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Superior Women: A Novel
A timeless coming-of-age novel about five young women who meet at exclusive Radcliffe College and together grow to maturity over four decades—through intrigues, ambitions, affairs, and marriages—from World War II to the 1980s.
Radcliffe, 1943. Five young women, newly admitted to college, meet for the first time. Megan, Janet, Lavinia, Peg, and Cathy seem to have little in common save for their freshman status. None of them could know that their destinies are about to inextricably intertwine.
Across four decades, as time and events sweep away their expectations, these five women discover their sexuality, reveal their secrets, and struggle with independence—sometimes surrendering, sometimes making stunning choices. Alice Adams’s Superior Women is a richly drawn, uncompromising novel about women’s intimate, interior, and often unsuspected lives.
Radcliffe, 1943. Five young women, newly admitted to college, meet for the first time. Megan, Janet, Lavinia, Peg, and Cathy seem to have little in common save for their freshman status. None of them could know that their destinies are about to inextricably intertwine.
Across four decades, as time and events sweep away their expectations, these five women discover their sexuality, reveal their secrets, and struggle with independence—sometimes surrendering, sometimes making stunning choices. Alice Adams’s Superior Women is a richly drawn, uncompromising novel about women’s intimate, interior, and often unsuspected lives.
432 pages, Paperback
First published August 12, 1984
23 people are currently reading
702 people want to read
About the author
Alice Adams
64 books48 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Alice Adams was an American novelist, short story writer, academic and university professor.
She was born in Fredericksburg, Virginia and attended Radcliffe College, graduating in 1946. She married, and had a child, but her marriage broke up, and she spent several years as a single mother, working as a secretary. Her psychiatrist told her to give up writing and get remarried; instead she published her first novel, Careless Love (1966), and a few years later she published her first short story in The New Yorker. She wrote many novels but she's best known for her short stories, in collections such as After You've Gone (1989) and The Last Lovely City (1999).
She won numerous awards including the O. Henry Award, and Best American Short Stories Award.
Alice Adams was an American novelist, short story writer, academic and university professor.
She was born in Fredericksburg, Virginia and attended Radcliffe College, graduating in 1946. She married, and had a child, but her marriage broke up, and she spent several years as a single mother, working as a secretary. Her psychiatrist told her to give up writing and get remarried; instead she published her first novel, Careless Love (1966), and a few years later she published her first short story in The New Yorker. She wrote many novels but she's best known for her short stories, in collections such as After You've Gone (1989) and The Last Lovely City (1999).
She won numerous awards including the O. Henry Award, and Best American Short Stories Award.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 82 reviews
August 27, 2019
I absolutely love books like this. I love reading about women in the past especially when the writing is stark, unapologetic, and raw. Guess this is why my favorite subjects in school have always been English and History. Because without one you cannot have the other and without the other the read is often dry and tough to pay attention to.
Superior Women is about superior women. Women who are very much real, problematic, and flawed like the rest of us. We follow five young women at Radcliffe college and we traverse through time with them. There are bumps along the way as with anybody's life but it's fun to seemingly go through it with them and learn about how each character changes and grows along the way.
This book is slow at times, especially in the beginning but the writing is superb and the characters feel tangible. Definitely a great book to read if you're a fan of womens fiction like me.
Thank you very much to Netgalley and the publisher for this copy of my ARC. All opinions are my own.
Superior Women is about superior women. Women who are very much real, problematic, and flawed like the rest of us. We follow five young women at Radcliffe college and we traverse through time with them. There are bumps along the way as with anybody's life but it's fun to seemingly go through it with them and learn about how each character changes and grows along the way.
This book is slow at times, especially in the beginning but the writing is superb and the characters feel tangible. Definitely a great book to read if you're a fan of womens fiction like me.
Thank you very much to Netgalley and the publisher for this copy of my ARC. All opinions are my own.
February 26, 2010
I was never quite able to discover what made the four girls in this book 'superior women'. They seemed utterly obsessed with superficial social posturing, backbiting, shunning their unconventional friends and relatives, and other perfidious activities. These are not people you would want as friends and certainly not 'superior women'(unless she was being sarcastic. Hmm. It's possible, I suppose.) Anyway, it's a shallow read, with generally unsympathetic characters.
October 3, 2019
Reading the reviews spoiled me to this book at first, but I'm so glad I kept on and finished. There are moments and ideas about love, marriage, aging and living well that are absolutely worth reading. Perhaps I especially enjoyed the book because it explores issues that I care about in my own stage of life. Although the friends' time in college is as superficial and unenlightening as I'm sure most of us were back in those days, the later years of career and commitment are especially poignant. Although I'm always wanting more from the author in the way of characterization (more moments inside our characters' minds, more depth of thought, more more more) the book is worth the time I put into it. I especially like the manner in which some of our beloved characters (in particular the redeemed Florence) find fulfillment in the end ... It's an Epicurean vision if I ever heard one, without slipping into unbelievable utopianism, either. And of the relentless criticism that "the women in this book aren't all that Superior ..." I can empathize to some extent, but I feel the author is making a statement about the perceived superiority of women who think outside the limited social roles available to women in the mid-twentieth century. All their choices do supercede the expectation that a woman will find a fulfilling identity in their relational roles of lover, wife and mother. Indeed, none of these women find satisfaction in feminine tradition, and the fact that some of them perhaps never find satisfaction, period, makes the title "Superior Women" seem more than a little tongue in cheek.
August 29, 2016
***Spoiler alert***
I was very excited about reading an Alice Adams novel because I had read that she was a feminist writer. I found this novel quite disappointing. While it has some interesting characters and it depicts the lives of women from the post WWII era to the early 1980's with some accuracy, it is not what I would consider a feminist novel or even a strong women's fiction novel. It holds a mirror up to patriarchy but it never allows the women characters to really show much strength or independence. The four women depicted in the novel aren't really "friends" - they are more like four women who happened to stay in the same college dormitory and just sort of kept in touch with one another. They don't even seem to like or care about one another all that much. While they are not complete stereotypes, they are certainly types and their roles change as the eras change but nothing about them ever really breaks out of the conventional patriarchal mold. For example, Megan, starts out as the stereotypical working class Californian, overweight (somehow, the book seems to focus a lot on weight) intelligent girl who later becomes the career woman whose happens to have a career almost by accident and who would really much rather be involved in a relationship and jumps from one man to another, none of whom she really cares all that much about. The way she ends up in the last chapter also seems accidental rather than an act of strength and doesn't follow logically in her character development. In fact, there isn't much psychological insight into the characters at all, which is very disappointing. The four women depicted in the novel seem much more interested in their relationships with men (mostly of a sexual nature) than they do in developing themselves, so much so that they seek out old boyfriends rather than deal with their pain. To me, this is an extremely stereotypical patriarchal way of women to deal with emotional upheaval - run to some man to "save" them. Even in the 1980's when this novel was written, this could have really explored the patriarchal absurdities that women were subjected to in the second half of the 20th century and transcended them. Instead, it falls flat with types that don't really go anywhere or make the reader want to cheer for them. I haven't read any of Adams' other books, so they might be more feminist than this one, but reading this one doesn't quite encourage me to read others, I'm sorry to say.
I was very excited about reading an Alice Adams novel because I had read that she was a feminist writer. I found this novel quite disappointing. While it has some interesting characters and it depicts the lives of women from the post WWII era to the early 1980's with some accuracy, it is not what I would consider a feminist novel or even a strong women's fiction novel. It holds a mirror up to patriarchy but it never allows the women characters to really show much strength or independence. The four women depicted in the novel aren't really "friends" - they are more like four women who happened to stay in the same college dormitory and just sort of kept in touch with one another. They don't even seem to like or care about one another all that much. While they are not complete stereotypes, they are certainly types and their roles change as the eras change but nothing about them ever really breaks out of the conventional patriarchal mold. For example, Megan, starts out as the stereotypical working class Californian, overweight (somehow, the book seems to focus a lot on weight) intelligent girl who later becomes the career woman whose happens to have a career almost by accident and who would really much rather be involved in a relationship and jumps from one man to another, none of whom she really cares all that much about. The way she ends up in the last chapter also seems accidental rather than an act of strength and doesn't follow logically in her character development. In fact, there isn't much psychological insight into the characters at all, which is very disappointing. The four women depicted in the novel seem much more interested in their relationships with men (mostly of a sexual nature) than they do in developing themselves, so much so that they seek out old boyfriends rather than deal with their pain. To me, this is an extremely stereotypical patriarchal way of women to deal with emotional upheaval - run to some man to "save" them. Even in the 1980's when this novel was written, this could have really explored the patriarchal absurdities that women were subjected to in the second half of the 20th century and transcended them. Instead, it falls flat with types that don't really go anywhere or make the reader want to cheer for them. I haven't read any of Adams' other books, so they might be more feminist than this one, but reading this one doesn't quite encourage me to read others, I'm sorry to say.
January 11, 2019
Alice Adams produced a good book in "Superior Women". It is good enough to recommend reading, but it has some flaws that prevent it from being great. Adams's books tend to be feminist, which this book definitely is. I do like Megan and Peg, who both become rather feminized by the end. This book doesn't disappoint, that way. I did find Megan a bit annoyingly neurotic. Peg has the best transformation: from overweight, unsure girl to confident lesbian activist. Lavinia, reaps the whirlwind, which is satisfying. And Cathy wrestles with her faith and is dealt a bad hand. The ending was fitting, and I did like how some of the friends got together to help others. Unfortunately, these women may be superior, but this novel is sadly mundane.
July 15, 2024
What a wonderful book that I thought I was gonna hate!
It's about four (actually five to me) ivy league college "frenemies" who share a 40-odd year span from the 40s through the 80s. From the beginning, one can almost see how they're gonna turn out (with some surprises).
How they struggled to stay "technical" virgins; how snobbery and bigotry and class and money all figure in to this marvelous book. They all judged each other and other people as badly as I judged this read. I'm ashamed of myself.
It's about four (actually five to me) ivy league college "frenemies" who share a 40-odd year span from the 40s through the 80s. From the beginning, one can almost see how they're gonna turn out (with some surprises).
How they struggled to stay "technical" virgins; how snobbery and bigotry and class and money all figure in to this marvelous book. They all judged each other and other people as badly as I judged this read. I'm ashamed of myself.
July 7, 2025
What I enjoyed most about Superior Women is the light historical perspective woven throughout the narration of the lives of four Radcliffe college roommates with somewhat dissimilar backgrounds, one that spans four decades - from the early 1940s to the early 1980s. The novel explores issues of gender, race and sexuality through the relationship and career choices these women make during and after college.
I cannot help but wonder how much of this is autobiographical. There is a very small slight against my daughter's alma mater - Mount Holyoke - so I looked up Alice Adams' biography to see where she had attended college (wondering if it was Smith ;), only to find a summary that read straight out of this novel in terms of the timeline and cities lived/visited - including the fact that she attended Radcliffe.
So, why only three stars? Perhaps because I feel other authors have done a better job at this type of sweeping narrative. The characters (and even their circumstances) grow increasingly superficial, and I ceased caring about their lives sometime during decade three, slogging through the final quarter of the novel, which had an unsatisfying (unrealistic?) ending - in my opinion. Perhaps, also, because I wouldn't recommend the book to anyone I know.
I cannot help but wonder how much of this is autobiographical. There is a very small slight against my daughter's alma mater - Mount Holyoke - so I looked up Alice Adams' biography to see where she had attended college (wondering if it was Smith ;), only to find a summary that read straight out of this novel in terms of the timeline and cities lived/visited - including the fact that she attended Radcliffe.
So, why only three stars? Perhaps because I feel other authors have done a better job at this type of sweeping narrative. The characters (and even their circumstances) grow increasingly superficial, and I ceased caring about their lives sometime during decade three, slogging through the final quarter of the novel, which had an unsatisfying (unrealistic?) ending - in my opinion. Perhaps, also, because I wouldn't recommend the book to anyone I know.
August 9, 2025
Having previously enjoyed one of Alice Adams’ book I bought this one at a used book sale. I do enjoy Alice Adams’ writing style. The Group has been on my TBR list for a while so I figured this would be similar.
The lives of five Radcliffe college friends from college through the next four decades, beginning during WWII. Though some characters are irritating - I’m looking at you, Lavinia - I found them all believable and real. And that’s what I like in a book!
The lives of five Radcliffe college friends from college through the next four decades, beginning during WWII. Though some characters are irritating - I’m looking at you, Lavinia - I found them all believable and real. And that’s what I like in a book!
January 31, 2018
I'm surprised to see that this book got the same rating as Mary McCarthy's "The Group" which was published 21 years earlier since it is really a rip-off of the earlier book. I read "The Group" in the early 60's around the time it was published and liked it very much. The women in "The Group" went to Vassar. The women in this book, which was published in 1984, went to Radcliffe. Other than that, the two books are pretty much the same.
I wonder why the author thinks the women described in this book are "superior"? Because they attended an expensive Eastern women's college? Because most of them came from families with money? I didn't really see anything superior about them. None of the characters were particularly likeable.
After slogging through over 100 pages about the lives of five young women in college, two pages were missing from the book (I got the book at our library's used book store) and those were the pages where the women finally graduated from college!
The book really has two main characters, Megan Greene who runs around having sex with everything in pants, and Lavinia, the cool blond beauty who comes from a wealthy family. The three other women who are their friends are hardly mentioned during their days at Radcliffe, but we learn more about them later in their lives. With all the time these women spend on their personal pursuits and crises, it doesn't sound as though any of them ever had any time to study. I didn't think the courses at Radcliffe were that easy.
Adams' view of marriage and family life is jaded. No one has a happy marriage and the husbands and wives all cheat without suffering any consequences. The one woman who seems to have made a "normal" marriage, has a breakdown from the stress of having four children. It does not make being wealthy and beautiful look appealing. In fact, I don't think I have ever read a book about people who are extremely wealthy who seem to have happy lives. Apparently, the old saying "Money doesn't buy happiness" is true, but it would allow you to be miserable in comfort.
I wonder why the author thinks the women described in this book are "superior"? Because they attended an expensive Eastern women's college? Because most of them came from families with money? I didn't really see anything superior about them. None of the characters were particularly likeable.
After slogging through over 100 pages about the lives of five young women in college, two pages were missing from the book (I got the book at our library's used book store) and those were the pages where the women finally graduated from college!
The book really has two main characters, Megan Greene who runs around having sex with everything in pants, and Lavinia, the cool blond beauty who comes from a wealthy family. The three other women who are their friends are hardly mentioned during their days at Radcliffe, but we learn more about them later in their lives. With all the time these women spend on their personal pursuits and crises, it doesn't sound as though any of them ever had any time to study. I didn't think the courses at Radcliffe were that easy.
Adams' view of marriage and family life is jaded. No one has a happy marriage and the husbands and wives all cheat without suffering any consequences. The one woman who seems to have made a "normal" marriage, has a breakdown from the stress of having four children. It does not make being wealthy and beautiful look appealing. In fact, I don't think I have ever read a book about people who are extremely wealthy who seem to have happy lives. Apparently, the old saying "Money doesn't buy happiness" is true, but it would allow you to be miserable in comfort.
August 24, 2019
How did I miss this gem when it was first published? Adams manages to take the stereotypical dory of 4 housemates from an elite woman’s college, in this case Radcliffe and create an elegant beautiful novel.
Utilizing archetypal characters, and despite it being written in the 1980’s, it remains vibrant and engaging. Obviously, an example of the women’s friendship genre, it makes for an interesting and shockingly not very dated read. For those of us that loved THE GROUP and THE BEST OF EVERYTHING, this will be totally enjoyable. Perhaps, as an older reader, it appealed to me more than it might to those who are younger
There are timely references to racial issues and anti-Semitism, and there sure was plenty of sex back then, LOL.
I will heartily recommend it to book groups and women’s studies seminars. Lots to discuss.
Thanks Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read and review this delightful woman’s novel.
Utilizing archetypal characters, and despite it being written in the 1980’s, it remains vibrant and engaging. Obviously, an example of the women’s friendship genre, it makes for an interesting and shockingly not very dated read. For those of us that loved THE GROUP and THE BEST OF EVERYTHING, this will be totally enjoyable. Perhaps, as an older reader, it appealed to me more than it might to those who are younger
There are timely references to racial issues and anti-Semitism, and there sure was plenty of sex back then, LOL.
I will heartily recommend it to book groups and women’s studies seminars. Lots to discuss.
Thanks Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read and review this delightful woman’s novel.
October 1, 2016
Sometimes the day calls for Alice Adams.
August 7, 2008
I absolutely love books that tell the stories of multiple, interconnected characters that span several decades, and Superior Women by the late Alice Adams is no exception. I don’t know why, but I get a thrill out of watching characters evolve over time and seeing how things done by one character affect the others.
Superior Women follows Megan Greene as she moves from her parents’ home in California to Radcliffe in the early 1940s, chasing a Harvard boy she met over the summer. At Radcliffe, she meets a group of girls: Lavinia, the sexy bitchy one, Peg, the motherly one, Cathy, the smart one, and Janet, who’s not part of the clique. Megan is close to each of them at different points in her life.
The book covers the usual feminist themes, such as women overcoming sexual and gender stereotypes, and shows that while these women form a strong bond, they have no qualms about stabbing one another in the back. Adams gives each one their moment in the spotlight and begs the reader to ask, “Were they superior women after all?” They were superior because they knew what they wanted and were willing to go after it even if it didn’t meet society’s (or their family’s) expectations. I believe they also thought themselves to be superior, given that they were women taking on the world and caring only about making themselves happy no matter the consequences.
Full review at Diary of an Eccentric
Superior Women follows Megan Greene as she moves from her parents’ home in California to Radcliffe in the early 1940s, chasing a Harvard boy she met over the summer. At Radcliffe, she meets a group of girls: Lavinia, the sexy bitchy one, Peg, the motherly one, Cathy, the smart one, and Janet, who’s not part of the clique. Megan is close to each of them at different points in her life.
The book covers the usual feminist themes, such as women overcoming sexual and gender stereotypes, and shows that while these women form a strong bond, they have no qualms about stabbing one another in the back. Adams gives each one their moment in the spotlight and begs the reader to ask, “Were they superior women after all?” They were superior because they knew what they wanted and were willing to go after it even if it didn’t meet society’s (or their family’s) expectations. I believe they also thought themselves to be superior, given that they were women taking on the world and caring only about making themselves happy no matter the consequences.
Full review at Diary of an Eccentric
July 18, 2024
This was a captivating story. It begins in 1943 in California with Sixteen year old Megan who is very unhappy with her life and decides to follow her "greatest love" to the east coast. She ends up at Radcliffe where she meets her lifelong "friends".
The book continues to follow the four women throughout their lives. It's a fascinating look at social values from the forties to the eighties. It touches lightly on the civil rights movement and watergate. The book is not so much political, but an interesting look at how a persons politics are developed. Also, how a person would go against everything they wanted and be so unhappy because that's just what you did.
I'm very thankful I did not grow up in that time. I'm sure I would have been miserable.
The book continues to follow the four women throughout their lives. It's a fascinating look at social values from the forties to the eighties. It touches lightly on the civil rights movement and watergate. The book is not so much political, but an interesting look at how a persons politics are developed. Also, how a person would go against everything they wanted and be so unhappy because that's just what you did.
I'm very thankful I did not grow up in that time. I'm sure I would have been miserable.
March 18, 2016
An engaging story of four friends, from when they met in college (1943) to 40 years later (1983).
June 4, 2021
My all-time favorite book. A story of four bright friends from very different backgrounds spanning WWII until the late 1900’s . The heroine is the fish out of water in the east coast class system.
Read
April 1, 2025The kind of book that lets you think about your own life as its acted out by others
January 19, 2020
The women in Alice Adams' SUPERIOR WOMEN certainly do think they are 'superior.' And they are really not. They are in turn ordinary, awful, bland, and absolutely normal women. It doesn't make for a particularly compelling story, because they can be so bland it's hard to even enjoy rooting against them.
SUPERIOR WOMEN is the story of Megan, Lavinia, Peg, and Cathy who meet as freshmen at Radcliffe College in 1942. It's hard to tell if they ever actually like each other enough to actually qualify for the definition of 'good friends' but they remain somewhat inexplicably dedicated to each other for forty years, i.e. the span of Adams' novel. Dedicated might not be the right word either. It's more like they 'use' each other, find some deeper meaning in themselves because they count the other three as 'friends.' There was one scene early on where Peg or Cathy, by far the two most interesting of the four... and the two who get the least attention from Adams, remembers reading books as a child where a there were always four friends, each of whom ticked some box and she decides they fit that. That's a good summary of the story.
The novel was originally published in 1985 and Alice Adams was a graduate of Radcliffe College so she was writing what she knew. And, from the perspective of 2020, what she knew was not good.
Lavinia especially is utterly offensive, and I feel like she would have been equally as offensive in 1942 and 1982 as she is in 2020. She's a blatantly racist, unapologetically anti-Semtitic who makes herself feel better by making others feel smaller. Even her so-called friends. Peg becomes Peglet, she's certain and horrified Cathy might be a lesbian, and she constantly thinks of, and outright says, that Megan is fat and oversexed. I don't think Alice Adams meant for the reader to like Lavinia, the wealthy daughter of the South, but I do wish she'd spent less time on her. Or used less stereotypes, offensive names, and outright slurs.
Megan is the 'superior woman' we meet first, falling head over heels for a college boy while she's in high school. She actually moves from California to attend Radcliffe in Massachusetts to be near him. Megan should be a progressive, liberated woman. That's how she should come off. She becomes a force in her field but never marries or has children. She has lovers, lovers who last decades on-and-off, and she is the best friend to the other three. But... she's also horrible to her parents and awfully self-centered.
I don't know what life was like at Radcliffe College in the 1940s or what the lives of definitely upper middle class women was between the 1940s and the 1980s, so I can't say if this story is outlandish or exaggerated. It feels like it is. But I can't judge on accuracy, like whether or not three of four friends might've had flings with the same man thirty years after college. What I can judge on is how it reads as a novel.
And that's... passable.
There was too much back-and-forth between scenes. A chapter would start with Megan visiting Cathy and suddenly she's in bed with Jackson before it's back to Cathy?
But basically, everything seemed exaggerated and, therefore, had to believe.
(I received a copy of SUPERIOR WOMEN through NetGalley and Scribner in exchange for an honest and original review.)
SUPERIOR WOMEN is the story of Megan, Lavinia, Peg, and Cathy who meet as freshmen at Radcliffe College in 1942. It's hard to tell if they ever actually like each other enough to actually qualify for the definition of 'good friends' but they remain somewhat inexplicably dedicated to each other for forty years, i.e. the span of Adams' novel. Dedicated might not be the right word either. It's more like they 'use' each other, find some deeper meaning in themselves because they count the other three as 'friends.' There was one scene early on where Peg or Cathy, by far the two most interesting of the four... and the two who get the least attention from Adams, remembers reading books as a child where a there were always four friends, each of whom ticked some box and she decides they fit that. That's a good summary of the story.
The novel was originally published in 1985 and Alice Adams was a graduate of Radcliffe College so she was writing what she knew. And, from the perspective of 2020, what she knew was not good.
Lavinia especially is utterly offensive, and I feel like she would have been equally as offensive in 1942 and 1982 as she is in 2020. She's a blatantly racist, unapologetically anti-Semtitic who makes herself feel better by making others feel smaller. Even her so-called friends. Peg becomes Peglet, she's certain and horrified Cathy might be a lesbian, and she constantly thinks of, and outright says, that Megan is fat and oversexed. I don't think Alice Adams meant for the reader to like Lavinia, the wealthy daughter of the South, but I do wish she'd spent less time on her. Or used less stereotypes, offensive names, and outright slurs.
Megan is the 'superior woman' we meet first, falling head over heels for a college boy while she's in high school. She actually moves from California to attend Radcliffe in Massachusetts to be near him. Megan should be a progressive, liberated woman. That's how she should come off. She becomes a force in her field but never marries or has children. She has lovers, lovers who last decades on-and-off, and she is the best friend to the other three. But... she's also horrible to her parents and awfully self-centered.
I don't know what life was like at Radcliffe College in the 1940s or what the lives of definitely upper middle class women was between the 1940s and the 1980s, so I can't say if this story is outlandish or exaggerated. It feels like it is. But I can't judge on accuracy, like whether or not three of four friends might've had flings with the same man thirty years after college. What I can judge on is how it reads as a novel.
And that's... passable.
There was too much back-and-forth between scenes. A chapter would start with Megan visiting Cathy and suddenly she's in bed with Jackson before it's back to Cathy?
But basically, everything seemed exaggerated and, therefore, had to believe.
(I received a copy of SUPERIOR WOMEN through NetGalley and Scribner in exchange for an honest and original review.)
December 8, 2019
Superior Women is a fantastic and somewhat ironically-named novel. It is centered around Megan, who in 1943 California, meets a college boy from New England and decides that she's in love with him. Really, she's in love with the idea of liberating herself from poverty and Palo Alto. She gets into Radcliffe and meets quiet, brilliant Janet; snobbish, beautiful Lavinia; devout, sarcastic Cathy; and hearty, maternal Peg. Alice Adams follows these five well-educated women through the twists and turns that life throws at them over the next 4 decades. Adams' historical details are well-researched. Turning points such as World War II, the Civil Rights Movement, and Watergate play supporting roles.
Adams lingers over letting us get to know these characters as college girls. In some form or fashion, each one dates and has some form of erotic awakening. Connections are formed. Some become lifelong friends; others, lifelong frenemies. The novel depends on the 5 women staying at least somewhat in touch with each other, their friends, and friends of friends. This makes the novel feel a little claustrophobic, but also keeps the cast of characters manageable. The details of their post-college lives unspool almost jarringly fast compared to the initial college chapters. They marry (or don't), divorce, have babies (or not), fall in and out of love, rise in careers, get involved in politics, get sick, experience physical changes, and travel. Generation X and Millennial readers can be forgiven for a bit of jealousy over how affordable housing in New York City, San Francisco, or Paris is and the relative ease of finding a good job out of college.
If you like historical novels and novels of love and manners, you'll enjoy Superior Women. At points, you'll root for the characters, want to slap them, cry for them, and be surprised by them. In that way, they're not so different from most circles of women.
Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.
Adams lingers over letting us get to know these characters as college girls. In some form or fashion, each one dates and has some form of erotic awakening. Connections are formed. Some become lifelong friends; others, lifelong frenemies. The novel depends on the 5 women staying at least somewhat in touch with each other, their friends, and friends of friends. This makes the novel feel a little claustrophobic, but also keeps the cast of characters manageable. The details of their post-college lives unspool almost jarringly fast compared to the initial college chapters. They marry (or don't), divorce, have babies (or not), fall in and out of love, rise in careers, get involved in politics, get sick, experience physical changes, and travel. Generation X and Millennial readers can be forgiven for a bit of jealousy over how affordable housing in New York City, San Francisco, or Paris is and the relative ease of finding a good job out of college.
If you like historical novels and novels of love and manners, you'll enjoy Superior Women. At points, you'll root for the characters, want to slap them, cry for them, and be surprised by them. In that way, they're not so different from most circles of women.
Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.
October 20, 2019
SUPERIOR WOMEN was a completely wonderful, unexpected surprise. When I started it, I was unaware that Alice Adams had passed away almost 20 years ago, and that this was originally published in 1984. The book is being reissued in December, and I hope it gets the due it deserves because it is an epic journey through the 20th century following 5 upper class women who meet in college and then whose lives veer off in completely and surprising directions.
Adams’ writing is so fun and easy to digest. The plot moves quickly and it was impossible to guess where the story was going. All of the characters are well developed and I adored following their lives from college to their 50s. I could very rarely see any of the big developments coming, and that made the book really hard to put down.
The book is not very PC and often stuck in the past though, and it can be very jarring for 2019 readers to see the brazen language the characters use to describe each other. It makes the characters who you really hate even more worse, so much so that you’ll want to scream at them through the page. I felt very emotional about the book and the women by the end, wanting them to be happy and content, dealing with the ups and downs of the 20th century.
I can see how this reissue is perfect timing. The women, starting college in the 1940s and ending in their 50s in 1980s, go through many of the same things women do today. The trend of groups of female friends who meet in college is still going strong, and the parallels of life from the 1970s/80s that the women deal with regard to social issues is eerily prescient. I truly and unexpectedly loved this book, and so glad I went off my well beaten course of only reading new, contemporary releases because I would have easily missed this gem.
Adams’ writing is so fun and easy to digest. The plot moves quickly and it was impossible to guess where the story was going. All of the characters are well developed and I adored following their lives from college to their 50s. I could very rarely see any of the big developments coming, and that made the book really hard to put down.
The book is not very PC and often stuck in the past though, and it can be very jarring for 2019 readers to see the brazen language the characters use to describe each other. It makes the characters who you really hate even more worse, so much so that you’ll want to scream at them through the page. I felt very emotional about the book and the women by the end, wanting them to be happy and content, dealing with the ups and downs of the 20th century.
I can see how this reissue is perfect timing. The women, starting college in the 1940s and ending in their 50s in 1980s, go through many of the same things women do today. The trend of groups of female friends who meet in college is still going strong, and the parallels of life from the 1970s/80s that the women deal with regard to social issues is eerily prescient. I truly and unexpectedly loved this book, and so glad I went off my well beaten course of only reading new, contemporary releases because I would have easily missed this gem.
October 11, 2021
Readable. Characters (both female and male) not particularly likeable, most anyway.
Possible spoilers ahead:
I don’t think this was exactly a book about Superior Women, rather a collection of intertwined stories about women who:
- think that they’re superior - to their partners, to their classmates, to their parents, to each other
- think that other women are superior to them
- wish that they were superior like they perceive others in their group of friends
- realize that those women they thought were superior to them are not, in fact
A lot of the time the language seemed forced, especially with one peripheral character, Adam - there was vulgarity there intended for…shock value? emphasis? “a true reflection on society at that time?” I don’t know. Coarse language doesn’t bother me in the slightest, but here it didn’t seem organic, and he was my least favourite character, though it also made me dislike Megan (my favourite of the 5 girls) a little bit, her (platonic?) attraction to him.
The male characters were all thoroughly disappointing. Perhaps Potter the least? I’m not sure.
The female characters- even more so. Meg was my favourite, and along with Peg showed the most character growth out of the 5. Although Janet too came in to her own, though I feel that she and Cathy were the characters least fleshed out. Obviously Megan and Lavinia were the most prominently discussed of the 5 girls - which makes sense, as they started with Meg thinking Lavinia was *the* Superior Woman, with the reverse being true I suppose by the end.
Anyway, a readable book, but not one I’d necessarily recommend.
Possible spoilers ahead:
I don’t think this was exactly a book about Superior Women, rather a collection of intertwined stories about women who:
- think that they’re superior - to their partners, to their classmates, to their parents, to each other
- think that other women are superior to them
- wish that they were superior like they perceive others in their group of friends
- realize that those women they thought were superior to them are not, in fact
A lot of the time the language seemed forced, especially with one peripheral character, Adam - there was vulgarity there intended for…shock value? emphasis? “a true reflection on society at that time?” I don’t know. Coarse language doesn’t bother me in the slightest, but here it didn’t seem organic, and he was my least favourite character, though it also made me dislike Megan (my favourite of the 5 girls) a little bit, her (platonic?) attraction to him.
The male characters were all thoroughly disappointing. Perhaps Potter the least? I’m not sure.
The female characters- even more so. Meg was my favourite, and along with Peg showed the most character growth out of the 5. Although Janet too came in to her own, though I feel that she and Cathy were the characters least fleshed out. Obviously Megan and Lavinia were the most prominently discussed of the 5 girls - which makes sense, as they started with Meg thinking Lavinia was *the* Superior Woman, with the reverse being true I suppose by the end.
Anyway, a readable book, but not one I’d necessarily recommend.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 6, 2023
'Superior Women' is a multi-decade story about five university classmates and their lives post-graduation. Upon my initial reading of the blurb, this sounded enticing. A good character beginning in the 1940s, spanning the 1980s, documenting the evolution of these women's lives, how they fall in and out of each other, and the lessons they learn — or don't learn — along the way. Beautiful. Why did it take me three months to read this book, then? f the constituent elements are so enticing.
I don't think it's a well-executed novel. Adams gives equal time to each character; their arches are each fledged out in detail, each distinct from the next. Yet the writing lets this story down. Adams imbues the text with so many throwaway asides and unnecessary words. It results in a dense book with over-described scenes. I'd finish a chapter and be exhausted from all the language thrown at me. And, therefore, I'd put the book down. Perfectly crafted sentences are an art. The best writers can convey exactitudes with ease. It is here where Adams fails: her writing overcompensates.
Superior Women is also a dated novel. The references and the mentalities towards women, marriage, divorce, abortion, and civil rights (to name a few) are dated — as expected for a novel written in 1984 — yet unashamedly brash. For a book that insinuates its intention is to highlight powerful, independent women leading their own lives freely, it certainly doesn't have much good to say about them and often undercuts their successes with quips and asides about their weight and makeup.
The cover is very nice and looks good on a shelf.
—
#SuperiorWomen by #AliceAdams
Published by #Knopf (1984)
First edition
Purchased at #BlackSquirrelBooks
I don't think it's a well-executed novel. Adams gives equal time to each character; their arches are each fledged out in detail, each distinct from the next. Yet the writing lets this story down. Adams imbues the text with so many throwaway asides and unnecessary words. It results in a dense book with over-described scenes. I'd finish a chapter and be exhausted from all the language thrown at me. And, therefore, I'd put the book down. Perfectly crafted sentences are an art. The best writers can convey exactitudes with ease. It is here where Adams fails: her writing overcompensates.
Superior Women is also a dated novel. The references and the mentalities towards women, marriage, divorce, abortion, and civil rights (to name a few) are dated — as expected for a novel written in 1984 — yet unashamedly brash. For a book that insinuates its intention is to highlight powerful, independent women leading their own lives freely, it certainly doesn't have much good to say about them and often undercuts their successes with quips and asides about their weight and makeup.
The cover is very nice and looks good on a shelf.
—
#SuperiorWomen by #AliceAdams
Published by #Knopf (1984)
First edition
Purchased at #BlackSquirrelBooks
December 16, 2019
Superior Women follows the lives of four women from their first meeting at Radcliffe in the waning days of World War II though the boom years of the 1950s, the Civil Rights movement and the divisions caused by the Vietnam War.
Lavinia is the self-styled group leader. Aristocratic and beautiful, she marries for money and spends the rest of her life looking for love and understanding.
Peg, the wealthiest of the four, struggles to fit in and only finds her identity later in life.
Cathy is a shy conservative Catholic girl whose devotion to her religion costs her the relationship she desires and leads her into great sorrow.
Megan, the outsider from California, is the consummate career woman. A successful editor, she climbs the corporate ladder to become independently wealthy while choosing to remain single.
While I enjoyed reading Superior Women, I think I would have enjoyed it more when it was originally published in 1984. In the Me Too era, the discrimination faced by women in earlier decades is evident and painful. The casual caste system followed by the upper class in Boston and New York is off-putting. I found some of the descriptive language used in referring to women and African Americans racist, misogynistic and disturbing. It is amazing to see how far women have come since then in terms of equality and the distance still left to cover.
Lavinia is the self-styled group leader. Aristocratic and beautiful, she marries for money and spends the rest of her life looking for love and understanding.
Peg, the wealthiest of the four, struggles to fit in and only finds her identity later in life.
Cathy is a shy conservative Catholic girl whose devotion to her religion costs her the relationship she desires and leads her into great sorrow.
Megan, the outsider from California, is the consummate career woman. A successful editor, she climbs the corporate ladder to become independently wealthy while choosing to remain single.
While I enjoyed reading Superior Women, I think I would have enjoyed it more when it was originally published in 1984. In the Me Too era, the discrimination faced by women in earlier decades is evident and painful. The casual caste system followed by the upper class in Boston and New York is off-putting. I found some of the descriptive language used in referring to women and African Americans racist, misogynistic and disturbing. It is amazing to see how far women have come since then in terms of equality and the distance still left to cover.
November 22, 2021
This book is awful. One knows going in that it is the K Mart version of The Group meets The Best of Everything. Don’t bother unless you are being paid to review it. This book could have been delicious if the characters had actually been written as interesting women who are defined by something other than their weight and with whom they are sleeping. It’s just a total bore. “Megan” is not even a believable surname for a woman of that generation. I would have absolutely savored this book if even the author would have included more specific details as to what these women were wearing, but there are no details other than a diss on “Lavinia” that she -needed- Valentino and Gucci (but Valentine what????) to distract from the ravages of gravity pre- facelift. Ugh. This book is awful. Save yourself some time and just watch The Best of Everything next time it is on TCM. Sure it’s watered down, but at least it is a fashion classic. And— Assuming these women had the wherewithal to graduate from Radcliffe, I just not buying the notion that they were all 5 so uninformed on the topic that seems to be their sole motivation for living, i. e. SEX. No wonder they are miserable and depressed. They don’t even have any hobbies. UGH 😩
August 2, 2019
Superior Women by Alice Adams is a fictional account that is a very interesting perspective into the lives of five different women in the same social circles, and somewhat friends, spanning almost 40 years. Peaking into minds of Megan, Lavinia, Cathy, Janet, and Peg from the late 1940s in college and how they live their lives until the early 1980s gives the reader a retrospective look at a multigenerational timeline and how one’s decisions and goals have changing, and lasting, effects.
I find the women interesting in the fact that the author presents them as imperfect and flawed. We women may now not be able to identify with their thoughts and motives in the same way as 40 years ago, however we can still take those mistakes and choices and reflect those into what our respective choices have been in our own lives.
A very interesting read, albeit somewhat on the slower end in some areas, into the lives of women over the span of half of their lives.
4/5 stars
Thank you NetGalley and Scribner for this ARC and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion.
I find the women interesting in the fact that the author presents them as imperfect and flawed. We women may now not be able to identify with their thoughts and motives in the same way as 40 years ago, however we can still take those mistakes and choices and reflect those into what our respective choices have been in our own lives.
A very interesting read, albeit somewhat on the slower end in some areas, into the lives of women over the span of half of their lives.
4/5 stars
Thank you NetGalley and Scribner for this ARC and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion.
November 28, 2019
I loved this book when it was first published and for me, at least, it's held up over the intervening years. I do understand that the changes in how we view women, how women view themselves, and th world in general might lead others to find fault with this story of five women who meet at Radcliffe in 1943. Yes some of their attitudes are odd but you know what, that was then and this is now, which didn't make this any less of a pleasure for me. Megan, Janet, Lavinia, Peg, and Cathy each represent a slightly different take on the world. Thanks to Edelweiss for the DRC of the reissue. This is for fans of big multicharacter sagas that span decades.
September 24, 2022
Tags: college friends (Cathy, Megan, Lavinia, Peg), from college to almost retirement.
Adams' writing is not one that is necessarily fast paced or one that documents really hyped up situations, but her understanding of feminine psychology is amazing. We get to know Megan, Cathy, Lavinia and Peg since they are in college, young women, debuting life. And we follow them carefully each step of the way as they develop, grow old and show their true colors.
I think that Adams makes an amazing job of depicting female friendship and its intricacies, games that women play, jealousies and stabs that are taken, while also showing true friendship that can stand the test of time and distance.
Adams' writing is not one that is necessarily fast paced or one that documents really hyped up situations, but her understanding of feminine psychology is amazing. We get to know Megan, Cathy, Lavinia and Peg since they are in college, young women, debuting life. And we follow them carefully each step of the way as they develop, grow old and show their true colors.
I think that Adams makes an amazing job of depicting female friendship and its intricacies, games that women play, jealousies and stabs that are taken, while also showing true friendship that can stand the test of time and distance.
February 25, 2024
I revisit this novel almost every year...
This story, the characters, the setting of New England, California, the South, all so accurate and lovely. I love Meagan, Adam Marr, Henry. The characters are all realistic, no one main character is all good or all bad. I love the time of change this story covers, from WWII up to the early 80s. It's remarkable 👏 a simply beautiful read. I just read it again for the 10th time and each time it affects me differently, yet it always feels I'm visiting dear old friends. It's the type of book that you hate to end. I wish Adam's would have wrote a follow-up, as if there is a weakness in this story , it's the ending. I
This story, the characters, the setting of New England, California, the South, all so accurate and lovely. I love Meagan, Adam Marr, Henry. The characters are all realistic, no one main character is all good or all bad. I love the time of change this story covers, from WWII up to the early 80s. It's remarkable 👏 a simply beautiful read. I just read it again for the 10th time and each time it affects me differently, yet it always feels I'm visiting dear old friends. It's the type of book that you hate to end. I wish Adam's would have wrote a follow-up, as if there is a weakness in this story , it's the ending. I
November 22, 2018
A story of 4 or 5 young women from completely different backgrounds, who meet as freshmen at Radcliffe. The books follows most of them for about 60 years. A better name would have been Shallow Women. I appreciate that 60 yrs ago, things were different, most of them are reflected thru their choices of partners. It spends some time on the Nixon era and seems to me that there is a lot of similarity to the Trump era. I had expected something like The Group by Mary McCarthy who told of a group of Vassar women between WW1 and 2. This one is a pale comparison, but a good beach read.
July 13, 2019
I have been reading a lot of serious books lately and decided I needed something lighter. The setting for this book and the time period are the same as when I was a young woman. It is interesting to read about what these college women were concerned with. Things have changed in many ways, but also remain the same. The question I was left with is what form of contraception they used. The pill was not available before the early '60s. Also I remember the days of back room abortions and the needless deaths that occurred.
December 18, 2019
This is a reprint of a book first published in 1984. Alice Adams tells the story of four women who meet at Radcliffe and whose lives continue to intersect over the following decades. The women are all intelligent, “superior” women, whose ambitions when they leave for college are wide-ranging for their time (post WW II in the 40’s). This book read well for me as a historical novel, with its insights into the values and mores expected of women in this time.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
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