Ira Levin: The Stepford Wives

Hi

You can find all my Ira Levin reviews here.
The Stepford Wives has 139 pages and an introduction by Chuck Palahniuk of 5 pages.

“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.”

The Stepford Wives is my third Ira Levin novel. And I enjoyed all of them though they were all very different. The Boys from Brazil is still my favorite but I enjoyed this one very much.

This novel is a genuine page turner. It’s too much so in my opinion. It goes so fast the novel doesn’t come to its full potential; it’s not as creepy and full of foreshadowing as it could be because it’s too short and too fast.
But it’s very suspenseful, engrossing and
The writing is pretty straightforward, short, clear and to the point but not very elegant. Levin’s writing is always like that I suppose.

The story on its own is very good but Levin didn’t think further than the story. What will these men do when their own daughters grow up?

                * SPOILERS *

It’s scary how these husbands didn’t decide to build a robot to do all their household chores. No, they killed their wives and replaced them with robots. Those wives were perfectly good women with their own careers, talents and hobbies. But they weren’t good enough and they wanted to be free, liberated. So they had to change.
The one person who should love you the way you are ultimately doesn’t. Their husbands lie to their faces, saying they are perfect the way they are. Now that is very frightening.
Even Bonnie’s son likes her more as this robot.
Turns out, everyone likes a woman best when she’s the perfect housewife.

Food for thought!

Happy reading.
Helena