Customer Reviews

Company of Women

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I read this novel twenty years ago and reread it again this year. The observations of the authour stand the test of time, a tribute to her deep insight into the decade. Felicitas is a precocious Catholic schoolgirl who elects to attend Columbia University in the sixties instead of a Catholic institution. She has already made up her mind to test the boundaries of her upbringing when she arrives, making her a easy conquest for her professor, the feckless and beautiful Robert. Robert may be a prof, but as the expression goes, deep down he is shallow. Robert and his hangers on espouse all the right sixties attitudes, but in rejecting the values of their upbringing they have lost their compasssion and humanity. These have been replaced by a dogmatic free love, free thought philosophy. The changes of the sixties were very positive in many respects, but there was dark side as reflected in this book. The character of Robert is incredibly on the money, self serving and predatory while espousing the anti establishment cliches of the decade. Felicitas' story mirrors the very real damage done to many in the sixties when they broke ties with their family and their values to follow the darker trend of the times. The novel is based partly on Ms. Gordon's own experience, although in interviews she indicates she experienced the more positive aspects of the times, and found the freedom and ability to play at Columbia liberating in a positive way.

Final Payments, Mary Gordon's first novel, and Men and Angels, are so extraordinary in their richness, complex and compelling characters, philosophical depth and control of language, that I can safely say Gordon is one of the most interesting writers working today. But this? Oh dear. Felicitas is a cliche, her involvement in the 60's leftest colegiate circle a cliche, her 70s single motherhood a cliche; the whole a mess. Skip this and buy a copy of Final Payments, probably one of the best first novels by an American writer in the 20th century. This is the dreaded Sophomore Slump at its slumpiest!

Felicitas, a young girl, was brought up by her mother, and he mothers friends. This closenit group of umnmarried, elderly women, and a priest,tried their hardest to bring her up the way they thought she should be, she was to be the chosen one, the one who would carry on their memories, and traditions. In trying to make her so perfect, what will she have to forfit?? Follow Felicitas on her way through college and motherhood.

Dear Friends:

Like the stories in the Bible about great women; Ruth, Rachael and many more. It is important that women have mentors that they have alive today to look up to and emulate to help us live our lives more like Jesus.

There is little relevance to modern day society vis a vis the role of women. We have been emancipated far too long to pay any attention to this drivel. Perhaps Felicitas should get a life of her own and stop running home to Mommy, when life delivers lemons.