Classic Trash discussion

This topic is for those who wish to discuss The Group in progress. No spoilers please!

I just got done reading The Group. No spoilers here, but I will say say it's worth reading. I thought it was a quick read, and I wanted to keep reading to find out what happened to these eight women.

Uh, why is sex in non-romance books so often unappealing? I mean, romance book sex is often unrealistic, but at least people seem to be having a good time. (I'm talking recently-written consensual romances.) A. S. Byatt and Meg Wolitzer are the worst for making sex seem kind of gross, but this book isn't really doing much better. (The book as a whole is entertaining me so far - I'm about 75 pages in - but the sex is dreary. Maybe I'm having more fun than everyone else and just don't realize how boring sex really is. But I don't think so.)

I think this book is very much a product of the time in which it was written. The sex is almost written like a sex ed text. Maybe the author was writing to empower the women of her time (early 1950s) by showing them what would happen when they had sex - factually, with all the mess and everything involved. Give them info that maybe they felt too embarrassed to ask. She even writes a "this is what an orgasm feels like" part. And then there's the entire visit to the doctor to be fitted with birth control. (I had to look up the word pessary.) I don't really think the sex was meant to be erotic.

Chapter 3 has a discussion on birth control ettiquette that I found pretty amusing. The characters compare what stage your relationship is in to what birth control is used, and how a pesary shows the relationship is serious. Also lots of talk about douche bags.

LOTS of douche bags.

Adelaide wrote: "LOTS of douche bags."

Ha ha!

So far I am really liking Dottie and Helena. Kay leaves me dry, and Harald is a pill.

Adelaide wrote: "So far I am really liking Dottie and Helena. Kay leaves me dry, and Harald is a pill."

I agree with what you've said. What chapter are you on? Did you meet Norene yet in Chapter 6?

I just hit chapter 7. Norine seems like someone who uses ideology to justify her less-than-good actions. Ugh.

Adelaide wrote: "I just hit chapter 7. Norine seems like someone who uses ideology to justify her less-than-good actions. Ugh."

I know. If they had only let her into their group at Vassar. She's just sleeping with Harald to feel part of the group that she was excluded from. So it's really Kay's fault. Give me a break, Norine!

I will be doing some travelling this month, starting this Thursday, so I might not be posting as much. I just wanted to let everyone know, in case anyone posts and is waiting for a response from me.

I will also be offline next week.