Customer Reviews

And Ladies of the Club

5 star:		(67)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Undoubtedly this book has a slow beginning. But it is definitely worth the effort. The author brings a whole town to life - Waynesboro, Ohio. Each and every character is described so vividly that I felt as though I actually knew these people. The book follows post-Civil War "Waynesboro" (a fictional name for a real city - Xenia, Ohio) through the next 50 years of the townspeople's lives. The main group of characters are the members of the Waynesboro Ladies Club. The story unfolds when Anne and Sally are 18 years old and the character list widens as each gets married, has children, etc. Before the end of the book I calculated there were almost 40 characters to keep track of - but it was well worth the effort. By the end of the book (a hearty 1,400 pages ) I was sad because I didn't want to leave the town of Waynesboro and its inhabitants. The author had succeeded in making me feel as though I knew each and every person. I've read this book 3 times in the past 15 years and will assuredly pick it up and read it again some time in the future. It took the author over 50 years of her life to complete this book (and finished it while living in a nursing home at the age of 80+ years). It was her life's work and I wish she had known before she died how many lives this book would touch. )

This book was all the rage back in the early 80's when Book-of-the-Month Club made it a main selection. It was written by a comparatively unknown, elderly resident of a nursing home (who, I believe, died fairly shortly after the book's publication). For a short time everybody was talking about "...And Ladies of the Club". Fourteen years later, not many people remember the hoopla. But if a book is any good, it's still good even after the glitter fades. And this one is GOOD. I finally got around to reading it this year, partly because my wife read it and loved it. It is long (1100+ pages) but NOT difficult. I found the book hard to get "into" for the first one or two hundred pages, because there were many characters, and there hadn't been time to flesh out the personalities and relationships. But I am VERY glad that I stuck it out. Eventually the characters become vividly defined: lovable, hateable, and recognizable. The book is the story of a fictional medium-sized town in southern Ohio, from just after the Civil War to the beginning of the Depression. The story is told primarily through the eyes of a women's book club, and focuses particularly on two of the club's members and their families. All the important themes of life are explored: love, race, jealousy, religion, war, politics, business, literature, education, family relationships, and death. If you read this book, you will be both moved to tears and richly educated in American history. How much more can you ask of one book?

"...And Ladies of the Club" was an unexpected great success when it was published. This epic tale of a small midwestern town found many eager readers. I found it compelling, and Santmyer's account kept me turning the hundreds of pages, although I am unable to point to reasons.

As a former midwestern girl I could easily plug into the book, since the characters and setting felt so much like home. The sincere goodness of many of the earnest characters reminded me of the people of my own town. Their struggles, joys, redemptions earned and unearned, strike a familiar chord.

This is by any definition a woman's book. Male readers looking for an action/adventure tale might be disappointed. But Santmyer is eloquent in her depiction of slow-paced, relationship-based lives. Highly recommended!

I read this book about 10 years ago and have never forgotten it. When I first tried reading it, it took me 3 attempts to get past the first 2 chapters. But, once I made it past that hurdle I got so into this book with it's wonderful cast of characters, the time periods it covered and the setting of a small town that was growing that I wanted it to go on and on even though it was a pretty hefty book, over 1,000 pages. I have just purchased another copy because in some move or another I lost my original copy. I am ready to re-read this wonderful book - January is a perfect time to do this - the rush is gone, life is quiet and it's a wonderful opportunity to get into a book such as this one that just transports you right out of your living room into another time and era and mingle for awhile with some very interesting people. I cannot recommend this book enough for a great read.

...AND LADIES OF THE CLUB is a sturdy chunk of a book that is both solid novel and solid history.

The story tracks the lives of several generations of families in a small Ohio town from the late 1860's to the 1930's. The heart of the book is a circle of acquaintances who are members of a women's literary society. The characters are a diverse lot with engaging stories that run the full gamut from the comic to the tragic.

The novel is also a magnificent social history. The progress of, well, Progress through the decades is one of the fascinating themes of the book. Santmyer writes with an eye that carefully sees and records the technological advances of the period. Changes in housekeeping, education, medicine, business, and transportation are woven into the fabric of the characters' lives, and a read-through of this book is a good and rather painless way of absorbing a large piece of American history. For my taste, a few chapters are a bit too freighted with the minutia of Presidential politics in the Gilded Age (my only complaint about the book), but those political chapters can be quickly skimmed without harming the substance of the narrative.

...AND LADIES OF THE CLUB is perfect for times when you can lose yourself in a great book. I can think of no better choice for cold winter nights or lazy summer afternoons. It's a book that I've returned to a number of times in all seasons, and I've never been disappointed.

This wonderful novel has indeed, as Ms Privera notes in her review below, touched the lives of millions. But her comment that she wishes that Santmyer had known how lasting her book would be deserves to be addressed. I was with Santmeyer a few days after the story of the discovery of her novel was on the front page of the NY Times. She was being interviewed in her nursing home in Xenia, Ohio, by Dan Rather. Rather said to her, "How do you feel when they say you've written the great American novel?" Helen just chuckled and said, "Oh no. It's just a book about politics." She lived for almost another year, checking the NY Times every Sunday, and saw her book as #1 every single week for the rest of her life. As one enters Xenia now, there is a sign that says, "Home of Helen Hooven Santmyer, Author."

One of the best books I have ever read and I have read many. The book may seem daunting in its length but after the first chapter it flies by, unfortunately as I did not want it to end. I was so caught up in the book that I could not put it down and read it in three days! This book has it all. There is plenty here for both men and women. Santmyer makes both her male and female characters multi-dimensional and compelling. I loved all the characters and the Amercian history. I would have liked to live in this town and know the individuals portrayed. My only complaint is that there is no sequel. Take the time to read this book. It is truly magnificant.

This is an enjoyable book, and one that hasn't diminished in the years it's been in print. Though some of the attitudes in it will make modern readers squirm a little, it remains an enjoyable read - if you can get through the 1000-plus pages of it. (My old mass market paperback has nearly 1500)

The book starts shortly after the Civil War, in a small but lively town in Ohio. Several young women are graduating from their local ladies' college, just as a literary society is being formed. It's a small but intelligent society, and it serves as the focus for these ladies as they marry, rejoice, suffer, have kids, live and die. A complete plot summary is impossible; this novel is so complex and widespread that it can't be done. There is no central plot; rather, it's as close as you can come to living and participating in that era.

The writing is pretty ordinary; flowery writing would extend this book to Bible-length. But somehow Santmeyer never loses track of her characters, what they're doing and who they are. The dialogue is both realistic and very alive: the extensive discussions about characters and places and political events never stay dull.

Why four stars? Well, as can be expected in a novel that spans 64 years, there are some "dead spots" that seem to drag on for quite a while. Also, Santmeyer tends to repeat herself sometimes. And, as this was written over the course of fifty years, taking place in the latter half of the 1800s and the early quarter of the 1900s, some of the attitudes toward women and African-Americans are... well, dated to say the least. If you are in favor of banning Twain's books, you shouldn't read this, accurate as it probably is.

But one unique thing is that though these women of the club (Not "ladies"! Not "females"!) begin in an era where women were thought to be lesser beings than men, they are portrayed as intelligent and very equal to the men. Some of them reminded me of the cast of "Little Women"; ... I do warn you - this is not a book for fluff reading, as the length will be enough to scare off many readers.

But if you have a great deal of spare time and a comfy place to read, you may enjoy this book.

This is one of those books that creeps up on you. If asked to summarize the plot -- there isn't one. But it's nonetheless compelling to watch life unfolding for the characters.

Neither of the two main women characters is extraordinary. In that sense, they could be any of my ancestors, the women who lived, loved, bore children without anesthesia, kept house without electricity -- and enjoyed their lives and their families. Reading it gave me a real sense of what life was like in post-Civil War Ohio, and the truth is, it's not so very different now. The main subjects of the book are the things that lives have always revolved around: birth, death, love, marriage, sickness, betrayal, and faithfulness.

This isn't a quick read or a thriller. It does enfold you in a different time and place, and when you finish, you'll remember it.

This book helped me work through my grief after the demise of a much-loved uncle. The story demonstrates the inevitability of death for every living thing, in the process proving the theory that it is the ride, and not the destination, that matters. My uncle had lived well, so the novel's theme brought me great comfort. And this work's underlying subtext is that love, in all its forms, is the greatest power. I treasured this book, these characters, the town in which it was set. The values that the characters held were nothing more than simple morality, but these were the very values that made America so great. Reading AND LADIES OF THE CLUB helped me to come to terms with all of these realities. It is a very powerful novel.