I have some excellent novels and one nonfiction recommendation for you about women who changed lives or whose lives were changed by others. Three deal with women who have been mistreated by society because of “the America Plan,” our country’s eugenics program in the early 1900s.
“The Book Club for Troublesome Women” by Marie Bostwick is set in a Virginia suburb in 1963. It’s a time of societal change, but a woman still can’t open a bank account without her husband’s permission.
Busy mom Margaret has invited a few women to join her in a new book club. Charlotte, an aspiring artist, will come along if she can pick the first book. She chooses “The Feminine Mystique,” which sets up the group for stimulating conversations. Bitsy is a horse lover who wanted to become a veterinarian, but married one instead, because she was told no medical school would give a place to a woman when they could give it to a man. “By denying me the opportunity to study on grounds that I’d eventually end up getting married, they boxed me in and made sure I couldn’t do anything else,” she says. Vivian misses being a nurse but has chosen to stay at home with her six children. Margaret writes a “fun, fluffy” column for a women’s magazine, but whenever she inserts a serious note, it’s edited out. One of the women is pregnant, another is having difficulty conceiving, and another may be having a secret affair. They will help each other through personal crises and become real friends, finding support and encouragement they may not be getting at home.
There are so many good book recommendations mentioned in the book, along with some wonderful passages, such as “Men love nothing as much as explaining stuff to women,” and “Don’t turn yourself inside out trying to make everyone love you. Instead, be on the lookout for two or three like-minded souls who’ll take you as you are and stand by you no matter what. Acquaintances abound, but true friendships are rare and worth waiting for.”
“Troublesome Women: America’s Whistleblowers, Cultural Pioneers, and the Women Who Changed the Rules” by Maureen Safford is the only nonfiction book in this group. The author writes, “The women in this book were not welcomed into power. They were tolerated, resisted, dismissed, underestimated — and routinely ignored.” But they “refused to behave” as others wanted. “These women were not only writers, reformers, or entrepreneurs; they were individuals who made choices, endured consequences, and carried the weight of service in their own bodies and lives.”
The women include writers such as Nellie Bly, Ida B. Wells, and Rachel Carson; whistleblower Karen Silkwood; activist Claudette Colvin; politicians (“Victoria Woodhull did not ask whether a woman could run for president. In 1872, she simply announced that she would.”); and women in sports, medicine, and entertainment. These are enjoyable mini-biographies, true and inspiring stories of American heroes.
“The Lies They Told” by Ellen Marie Wiseman was perhaps my favorite read in the last year. It’s set in the mountains of Virginia during a truly dark period of American history.
The story begins in 1928 as Lena Conti and her family are migrating to the United States from Germany. She and her toddler daughter are separated from the others at Ellis Island, where the treatment they receive from the immigration officials, according to Lena, “was barbaric and beyond cruel. ... Was the American dream a lie?”
Silas, her relative and sponsor in the New World, is a widower with two children. He takes Lena on as housekeeper in his cabin in the mountains. Once there, Silas tells her that the state wants to take his land. The excuse they use is that “These people are backward and ignorant. They don’t know a thing about being civilized and do not possess the ambition to make things better for themselves.” This is a lie, of course. Silas tells Lena, “You know what them bastards been doing? They been sending scientific folk up here to ask questions and study us. Now they’re saying we’re a bunch of backward, inbred, uneducated hillbillies living in squalor, and removing us from these mountains would be doing us a favor.” But Lena thinks, “This was America. Things like that weren’t supposed to happen here.”
When she’s wrongly accused of promiscuity, Lena is sent to a state institution “for the feebleminded,” where she’s treated worse than an animal. What happens sometimes made my skin crawl.
I became emotionally invested in Lena and Silas and the children and felt their fear and frustration. But the ending gives their story a nice closure. Oh, and the writing is often beautiful: “The rising sun slowly dissolved a low layer of clouds surrounding the mountains, gradually revealing the bluish-green peaks and deep valleys. Birds chirped and sang in the trees, flitting like black arrows across the powder blue sky, and the flower and vegetable garden glistened with dew.”
Do not miss this one. It is SO good. It’s tense with well-drawn characters, and trust me, it’s hard to put down. I fell into the story and was horrified at the extent of the eugenics program, which is explained in the informative author’s note at the end. FYI, the American eugenics movement provided Adolf Hitler with a blueprint for his own Nazi eugenics program. You can read more about that in Isabel Wilkerson’s fascinating book, “Caste.”
More women are victims of society in “Women of a Promiscuous Nature” by Donna Everhart.
In 1941, Dorothy Baker runs the State Industrial Farm Colony for Women in North Carolina. The youngest is 15-year-old Stella, who was repeatedly assaulted by her father, who, when he discovered she was pregnant, took her to the Colony, saying she was out of control. The authorities assume it’s her own fault and schedule her for an abortion. She’s unaware that they also give her a hysterectomy, a common treatment for women there. The Colony is a vocational training center where women are taught to run a household and work on a farm. But the rules are rigid and the punishments cruel. “It’s to turn you into a good and decent citizen,” says Baker. She explains the Chamberlain-Kahn Act, aka the American Plan: “It’s been around for decades to protect society and, more specifically, our men in the armed forces. ... Prostitutes, fallen women, those with loose or no morals and with diseases of the most intimate sort must be kept away from military bases, not to mention the rest of the population.”
Ruth, 24, is basically kidnapped by the sheriff as she’s walking to work. She’s taken to a disreputable doctor who asks her “Why aren’t you married?” and gives her a painful, invasive exam, then erroneously proclaims that she has syphilis — which as a virgin she can’t possibly have — and must be treated and removed from society. So, against her will, she’s taken to the Colony, where she’s immediately locked in a dark, uncomfortable room for a week. She’s injected with an arsenic solution and mercury, to “cure” the disease she doesn’t really have. The shots, which can continue for up to two years, cause nausea, headaches, loose teeth, and weight loss. Ruth is also told, “All correspondence from here is read before it’s sent out. Incoming letters too.” So the outside world knows nothing of their suffering. When Ruth explains how she was brought there against her will, the others can relate. “Most weren’t doing anything except living their lives, only to find themselves accused of depravity, disease, or both.”
It’s an immersive plot with some VERY intense moments. The characters are fully drawn, and readers will care what happens to them. It’s a really good read.
“The Calamity Club” was written by Kathryn Stockett, author of the wonderful “The Help.”
In Depression-era Mississippi, Meg, age 11, who was abandoned by her mom, has been living at the county orphanage for two years. She never stops hoping her mother will come back for her. Garnett, “the coldest woman on earth,” runs the orphanage and has a special hatred for Meg, often isolating and punishing her. Birdie, 24, comes to town to ask her wealthy sister for money to pay the taxes on their mother’s home. Sis lives with her wealthy banker husband and his mom in a big house, but the husband has secrets that will change all their lives.
Pretty much everybody’s broke. When a woman named Charlie asks for help, Birdie brings her into her sister’s home, and when things fall apart, it’s Charlie who comes up with a plan to get some money: “to set up a dance club that was also a boardinghouse that was actually a speakeasy that was truly a brothel.”
The relationships are heartwarming. As Birdie writes, “This slapped-together band of misfits made me feel, for the first time, that I truly belonged. How the hell, I wondered, did I ever get so lucky?”
The characters include a victim of the American Plan, and there’s an informative note about its history at the end. It’s a great read, but buckle up. It’s long — 639 pages.
Happy reading!
Mary Louise Ruehr
Mary Louise Ruehr is a books columnist for The Portager. Her One for the Books column previously appeared in the Record-Courier, where she was an editor.