Title: The Stepford WivesAuthor: Ira Levin
First Published: September 1, 1972
Publisher: HarperCollins
Pages: 148
Genre: Classics, Horror, Satire, Science Fiction, Thriller
Format: Ebook
Source: Purchased
Rating:
Synopsis:
For Joanna, her husband, Walter, and their children, the move to beautiful Stepford seems almost too good to be true. It is. For behind the town's idyllic facade lies a terrible secret -- a secret so shattering that no one who encounters it will ever be the same.
At once a masterpiece of psychological suspense and a savage commentary on a media-driven society that values the pursuit of youth and beauty at all costs, The Stepford Wives is a novel so frightening in its final implications that the title itself has earned a place in the American lexicon.
Review
Joanna and her family move to Stepford, a beautiful suburb bursting at the seams with glamorous housewives. The sort of wives you see in those old advertisements in the 1950’s featuring a gorgeous smiling housewife doing laundry or vacuuming. Stepford is so perfect it’s unsettling.
Some history is in order to add some context to the story. The Stepford Wives was written in the early 1970s, during the women’s liberation movement. This is important for understanding the setting. Joanna is a fiercely independent second-wave feminist and feminist authors and works are referenced several times throughout the novel. It becomes clear very quickly that the novel is a satire of the rise of the feminist movement and the subsequent backlash.
The humor in this novel is subversive and all of the characters were a little bit ridiculous. The Stepford wives of course are the most obvious—they are the embodiment of the 1950s housewife. The husbands are all caricatures of the dirty old man stereotype, blatantly treating Joanna like a piece of meat when she arrives in town. The men constantly keep to themselves, completely wrapped up in their little boy’s club. Joanna and Bobbie also give off the impression of being the sorts of overbearing, obnoxious “feminists” that force their beliefs on others and neglect chores out of principle.
The events and the timing at first appear benign, but as I read on some of the seemingly normal conversations or actions of some of the characters started to make me feel uncomfortable. I won’t say much more, because it’s the type of book best approached having absolutely no knowledge about the plot. Trust me, you won’t have to look far for spoilers. Despite having some of the story spoiled for me with how widely this book has been talked about in the past and the 2000s movie trailer being played everywhere constantly when I was a teen, I still really enjoyed it and honestly wish I could’ve gone into the story blind.
Quote
“That’s what they all were, all the Stepford wives: actresses in commercials, pleased with detergents and floor wax, with cleansers, shampoos, and deodorants. Pretty actresses, big in the bosom but small in the talent, playing housewives unconvincingly, too nicey-nice to be real.”
Content Warnings
View Spoiler »About the Author
About Ira Levin
Levin graduated from the Horace Mann School and New York University, where he majored in philosophy and English.
After college, he wrote training films and scripts for television.
Levin’s first produced play was No Time for Sergeants (adapted from Mac Hyman’s novel), a comedy about a hillbilly drafted into the United States Air Force that launched the career of Andy Griffith. The play was turned into a movie in 1958, and co-starred Don Knotts, Griffith’s long-time co-star and friend. No Time for Sergeants is generally considered the precursor to Gomer Pyle, USMC.
Levin’s first novel, A Kiss Before Dying, was well received, earning him the 1954 Edgar Award for Best First Novel. A Kiss Before Dying was turned into a movie twice, first in 1956, and again in 1991.
Levin’s best known play is Deathtrap, which holds the record as the longest-running comedy-thriller on Broadway and brought Levin his second Edgar Award. In 1982, it was made into a film starring Christopher Reeve and Michael Caine.
Levin’s best known novel is Rosemary’s Baby, a horror story of modern day satanism and the occult, set in Manhattan’s Upper West Side. It was made into a film starring Mia Farrow and John Cassavetes. Ruth Gordon won an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her performance. Roman Polanski, who wrote and directed the film, was nominated for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium.
Other Levin novels were turned into movies, including The Boys from Brazil in 1978; The Stepford Wives in 1975 and again in 2004; and Sliver in 1993.
Stephen King has described Ira Levin as “the Swiss watchmaker of suspense novels, he makes what the rest of us do look like cheap watchmakers in drugstores.” Chuck Palahniuk, in , calls Levin’s writing “a smart, updated version of the kind of folksy legends that cultures have always used.”
Ira Levin died from a heart attack at his home in Manhattan, on 12 November 2007. He was seventy-eight at the time of his death.
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