The book is an interesting read, though Marge Piercy is cornered a bit by the amount already written about the women suffragists. The most interesting characters are the fictional composites. The parallels to the political and legal conundrums of this first decade of the 21st century are almost eerie. Perhaps this book is worth the read primarily because of the saying: "Those who refuse to acknowledge history are doomed to repeat it."
    • 3/5
      This follows the lives, in separate chapters set mostly in New York City mostly in the 1870s with one flashback and an epilogue carrying the stories forward, of Elizabeth Cady Stanton & Susan B. Anthony, Victoria Woodhull, Anthony Comstock, and a young Jewish widow who works her way out of poverty after immigrating from Russia by making & selling condoms (this anonymous woman provides the richest story line). It's interesting material & interesting characters, but badly written & not as interesting as it should be.