The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin
“That’s what she was, Joanna felt suddenly. That’s what they all were, all the Stepford wives: actresses in commercials, pleased with detergents and floor wax, with cleansers, shampoos, and deodorants. Pretty actresses, big in the bosom but small in the talent, playing housewives unconvincingly, too nicey-nice to be real.”
To cook up something that is both horrifying and intellectual takes only a man of high caliber of experience. So it wouldn’t come to no surprise that Ira Levin, the man behind Rose Mary’s Baby came up with something equally haunting and beautifully crafted. At once a satire and a savage social commentary on a patriarchal media-driven society that suppresses woman empowerment and liberation, The Stepford Wives takes its readers on a horrifying look on suburban life. The book created so much cultural impact, that the title itself left an indelible mark in our consciousness. After all, there is a reason why popular culture used the term “Stepford Wife” as a reference to a submissive and docile housewife.
We begin when Joanna and Walter Eberhart moved from the busy lights of the city to a sleepy little suburban town of Stepford, Connecticut. Everything about the town seems to be an ideal paradise for couples - perhaps too ideal. For behind the Stepford’s cheery and idyllic façade lies a dark terrible secret – a secret so shattering that no one who encounters it will ever be the same. In a race against time, Joanna must outwit the people behind this horrible plot, or she will end up just like the housewives she feared and despised – “mere actresses on commercials, pleased with detergents and floor wax, with cleansers, shampoos, and deodorants.”
I specifically liked Levin’s straightforward narration. It was fast paced and very easy to read. He didn’t give too much flowery details as the focus wasn’t on the prose but on the actions taking place. The precision of this form of writing, I feel is very important, as it can be oftentimes mistaken to as haphazard writing. A wicked deadpan humor apparent in the story is also something I quite enjoy. Readers will often find Joanna, the story’s heroine, in witty conversations inside her head. Her interactions with Bobbie, a Stepford neighbor and friend, were also something I found entertaining. With all of these, I became more and more sympathetic for Joanna’s character. After a hundred pages, you’ll find yourself rooting for her to escape. A literary tactic of Levin which I feel, brought a more horrific close to the story (oops, spoiler).
As I found out, The Stepford Wives was first published the exact same year when Congress passed the Equal Rights Amendment. The year when conservative males begin to think that the feminist movement was much more than a minor nuisance. I don’t know if Levin did this on purpose because it’s an impeccable timing, if you ask me. But whatever you might think, the book successfully created a near dystopian look on male chauvinism and the measures that men will do to keep it that way. True to its promise, the Stepford Wives is a timeless modern classic.
