Sex Wars: A Novel of the Turbulent Post-Civil War Period [Hardcover]

Marge Piercy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 22, 2005

Life is hard in post-Civil War New York, but change is in the air. Women are agitating for the vote and other rights. Immigrants are pouring into the city, bringing a new spirit in their wake. Among them is Freydeh, who lives in a tiny tenement flat with eight others and works at as many jobs as she can handle in hopes of raising enough money to bring her beloved family over to America from Russia. And she has a dream: someday, she will own a place and a business of her own. Then she receives a letter - many months after it was first posted - containing devastating news: her parents have died in a cholera epidemic. After their death, Freydeh's sister set off to America without them, all by herself, and according to the letter would have arrived in the port of New York many months earlier. Freydeh is horrified and terrified for her little sister, who appears to be adrift somewhere in the city. Freydeh puts everything else aside and launches a search to find her, which turns into something of a hunt for a needle in a haystack. Interweaved with Freydeh's story is a vividly wrought account of the suffragette movement and the fight to secure women's rights.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. This rich novel set in post–Civil War New York stars a true-life cast of characters that includes Victoria Woodhull, the spiritualist turned first woman to run for the U.S. presidency; passionate suffragette Elizabeth Cady Stanton; the aged Cornelius Vanderbilt, who sits atop a $100-million fortune as he tries to make contact with his dead son; and Anthony Comstock, a crusading moralist who dedicates his life to outlawing pornography and "obscene objects made of rubber." As they each vie for different kinds of sex-based power, the consequences of their actions echo from the halls of Congress to Manhattan's back alleys. Piercy (Gone to Soldiers) powerfully dramatizes the early feminists' zeal and the high stakes of the gender wars it set in motion, and offers a wealth of period detail, including tips on using an outdoor latrine when living in a fifth-floor walk-up and the cost to bathe (fully dressed, no soap) in the East River. Most poignant among the invented characters is Freydeh Leibowitz, a young Russian-Jewish widow, who, far from the scandalous headlines and saloon gossip of the times, makes a living for herself and her adopted children, penny by penny, as a manufacturer of reliable condoms. Stylistically, the narration and dialogue don't wow, but the people, their ways of living and the ways they are marked by sex certainly do. (On sale Nov. 22)
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From Booklist

The title Sex Wars sounds like Star Wars, and although Piercy's latest is set on Earth, it does illuminate a strange and treacherous world: the Gilded Age in New York City. Piercy's great theme is always the battle between the sexes and the hardships misogyny imposes on women. In this mesmerizing, sexy, and forthright historical novel, she portrays heroic women determined to control every aspect of their lives, from birth control to finances. Piercy homes in on Cornelius Vanderbilt throwing his money and weight around as the first great wave of European immigrants arrives; savvy businesswomen make their fortunes running bordellos and performing abortions; the women's rights movement coalesces, and Anthony Comstock launches his fanatically censorious crusade. Piercy so vividly imagines the minds of the historical figures she fictionalizes that it is almost like visiting different planets to go from Comstock's neurotic psyche to the inner realm of the brilliantly scheming and sensual Victoria Woodhull, a beautiful medium who becomes the first woman stockbroker and a women's rights advocate. Piercy's portrayals of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony are strikingly affectionate and funny, and the imaginary Freydeh Levin, a strong and giving Russian Jewish immigrant, is equally compelling as she goes into business manufacturing condoms. Triumphantly candid in its approach to sexuality, this is a message novel in the best possible sense, spectacularly engrossing and truly moving. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow; 1St Edition edition (November 22, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060789832
• ISBN-13: 978-0060789831
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.4 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #172,489 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Wholy Women, December 19, 2005

By 

Ronna - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sex Wars: A Novel of the Turbulent Post-Civil War Period (Hardcover)

Marge Piercy's SEX WARS is a winner.....a new kind of historical fiction....the next new blockbuster in book sales....an absolute must read for all book groups! Line up for awards Marge Piercy. Book fans will be greatly rewarded by reading your newest book! I would not be surprised to see this book win the next Pulitzer Prize!!

Most everyone will recognize the big names in the suffragette movement,--such as Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Stanton--but Marge Piercy has put all those well known characters, some lesser known characters, and some purely fictional characters together to create an historical fiction that everyone will enjoy reading. Her story is interesting, personal, compelling, and helpful in understanding how women and men developed into the society that makes today's USA the country that we can all relate to, and debate about, continuing issues....if we so choose to be as brave and bold as some of those women in this story.

Book groups prepare for some great and lengthy intellectual debates with Marge Piercy's SEX WARS!!!!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars (4.5 stars) Why don't they teach this in school?, July 16, 2008

By 

Lilly Flora "by Lilo Drandoff" (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

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This review is from: Sex Wars: A Novel of Gilded Age New York (Paperback)

The more I read historical fiction the more convinced I am that the educational system in America is completely inadequate (and I went to a supposedly college prep school!) "Sex Wars" by Marge Percy is a particularly good example of that failure. There is so much in this novel about women's history that should not be forgotten-especially now. There is information in this book that should be taught to everyone so that we can keep from backsliding into a nation where once again women are treated as children, with no control over their own bodies, legal matters, property, freedom or children.

"Sex Wars" is really four stories is one, though they all intertwine and weave a larger message of the battle that women faced for equality in the last quarter of the 19th century. Though the back of the book claims that the novel mainly follows Freydeh, a young Jewish woman searching for her sister in New York City and along the way she meets some of the largest influences of the age, in reality it is divided up between her and three others. The first suffragettes Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, Victoria Woodhull sexual freethinker and the first woman to run for president, and Anthony Comstock founder of the society for the suppression of Vice; they all have a voice in this book.

In truth the novel does follow Freydeh as she searches for her sister, but also as she begins to adopt street children to care for and begins a burgeoning condom making business so that she can make enough money to feed, cloth and house herself and her adopted children, as well as sending money back to her home country for her family to immigrate on. But it also follows Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony as they fight with abolitionists to get equal time for their cause and with proper ladies who aren't ready to truly fight-not just talk politely- for equality. And Victoria Woodhull, who grew up in a family of con men but pulled herself out using her smarts and the conviction that she was meant to be a great leader some day but was constantly in scandal because of her family, belief in spiritualism and her practice of free love. And last but certainly not least is Anthony Comstock whose rampant censorship seems to be based on true fear of women and young people's corruption, which sees as leading to death.

Told in expansive, highly descriptive third person, this is a novel that truly is about the sex wars. Every person in this book is fighting in their way-sometimes simply by insisting on making a living independent of men-for equality or dominance. And not only are they fighting over the ideals of the day but against thousands of years of oppression and inequality. It's a mighty task.

This book was a revelation to me. It is crammed full of facts that they just don't teach you in school (such as: a married woman couldn't sign legal documents but a single one could, women could not testify in court because it was considered indecent, anatomical books were considered to be pornography) as well as the accounts of just some of the numerous men and women who worked their whole lives to create a better world where all are equal. In every way it is an inspiring book and I am glad to have read it.

However it's also a slow starter and a bit hard to get really absorbed in because of the constantly shifting perspective. For about the first one hundred seventy five pages I wasn't sure if this was a book I could finish, but after that it became impossible to put down.

This is a book everyone should read. If only to see how far we all have come in the last hundred and thirty years and what we could possibly loose.

Four point five stars. I look forward to reading more of this author's work!.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Enjoyable Piece of Brain Candy, February 14, 2006

By 

Lissa "Rabid Bibliophile" (USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Sex Wars: A Novel of the Turbulent Post-Civil War Period (Hardcover)

I have to disagree with the other reviewers who felt that the narrative style of this novel ruined it for them. While it will never be included in the annals of "fine literature", this book remains an enjoyable read which I would have no hesitation in recommending to others.