Small Changes
Marge Piercy
The picture of men who-are simply observed rather than being protagonists is revealing. One of the male characters, Phil, is even presented in a rather attractive and sympathetic perspective. Although he tried to participate in a gang rape when he was in his teens, he seems to be an illustration of the principle that men (at least some men) are redeemable. Could Piercy believe that artists (he is a poet) are really closer to understanding women than other men are? Shawn, the former rock star in her novel Dance the Eagle to Sleep, also seemed to be more sympathetic to women than the other men in the book. It is easy to see why male re viewers have said that they preferred Dance the Eagle to Sleep; many of the men in that book were heroes, whereas only women approach the heroic in Small Changes.
Small Changes honestly chronicles many common experiences in women’s lives (the wedding, the office, life at home with a baby, etc.) the bad experiences are such a familiar catalogue that the reader who is involved in the women’s movement (but not necessarily other readers,) can generally tell just where the book is going and what is going to happen next. Perhaps the problems seem typical because Piercy is trying to write about the role of women in our society in general as much as about these characters in particular; nevertheless, the characters are always real. Piearcy’s writing style is straightforward and clear; like many current women writers, she is a realist and is more concerned with describing the world as it is than with literary experimentation. It is a tremendous innovation for a major publishing house to publish such a novel, but the novel summarizes women’s situation as generally analyzed by the women’s movement rather than giving many new perspectives of its own.
Of course Piercy has been involved in the women’s movement for so long and has contributed so much to it that the coincidence of insights is probably natural. Some features of the novel are vaguely disturbing. Most disturbingly, Piercy almost completely ignores the more overtly political aspects of the women’s movement. From reading this: novel, which details the effect that the women’s movements has on several women, one would never get the idea that women fought for abortion, childcare, etc, in Cambridge Mass. (the locale of most of the action) during the period that she is describing. One gay liberation march is mentioned, but most of the politics referred to are of the male New Left variety. When one of the characters goes to prison, it is because she is protecting other persecuted Leftists from the government. This seems to be the only directly political challenge to the power structure by any wo an in the book. Of course, changes in life styles are political in themselves, but Piercy’s writing generally is so conscious of the more organizational and direct forms of politics (her last novel was about a youth revolution) that the omissions seems curious.
Some of the treatment of sex was also nard to understand. Most of the main character’s sexual relationships with men were described in considerable detail, but when one main character has her first (and six months long) lesbian relationship, it’s all over in a couple of paragraphs and not much detail. When the same character develops a lesbian relationship that is supposed to be the most important relation in her life, the relationship is not well-developed and the sexual aspects are not much mentioned. Compared to her relations with her lesbian lover, a woman’s sex with a man is referred to as ‘not better or worse’ but ‘the difference with him made it more intense.’?? This reader was confused by that passage, as well as the facility with which Piercy’s women generally have orgasms. Although several women in the book were primarily concerned with directing their lives towards other women and trying to establish good relationships with other wo men, the conversations as described seem somewhat restricted; women do not always talk together as if they were in a consciousness-raising session, explaining their pasts, their relationships with men, etc., but the women in this book always seemed to talk to each other in this way.
Writing a critical review of a feminist novel is a little frightening, because the novel is so clearly feminist and the characters’ battles with and suffering from men are so real that there is an impulse to be ashamed of being less than completely thrilled with it. The book is unquestionably interesting and emotionally involving, but it deals with some, not all, of the recent changes in the consciousness of women. (Or perhaps one might say that it deals with some changes better than with others.) More needs to be written, by Marge Piercy and many others about the various aspects of the women’s movement. Naturally no author should be expected to produce ‘up to the minute’ reporting in a novel. It is only because Piercy takes the chance of dealing with material that is so current that the question could arise. Carol Anne Douglas, Off Our Backs, Vol. 3, No. 11 (October 1973)
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Details
| Genre | Fiction |
| Publication Date | 1973 |
| Publisher | Fawcett Crest Books |
| Format | Mass Market Paperback |
| Language | English |
| Rating | NotRated |
| BookID | 12056 |
