Book Review: The Radcliffe Ladies’ Reading Club by Julia Bryan Thomas

My Rating: 4.5⭐️

“After all, she believed that challenging one’s ideals was the purpose of studying books, not necessarily to change behavior but to inform one’s thought. Let them be housewives if that was their greatest desire, but let them be mathematicians and scientists and professors if they so wished. Women deserved the right to dream as well as men.”

In the 1950s, a failed marriage brought Alice Campbell to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she opened her own bookshop. Her love for literature motivates her to begin a reading club where she meets four young women, Tess, Caroline, Evie, and Merritt, navigating their way through their first year as students at Radcliffe College. Alice carefully curates selections for her reading club, sharing books that she feels will stimulate their young minds, encourage discussion and in the process inspire them to look at life and all the opportunities open to them from a fresh perspective.

“Women weren’t china dolls for men to pamper and care for with the caveat that they never speak their minds. They were living, breathing human beings with thoughts and feelings and emotions that were meant to be expressed however they chose to do it.”

The girls are from different socio-economic backgrounds, but each of them is struggling - torn between familial and societal expectations and their own dreams, in what was predominantly a paternalistic society. They become friends and the bookshop proves to be a safe space for them, with Alice motivating them to share their hopes, fears and beliefs. Between attending classes and reading, the girls spend time watching movies, attending dances and socializing with the male students at Harvard. While there are moments of friendship and empathy, not all of their experiences are pleasant ones and there are also moments of friction and disagreements. When one of them experiences traumatic event, the episode and its aftermath irrevocably impact their lives and the plans they had chalked out for themselves.

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“One couldn’t prevent all pain and suffering. It happens in spite of the best of intentions. Nevertheless, life goes on. It proceeds in spite of the breaking of human hearts.”

I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Radcliffe Ladies’ Reading Club by Julia Bryan Thomas. This is a relatively slow-paced novel, but I loved getting to know these ladies and following them as they took their first steps as college students. The author does a wonderful job of painting a picture of college life for women in that era, societal expectations and how young women perceived education, relationships, marriage and ambition. I found the discussions on the books (I loved the reading club selections!) fascinating in that they reflected how the same book can evoke different reactions between readers often based on their personal experiences. I loved how the author developed these characters, giving us a glimpse into their motivations, convictions and beliefs in the course of these literary discussions addressing topics ranging from education, ambition, love, marriage, divorce, morality and what it meant to be a woman in an evolving, yet male-dominated society. The characterizations are superbly done and though there are several characters and their backstories woven into the narrative, at no point did I lose interest or find it difficult to follow the different threads of the story. I was invested in their stories and would have loved it if we could have spent more time with the characters. This is one of those stories that I feel could have been even more enjoyable had it been longer. The author addresses sensitive issues such as misogyny, domestic abuse and sexual violence realistically but with much sensitivity and compassion. The fluid narrative, the elegant prose, the literary references and the underlying message about how books impact not only our understanding of others but also ourselves rendered this novel a joy to read.

Many thanks to Sourcebooks Landmark and NetGalley for the digital review copy of this novel. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

“Spend a little time every week discovering new books. Read them; discuss them; let them inform you about life; let them seep into your spirit. Women from the past and even the present have so much to teach us about life and living and about what it means to be a woman.”