Entry-Level Feminism by the Book: A Month of Sundays

Four people who have met as part of an on-line book group take a month to go to a cottage in the Blue Mountains to talk about books – what bliss! When the club set out ten years ago, there were more members, but over the years the numbers decreased, leaving these four women who still had their regular meeting via Skype. Although they have been part of the book club for ten years, they have never met in person before, so this is the perfect opportunity to get to know each other.

Adele, who has organised it (and everything else), suggests they each chose a book, “that will tell us all something significant about you. Be prepared to be honest about why you have chosen it and why it matters to you. This makes it more than just a suggested read, it is an invitation from each one of us to the others to get to know each other better.” They will then discuss the book, but of course, “it’s true that we all bring something of ourselves to what we read” so they learn more about each other as the book progresses.

They are all reaching retirement age so they have the luxury of time, and they can indulge in self-reflection and learn more about female friendship and feminism, which they might not have thought was right for them when they first encountered its concepts. In that regard, it is frustrating to read, like listening to a group of grandmothers explaining how it was not like that in their day.

Judy runs a knitting shop but feels overwhelmed with the business; Ros comes with a dog called Clooney and a dead husband, James, who died jumping off a bus and she has yet to come to terms with it. She also has Parkinson’s disease, about which she is in denial. Lastly Simone does yoga and seems to have it all together, until she discovers she has a long-lost sister who was the result of a hitherto unknown relationship of her father.

Other reviewers have been coy about mentioning the books discussed in case it ruins the suspense of the story. It doesn’t. They are Tirra Lirra by the River by Jessica Anderson, Sacred Country by Rose Tremain, Truth and Beauty by Ann Patchett, and Unless by Carol Shields. These are all celebrated and acclaimed novelists. They are also all white, Western and middle class. That’s definitely the territory in which we find ourselves. For all that the characters have their dramas and personal experiences, there is little variety or plot in this novel. They plod on and hopefully find friendship, learning better late than never that women can support each other and they don’t have to fit into society’s expectations. Their reference points are Helen Reddy’s I Am Woman and Julia Gillard’s misogyny speech.

Society has changed a lot more than they know, and if they take refuge in a cutesy Blue Mountain town to talk to like-minded people about their social epiphanies, they will probably never develop past the pages of a book. Maybe they don’t want to, and that’s fine, but it’s not a journey on which most women would choose to embark, having been past the point way before.