Is This An Overview?
Joanna and family moved to Stepford. A place of welcoming people. Joanna is part of the Women’s Liberation movement, and is bothered by the fact that there is a Men’s Association, but no Women’s Association. Joanna’s husband joins the Men’s Association in part to connect with the neighbors, but also to try to turn the association into Everybody’s Association. As Joanna becomes familiarized with the neighborhood, strange interactions occur. The women seem to be willing to do housework, and not much else. Joanna meets others who arrived in Stepford shortly before Joanna, who are also interested in women’s empowerment.

But for some reason, even independent minded and empowered women become compliant and submissive housewives eager to please their family and nothing else. This change happens about four months after moving to Stepford. Leading to questions about what can turn women’s personality in such a drastic way. Maybe it is chemicals in the soil or water. Maybe the wives are turned to robots. Maybe it is just women changing their minds. Maybe it is Joanna losing a grip on reality. Based on what Joanna thinks, Joanna does not have long to figure out what is happening in Stepford until Joanna might change into someone Joanna does not want to be.

Caveats?
A short and easy to read book. There is a long buildup of information until the suspense is actualized. The importance of some information would be more readily recognized by those who know the era’s history of women’s empowerment movements and leaders. ( )

I have to admit that Ira Levin was quite a discovery for me. It seems he is a prolific writer very like Philip K Dick but without that LSD-ish touch od PKD's novels.

Story starts with comments from very active and emancipated woman Joanne on her new neighborhood - together with husband and kids she arrives into suburban Stepford and starts looking around the neighborhood. First thing she notices is that women of Stepford dont have any social gatherings and generally have their lives centered around their husbands and house works - willingly and entirely! Everything looks like a throwback to some earlier times and Joanne is puzzled because it looks like gender equality and women rights movements somehow never gained traction in Stepford.

What starts as a rather simple detective story quickly spirals into that most horrifying of horror stories - one of complete lost of identity, oneself in its entirety without any way to prevent it. The very way story culminates ... it is superb storytelling. Reader is left in the dark about what exactly goes on and is left guessing. And this is additional strength of the novel, something needs to be left to imagination, right? And nothing creates dark assumptions as wandering mind.

Highly recommended to all fans of good thriller. ( )

At the outset, it's obvious that Levin is just recycling the ideas he had from Rosemary's Baby. The constant gaslighting. The usage of a hero vs a dystopian patriarchy. And the genre elements that are supposed to elevate the material.

The problem is that unlike the previous book, this one isn't compelling as a drama (or even a satire). There's no investigation of a mystery until far too late. The humor is bad. The suspense doesn't exist until nearly the end. And the downer ending leaves you with more intellectual questions and emotional ennui.

It could've been something: an examination of first wave feminism, modern approaches to gaslighting, and the stifling oppression of suburbia. Instead it is a massive miss, full of potential.

Avoid. ( )

Good, short classic read. ( )

Low pick. The pacing is a bit weird and the writing didn’t wow me. Also, its cultural relevance has diminished the twist (I’ve not seen the films and I still knew what was going on). Nonetheless, I felt it still had thematic potency, reflecting the lengths that some white, cis-het men in particular will go to in order to gain or maintain power. I found it quite bleak in that respect, particularly with the way it ended. A cautionary tale for sure. ( )