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What a Woman Must Do
Set in the Midwest in 1952, Faith Sullivan’s novel follows the interconnected lives of three women of three generations: Bess, 17, Harriet, 39, and Kate, 59. All have been affected by the death of Bess’s parents in a car accident. As Bess prepares for college, and Harriet for marriage, Great Aunt Kate holds the trio together. In writing knowingly and appreciatively of small-town life, Sullivan, winner of the Milkweed Editions' National Fiction Prize, addresses the universal themes of family, love, and loyalty. “What a Woman Must Do draws the reader in.” — Washington Post Book World
224 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2000
3 people are currently reading
179 people want to read
About the author
Faith Sullivan
9 books117 followersFaith Sullivan was born and raised in southern Minnesota. Married to drama critic Dan Sullivan, she lived twenty-some years in New York and Los Angeles, returning to Minnesota often to keep her roots planted in the prairie. She is the author of Good Night, Mr. Wodehouse (2015), Gardenias (2005), What a Woman Must Do (2002), The Empress of One (1997), The Cape Ann (1988), Mrs. Demming and The Mythical Beast (1986), Watchdog (1982) and Repent, Lanny Merkel (1981). A “demon gardener, flea marketer, and feeder of birds,” Sullivan lives in Minneapolis with her husband. They have three grown children.
She is the winner of the Midwest Book Award, the Langum Prize for Historical Fiction, the Milkweed National Fiction Prize and the Ben Franklin Prize, and is a Minnesota Book Award Finalist.
She is the winner of the Midwest Book Award, the Langum Prize for Historical Fiction, the Milkweed National Fiction Prize and the Ben Franklin Prize, and is a Minnesota Book Award Finalist.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews
January 11, 2023
I love Faith Sullivan's books -- she writes beautifully about interesting and smart women who are faced with hardship but soldier on with grace and strength. This novel takes place in a small Minnesota town in 1950. It tells the story of three generations of women, their joys and sorrows and devotion to one another, as everything is about to change one pivotal summer. There are a lot of great details about farm life in 1950, memories of The Great Depression; romance, regret, and humor.
December 15, 2016
What a Woman Must Do begs the question: what are the circumstances under which she has to decide? What forces her hand to act? Kate, Harriet, and Bess, who share a house in Harvester, Minnesota, each come to critical junctures in their lives. While Kate's arthritis threatens her mobility, her boarder and dear friend, Harriet, waits for a marriage proposal. Bess, like a daughter to both these surrogate mothers, falls in love on the verge of college. In this novel, Faith Sullivan shows us women not hemmed in by an either/or choice, rather, What a Woman Must Do is about a love that both frees women to chart their own paths, and also ties them to one another.
The book is laid out in chapters alternately titled Kate, Harriet and Bess, but none of these characters speak as “I.” An omniscient narrator tells the tale, as though watching over all the characters, like God. “God had forgiven the world the death of his Son. Well, she wasn't God. She [Kate] was a spiteful old woman.” She does, however, resembles God in that the first and last chapter are about her. She has an important voice among the three women. She also has a special relationship with time. She can transport herself into the past. “In conjuring, you looked back. No, you took yourself back. She had learned, for example, to call forth the the farm in every detail as it had been – touch, smell, sound. Traveling through years and miles, she returned to it. She was there. Not in imagination, but in conjuration.” Similar to conjuring, she practices the art of “forecasting.” Friends ask her to read their fortunes and Harriet and Bess count on Kate to anticipate their needs and desires. She is always “there” for them as mother-figure and friend. They begin to wonder how long she'll be around, however, when joint pain makes movement more and more difficult. In her old age and infirmity, Kate is also like God. “Old age was a forced retreat. You carried with you as much of what you had been as you could.” She bears memories of her dead husband and her lost farm, of Celia and Archer, Bess's dead parents. To her, and to Harriet and Bess, with whom Kate shares her memories, the past is alive. Through Kate, Ms Sullivan explores the past and foretells the future with an intimacy that brings them to the fore. Time is like a character in its own right, palpable as “the intricate web of silvery leaves [in which] lay intimations of things that a woman must do.” Time is what lies between the characters, influencing how they react to each other.
There is something dark, almost demonic, about Kate, too, suggested by this spidery image, her spite and the spiritual powers she possesses. When the newspaper runs the story about the tragic death of Bess' parents for the “Way Back When” column, Kate relives the anger she felt at the time and wonders if it contributes to her physical pain. Others in the town of Harvester are also upset by the re-hashed news. It is a reminder of how Harvester itself, like old Kate, holds its memories against its inhabitants. There's the memory of the Depression in which many, including Kate, lose their farms, and there are family histories no one can escape. About Kate, at the end of the book: “Spreading her arms wide and swallowing deep draughts of a landscape worn and patinated, she considered the persuasions of heaven. She might have to forgo them.” It might be because she reads tarot cards and is more interested in Greek myths than the saints. It may be because she resents her losses and doesn't want to forgive. Whatever the case, her forgoing heaven seems to be a stand she makes, part of what she must do. Just before Kate's last chapter is one about Harriet and Bess. Could it be that Kate's forgoing heaven has something to do with making possible new choices for her friends and family? Could it be that she has something to do with freeing these women to choose to love in an original way, not tied to expectations from the past?
What I like about this book is how the pleasure of its quaint scenes of small town life and decorous love affairs gives way to a probing look at the underbelly of parochialism. What, at first glance, is a book about fairly conventional women living their hearty lives on the plains, is actually an insightful inquiry into the difficulties of being independent women anywhere. Sullivan says, “words are containers for small and tidy feelings.” The book is full of words describing birds and gardens, country drives and longing glances, but that's not what it's about; it's about the unseen, unwritten forces that bring a woman to reckoning with what she must do. In Kate, Faith Sullivan draws a model for women of all ages, stations and eras. I look forward to her four other books about Harvester, Minnesota – Goodnight, Mr Wodehouse, Gardenias, Empress of One, and Cape Ann to get a fuller picture of such women.
The book is laid out in chapters alternately titled Kate, Harriet and Bess, but none of these characters speak as “I.” An omniscient narrator tells the tale, as though watching over all the characters, like God. “God had forgiven the world the death of his Son. Well, she wasn't God. She [Kate] was a spiteful old woman.” She does, however, resembles God in that the first and last chapter are about her. She has an important voice among the three women. She also has a special relationship with time. She can transport herself into the past. “In conjuring, you looked back. No, you took yourself back. She had learned, for example, to call forth the the farm in every detail as it had been – touch, smell, sound. Traveling through years and miles, she returned to it. She was there. Not in imagination, but in conjuration.” Similar to conjuring, she practices the art of “forecasting.” Friends ask her to read their fortunes and Harriet and Bess count on Kate to anticipate their needs and desires. She is always “there” for them as mother-figure and friend. They begin to wonder how long she'll be around, however, when joint pain makes movement more and more difficult. In her old age and infirmity, Kate is also like God. “Old age was a forced retreat. You carried with you as much of what you had been as you could.” She bears memories of her dead husband and her lost farm, of Celia and Archer, Bess's dead parents. To her, and to Harriet and Bess, with whom Kate shares her memories, the past is alive. Through Kate, Ms Sullivan explores the past and foretells the future with an intimacy that brings them to the fore. Time is like a character in its own right, palpable as “the intricate web of silvery leaves [in which] lay intimations of things that a woman must do.” Time is what lies between the characters, influencing how they react to each other.
There is something dark, almost demonic, about Kate, too, suggested by this spidery image, her spite and the spiritual powers she possesses. When the newspaper runs the story about the tragic death of Bess' parents for the “Way Back When” column, Kate relives the anger she felt at the time and wonders if it contributes to her physical pain. Others in the town of Harvester are also upset by the re-hashed news. It is a reminder of how Harvester itself, like old Kate, holds its memories against its inhabitants. There's the memory of the Depression in which many, including Kate, lose their farms, and there are family histories no one can escape. About Kate, at the end of the book: “Spreading her arms wide and swallowing deep draughts of a landscape worn and patinated, she considered the persuasions of heaven. She might have to forgo them.” It might be because she reads tarot cards and is more interested in Greek myths than the saints. It may be because she resents her losses and doesn't want to forgive. Whatever the case, her forgoing heaven seems to be a stand she makes, part of what she must do. Just before Kate's last chapter is one about Harriet and Bess. Could it be that Kate's forgoing heaven has something to do with making possible new choices for her friends and family? Could it be that she has something to do with freeing these women to choose to love in an original way, not tied to expectations from the past?
What I like about this book is how the pleasure of its quaint scenes of small town life and decorous love affairs gives way to a probing look at the underbelly of parochialism. What, at first glance, is a book about fairly conventional women living their hearty lives on the plains, is actually an insightful inquiry into the difficulties of being independent women anywhere. Sullivan says, “words are containers for small and tidy feelings.” The book is full of words describing birds and gardens, country drives and longing glances, but that's not what it's about; it's about the unseen, unwritten forces that bring a woman to reckoning with what she must do. In Kate, Faith Sullivan draws a model for women of all ages, stations and eras. I look forward to her four other books about Harvester, Minnesota – Goodnight, Mr Wodehouse, Gardenias, Empress of One, and Cape Ann to get a fuller picture of such women.
May 23, 2025
Great story about generational women in a family tied to tragedy and the way they move forward.
January 20, 2016
Three women, one much older, one approaching middle age, and one about to start college, are the protagonists in this novel by Faith Sullivan. Bonded by family and unhappy and tragic circumstances, they live in Harvester, Minnesota, a small, claustrophobic town that did not break during the Great Depression but holds grudges, spews gossip. “In a little place like Harvester, the past never became history, but sat side by side with current events, like an old woman pushing in among the young ones, insisting on being a part of things.” The summer of 1952 finds Katherine Drew, Harriet McCaffery, and Elizabeth Canby wrestling with their demons and secrets, their hopes and dreams, not wanting to destroy the life they have clung to together but aware of the ”intimations of things that a woman must do.”
The mores of the small town in the shadow of “the Cities” and the Korean War are sharply reflected in the women’s daily lives as well as their interior lives so skillfully I often felt I couldn’t spend another minute in the town, sensing we were all going to drown. “In a place like Harvester, scandal was a stain that time did not bleach.”… “One did not confront…Out of self-protection people paid respect to the notion of privacy, even if it was imaginary. If one were to begin preaching and prying, where would it end? Mightn’t someone else be preaching and prying into one’s own life?”
In a sense, each of the women “comes of age,” overcoming their past and conquering what haunts them to find their way. As much as I love Faith Sullivan’s writing, I had difficulty connecting to this slower moving novel.
The mores of the small town in the shadow of “the Cities” and the Korean War are sharply reflected in the women’s daily lives as well as their interior lives so skillfully I often felt I couldn’t spend another minute in the town, sensing we were all going to drown. “In a place like Harvester, scandal was a stain that time did not bleach.”… “One did not confront…Out of self-protection people paid respect to the notion of privacy, even if it was imaginary. If one were to begin preaching and prying, where would it end? Mightn’t someone else be preaching and prying into one’s own life?”
In a sense, each of the women “comes of age,” overcoming their past and conquering what haunts them to find their way. As much as I love Faith Sullivan’s writing, I had difficulty connecting to this slower moving novel.
August 1, 2016
This is the least favorite of the Faith Sullivan books I’ve read, yet it still garners a 5! Yet again we visit Harvester, MN; this time in 1950. What I found interesting in this was the exploration of family. We get involved in the lives of Kate, Harriet and Bess – three women who are related, but not necessarily in traditional ways. And the exploration of “home,” or the place we belong. And it all takes place over 2 summer days. I enjoy Sullivan’s pacing and character development. What could have been a predictable story, isn’t. Ms. Sullivan is good at her craft!
November 3, 2018
Life in the 1950's with flashbacks to earlier times, small town Minnesota, farming, friendships - this was what I really enjoyed about What a Woman Must Do by Faith Sullivan, a Minnesota based writer who excels at this type of story. It was just what I needed during these depressing times as we head to the mid-term elections. Milkweed Press came out with a beautiful paperback edition of this book in 2016 which was originally published in 2002. I thoroughly enjoyed the story and the characters. Now I know who to turn to when life seems a little too bleak.
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January 17, 2018I've really enjoyed Faith Sullivan's other books, but this one didn't grab me. It was a bit disjointed and for being a book about strong women, they didn't seem very strong to me.
November 15, 2014
Overall underwhelming. Little depth to the characters and uninteresting plot. Felt like I was reading the journal of three boring women.
April 26, 2020
4.5 stars. One of my favorite Faith Sullivans. Still set in Harvester, everything still felt familiar, but the “10 years later” time created opportunities for new characters. Covering a period of just two days from three characters’ perspectives, this story pulls the reader right in. Each character is working through the anniversary of a family tragedy, each seeking solace in memories and hopes for the future. In fact, memories drive probably close to half the narrative, resulting in emotionally compelling events and characters. Very real.
Kate is wrapped in bitterness, its effect literally eating her bones. Since tragedy struck, she has lived for Bess. All her hopes depend on setting her up for life after high school. Bess, however, is processing life with willfulness and heedless independence. This takes a sharp turn when she becomes infatuated with a married man. Kate doesn’t know all t(e details, but she fears her hopes will be dashed, so close to coming true.
Caught in the middle is Harriet. Both in age and in conflict, she truly is at the center. She must face her own hopes, their potential failure, as well as the consequences if they do come true—consequences that will hurt both Kate and Bess. Are her own dreams worth the pain of others?
A tale of family, sisterhood, loyalty, romance, and choices, this book would appeal to readers of romances, historical fiction, tales of strong women, or the drama of life in a small town. Compelling and rich, yet simple, broad appeal.
Kate is wrapped in bitterness, its effect literally eating her bones. Since tragedy struck, she has lived for Bess. All her hopes depend on setting her up for life after high school. Bess, however, is processing life with willfulness and heedless independence. This takes a sharp turn when she becomes infatuated with a married man. Kate doesn’t know all t(e details, but she fears her hopes will be dashed, so close to coming true.
Caught in the middle is Harriet. Both in age and in conflict, she truly is at the center. She must face her own hopes, their potential failure, as well as the consequences if they do come true—consequences that will hurt both Kate and Bess. Are her own dreams worth the pain of others?
A tale of family, sisterhood, loyalty, romance, and choices, this book would appeal to readers of romances, historical fiction, tales of strong women, or the drama of life in a small town. Compelling and rich, yet simple, broad appeal.
February 6, 2018
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Olive Kitteridge offers profound insights into the human condition – its conflicts, its tragedies and joys, and the endurance it requires.
At times stern, at other times patient, at times perceptive, at other times in sad denial, Olive Kitteridge, a retired schoolteacher, deplores the changes in her little town of Crosby, Maine, and in the world at large, but she doesn’t always recognize the changes in those around her: a lounge musician haunted by a past romance; a former student who has lost the will to live; Olive’s own adult child, who feels tyrannized by her irrational sensitivities; and her husband, Henry, who finds his loyalty to his marriage both a blessing and a curse.
As the townspeople grapple with their problems, mild and dire, Olive is brought to a deeper understanding of herself and her life – sometimes painfully, but always with ruthless honesty. Olive Kitteridge offers profound insights into the human condition – its conflicts, its tragedies and joys, and the endurance it requires. (less)
I picked this up at a book sale because my book club had read another one of her titles. This one was a waste of my time.
At times stern, at other times patient, at times perceptive, at other times in sad denial, Olive Kitteridge, a retired schoolteacher, deplores the changes in her little town of Crosby, Maine, and in the world at large, but she doesn’t always recognize the changes in those around her: a lounge musician haunted by a past romance; a former student who has lost the will to live; Olive’s own adult child, who feels tyrannized by her irrational sensitivities; and her husband, Henry, who finds his loyalty to his marriage both a blessing and a curse.
As the townspeople grapple with their problems, mild and dire, Olive is brought to a deeper understanding of herself and her life – sometimes painfully, but always with ruthless honesty. Olive Kitteridge offers profound insights into the human condition – its conflicts, its tragedies and joys, and the endurance it requires. (less)
I picked this up at a book sale because my book club had read another one of her titles. This one was a waste of my time.
December 20, 2020
Faith Sullivan writes lovely prose. She paints a Minnesota hometown landscape so lovingly that I care for it despite having no connection there myself. She seamlessly pulls us into the 1910-50s era, incorporating references like Laurence Olivier and The Quiet Man, though the focus is on the character's feelings and memories so she doesn't pack us with details. What's so interesting about this isn't what happens but why. We see how a family was built up and torn, we see how the three women react to loss and how devoted they are to each other. We see the ghosts of their past as they rationalize their arthritic pain or wonder about who belongs to them. It's a beautifully reflective and shining familial love story.
October 9, 2017
I loved this book. If it can be said about a book that the story was both simple and complex at the same time, that's how I would describe this. It was written about 3 women, spanning 3 generations, in a "simpler time" (early 1950's and before), but it shows you that besides what we outwardly saw during that "simpler time"... things weren't so simple. Complications and difficulties are always a part of life, no matter what era you live in.
I love reading books set in my home state of Minnesota, and the bonus is that I actually got to meet this author ON MY BIRTHDAY at a literary event in Minneapolis. She was lovely, and I now count myself among her fans.
I love reading books set in my home state of Minnesota, and the bonus is that I actually got to meet this author ON MY BIRTHDAY at a literary event in Minneapolis. She was lovely, and I now count myself among her fans.
September 9, 2017
I didn't finish this book. I was surprised at not liking it, since several folks have recommended Sullivan's books as essential reads, especially for women. I didn't feel attached or invested in the main characters, and by page 70, I didn't really feel it was going anywhere. The inner turmoil of Bess losing her parents at a young age was not as central as I thought it would be. It felt a little poke-a-long, and while it may have something to do with the slow time charm of the 50s, this story just wasn't for me.
April 20, 2020
Faith never disappoints me. Her characters become friends and lives draw me in as all good stories should. The love between these three women was deep and also painful because like in all true love one feels when their loves are hurting. This was another wonderful tale set in Harvester a hometown many of us grew up in.
April 28, 2024
After reading most of Faith Sullivan's books surrounding the fictional town (and people) of Harvester, Minnesota, this was a bit of a let down. It began well, but somewhere towards the middle, the story took a turn that did not really go with the beginning. I love these characters, though, and still finished it, although just skimmed through the final pages.
September 10, 2017
An excellent novel.
I had trouble liking some of the characters, well, one, and it seemed a sad and dark story most of the time, but by the ending there were some notes of hope, some hints that the future would be something to look forward to.
I had trouble liking some of the characters, well, one, and it seemed a sad and dark story most of the time, but by the ending there were some notes of hope, some hints that the future would be something to look forward to.
September 13, 2022
It was a quick read that kept my interest. I like reading about small town and farm life in the Midwest. This is another book with each character telling her story. I had difficulty accepting that Kate, at 59, was barely able to get around due her osteoarthritis.
June 16, 2019
Easy and relaxing read
April 11, 2020
This book was a nice distraction during the pandemic. very nice writing
July 2, 2022
Wonderful read. Everyday life successes.
December 14, 2009
Set in 1952, the book opens with a "Way back when" item in the Harvester Standard Ledger which recounts an auto accident which killed Archer and Celia Canby. Survivors are their daughter Elizabeth, age seven and a great aunt, Katherine Drew.
The great aunt Kate has been raising Elizabeth since the accident and another distant relative, Harriet McCaffery, a single lady nearing middle age also lives with them. The small newspaper item shakes them all with feelings of sadness, guilt, and embarassement that still feel fresh even after ten years. The embarassment comes from the fact that Archer was drunk at the time of the accident, a huge disgrace in the small town. Added into the mix, Harriet longs to be married and avoid the label of "old maid", Elizabeth (Bess) feels insecure and tends to hurt others before they can hurt her, and she also feels she is painted with the same brush as her father in the community.
Harvester, Minnesota was a close-knit rural community where people were concerned about one another and local mores tended to dictate behavior. But this reader at least was left wondering if this is a sweet story of simpler times, or a story of repressed, narrow-minded times.
I didn't enjoy it as much as Cape Ann, but it was a good read.
The great aunt Kate has been raising Elizabeth since the accident and another distant relative, Harriet McCaffery, a single lady nearing middle age also lives with them. The small newspaper item shakes them all with feelings of sadness, guilt, and embarassement that still feel fresh even after ten years. The embarassment comes from the fact that Archer was drunk at the time of the accident, a huge disgrace in the small town. Added into the mix, Harriet longs to be married and avoid the label of "old maid", Elizabeth (Bess) feels insecure and tends to hurt others before they can hurt her, and she also feels she is painted with the same brush as her father in the community.
Harvester, Minnesota was a close-knit rural community where people were concerned about one another and local mores tended to dictate behavior. But this reader at least was left wondering if this is a sweet story of simpler times, or a story of repressed, narrow-minded times.
I didn't enjoy it as much as Cape Ann, but it was a good read.
August 19, 2011
Faith Sullivan's thoughtful, slow-moving novel, set in rural Minnesota in 1952, explores the conflicted loyalties of three women: 59-year-old Kate Drew, her dear friend and distant relative, Harriet McCaffery, and Kate's great-niece, Bess, a volatile teenager whom Kate and Harriet have raised from the age of 7 after the car crash that killed Bess's parents. Bess's mother, Celia, had also been orphaned in early childhood and raised by Kate and her husband, Martin.
Faith Sullivan is a presenter at the 2011 Chippewa VAlley Book Festival October 14-23 in Eau Claire, WIsconsin.
Faith Sullivan is a presenter at the 2011 Chippewa VAlley Book Festival October 14-23 in Eau Claire, WIsconsin.
August 30, 2011
This was one of those really subtle books. A calm and quiet read, there were a few short times when I couldn't put it down, but in the end I felt like the story was not finished. I know some might describe it as more of a "character study" but I also know some stories are subtle. Maybe it's just not what I needed to read right now. I think I will read one of her other books because I did enjoy her writing.
April 13, 2011
I really wanted to like this book having so loved Faith Sullivan's The Cape Ann. However, I just never was able to delve into the story here. It quite simply did not hold my interest. I liked the characters but for some reason their comings and goings weren't enough to classify the novel as absorbing.
August 12, 2011
Appreciating lives of women who came before lends expansiveness to the roles men and women play in each others lives. Three generations of women living in the 50's whose lives intersect makes one consider what future generations will be thinking about those of us living now, and wonder what cultural changes will affect personal choice. How provincial will we seem?
July 25, 2009
Kate, Harriet and Bess are three women who are facing some new changes in their lives and this book tells the story of thewm and how these changes relate to each other. As usual, the author has written an enjoyable ride through the lives of her characters in this little town.
September 28, 2011
Minnesota author tells the story of three generations of women and their struggle to break free from the tragedy that brought them together. I would call this "light reading" and a "quick read" because it is relatively short and easy.
November 13, 2011
So disappointed in this book. Sullivan's Empress of One is one of my favorite books ever, and this one dragged and disintegrated before my eyes. Also hated the characterization of a woman in her late 50s as a crone. Enough!
April 4, 2013
Faith Sullivan explores the lives of women in a small town/Harvester MN and how their choices are sadly bound by "what a woman must do!" This is an excellent book for a book club discussion, would be even more interesting if it was a couples' group.
October 30, 2007
4.5/B+
Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews