Customer Reviews

The Crux

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Crux is essential reading for anyone seriously interested in the writings of Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and Jennifer S. Tuttle's is to be commended for bringing it to readers in this excellent edition. After having read most of Gilman's other fiction, I will admit that I put off reading this one because of its reputation as "the book about venereal disease" (sexually transmitted diseases). I feared it would be didactic, heavy handed, and depressing. Instead, it's like the best of Gilman's "optimistic reform" books: it treats its serious subject with a light touch, conveying its important ideas through appealing characters and a strong plot with Gilman's typical "happy ending." (Some readers might argue that the ending is a bit implausible, but that's part of the interest of this set of Gilman's writings.) At times, it is laugh-out-loud funny. Also, it's not entirely accurate to say that the book is "about" venereal disease, for although the last third of the book discusses the dangers women faced from sexually transmitted diseases in the years before adequate cures had been discovered, there is much more to the story. It portrays the opportunities for self discovery open to women who move from the stultifying conditions of New England villages to the open life in a new city in the Colorado mountains. The women characters (on whom the story focuses) range from young unmarried women to a seemingly dried-up old maid, a woman doctor, and one of literature's most delightful grandmothers.

My only serious objection to this edition is that University of Delaware Press, for some unaccountable reason, has elected to publish this book only in an expensive hardback edition. The story, along with Tuttle's illuminating introduction and clear explanatory notes, would be highly suitable as a teaching text if the book were available in a reasonably-priced paper edition.

I debated how many stars to give The Crux because there are two different ways of looking at it. On the one hand, this is (as the previous reviewer noted) an interesting text when viewed as part of women's history. Gilman is becoming increasingly canonized-- she was a complex and fascinating figure, and The Crux is an important part of studying her in particular and early feminism in general.

That said, I thought the book's entertainment value was slim. It is melodramatic, saccharine, and often boring. Granted, Gilman was intentionally tapping into generic conventions that were associated with women's fiction, and many of these problems result from that, but nevertheless, if you're looking for a consistently fun read, you may not find it here.

This is, though, a well-done edition of the book, and the introduction should prove interesting and useful to students and casual readers alike.