About The Book:
A powerful exploration of what a woman can be when what she should be is no longer an option
In late 1970, Oliver Desmarais drops dead in his front yard while hanging Christmas lights. In the year that follows, his widow, Virginia, struggles to find her place on the campus of Clarendon College, the elite men’s college where Oliver was a professor. While Virginia had always shared her husband’s prejudices against the four outspoken, never-married women on the faculty—dubbed The Gang of Four by their male counterparts—she now finds herself depending on them, even joining their work to bring the women’s movement to Clarendon.
Meanwhile, Virginia’s thirteen-year-old daughter, Rebecca, is adrift in a world without her dad and hates the woman her mother is becoming. And junior Sam Waxman, reeling from the death of his favorite professor, falls in love with a magnetic activist bent on effecting change by any means necessary.
Soon, reports of violent protests across the country reach this sleepy New England town, stirring tensions between the fraternal establishment of Clarendon and those calling for change. As authorities attempt to tamp down “radical elements,” Virginia must decide whether she’s willing to put herself and her family at risk for a cause that had never felt like her own.
Told through alternating perspectives, The Wrong Kind of Woman is an engrossing story of grief and renewal, of shedding old identities and finding new ways to belong, beautifully woven against the backdrop of the rapid changes of the early Seventies.
Review
Oliver, is a father, husband and professor. When he drops dead while hanging Christmas lights. It sends his wife and his family into complete disarray.
Virginia and Rebecca struggle with life after Oliver’s death. Rebecca falls in with the “radicals” and Virginia finds friends she forgot she had.
Now, this story did slow down a bit in the middle. But I loved the characters and the time period. This is a tale about growth, renewal and overcoming the obstacles which life throws at you. I enjoyed the strength of Virginia and the sassiness of Rebecca. Rebecca did turn a bit mean to her mom. Just made the story more realistic!
Need a book with a strong woman character…THIS IS IT! Grab your copy today!
I received this novel from the author for a honest review.
About The Author:
When it comes to fiction writing (and reading), Sarah is obsessed with women’s lives and the drama of family life. She also loves the Seventies. She’s a graduate of Dartmouth College, Stanford University, and Vermont College of Fine Arts, and she’s the mom of three young-adult kids. Sarah lives, writes, and gardens on an old farm in New Hampshire. The Wrong Kind of Woman is her first novel. https://sarahmccrawcrow.com
Social Media:
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Book Blurbs:
“In her entrancing debut, McCraw Crow traces the impact of second-wave feminism and the antiwar movement in the early 1970s on a New Hampshire college campus. . . . The choice to present the characters’ desperate actions in shades of gray makes for engrossing reading.” —Publishers Weekly
“Readers will soar through the smoothly written prose and empathize with the strong characters. Suggest to those who loved Jennifer Weiner’s Mrs.Everything.” —Booklist
“A strong, strident message delivered in a valentine of a book that is easy to read and enjoy, but with enough gentle grit and determination to keep you thinking about Virginia and the Gang of Four long after the last page is read.” —BookReporter
“The Wrong Kind of Woman explores the sublimation of self within a marriage, sexism in the workplace and the pros and cons of activism versus revolution. These are heady topics, but this slow burn of a novel proves a perfect place to give them serious thought.” —BookPage
Beautifully written… Timely and pressing… McCraw Crow deftly navigates the campus and national politics of the ’70s. —Amy Meyerson, bestselling author of The Imperfects
“How could I not devour a book set in my favorite era? About family, marriage, love and grief and a country in the turbulent flux of change, The Wrong Kind of Woman limns the lives of a stunned widow, her daughter and a student as they all struggle to come to terms with death—and life—against the backdrop of the Vietnam war, Kent State, the drug culture, and the first heady rise of the women’s movement. Absolutely fabulous.” —Caroline Leavitt, New York Times bestselling author of Pictures of You and Cruel Beautiful World
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