Product Description A debut novel about the intertwining lives of college faculty wives.
Nestled among Manhattan University?s faculty housing, there is a garden where four women will meet?each with a scandalous secret that could upset their lives, destroy their families, and rock the prestigious university to its very core.
With its maple trees, iron gate, and fence laced with honeysuckle, Manhattan U?s garden offers faculty wives Mary, Sofia, Ashleigh, and Hannah much needed refuge from their problems. But as Mary?s husband, the power-hungry dean, plans to demolish their beloved garden, these four women will discover a surprising secret about a lost Edgar Allan Poe manuscript?and realize they must find the courage to stand up for their passions, dreams, and desires.
The Professors' Wives' Club November 20, 2008 This book is not my usual fare. I never like modern chick lit. I usually skip over books like this when in the bookstore. I am so glad that I was chosen to receive this book because I would be missing such a gem of a book because of my own prejudice. The Professors Wives' Club is one of the most engaging and entertaining books I have ever read.
Mary, Ashleigh, Sofia and Hannah are some of the most interesting characters I have ever encountered. The minute I began reading, I was completely invested in their lives and relationships. I felt I could identify with something in each and every one of them even though I have very little in common with any of them. These women could have easily developed into realm of the "annoying female character" (overly perfect, super-woman complex or weak-willed, dependent, water-works) without a writer as skilled at weaving a plot as Rendell. Her writing is crisp. She captures each woman's voice perfectly and weaves their stories together seamlessly.
The fact that the book centers around the world of academia was also a strong draw for me. The internal politics and conflicts of University life are especially interesting to me because I went to a university in New York where internal protests and strikes were a familiar and almost everyday occurrence. I do have a theory about the real life story that influenced the events in the book. In the book the dean of Manhattan U. decides to demolish and pave over a garden the women love. He also tore down a house the Poe lived in. Could these events have been influence by New York University's takeover of the historic CBGB club? Just my theory. Probably wrong.
Once I started the book, I could not put it down. This is not your typical chick lit book to use for easy reading on vacation. This book will distract you and get you so embroiled in the story, you will spend your vacation inside reading the book. I absolutely love this book. I will be anxiously awaiting Rendell's next book which comes out in 2009.
A great read October 27, 2008 I loved the women in this book. They're the kind of girls you want to spend a few hours and a few bottles of chianti with. It's a fun, entertaining read with some real literary chops to boot. I loved the Poe mystery and how the author wove it so seamlessly into the plot. The setting was magical, it made me long for my NYU days!
An engaging story of the power of female friendships October 23, 2008 One of the things that turns acquaintances into close friends is the sharing of a common bond between them. The Professors' Wives' Club revolves around four women, so different from one another that they might even appear unlikely as friends. But they share the unique connection of living in faculty housing (three of them faculty wives) at the fictional Manhattan U, a thinly disguised version of New York University.
In this breakout first novel, Joanne Rendell creates powerful characters struggling to define their roles as women and an engaging plot that keeps you glued until the end. The alternating chapters introduce the reader to Mary, Ashleigh, Sofia and Hannah whose individual stories touch upon a wide range of women's issues, such as infidelity, domestic abuse, intergenerational friendship, homosexuality, and work-life balance.
The commonality that brings these four women together is that the beautiful little garden adjacent to their University Housing, which has become their sanctuary and meeting place, The space is threatened with demolition (slated to become a parking lot) by a greedy, self-promoting Dean, a husband to one of the women.
In devising a plan to save the garden (in keeping with NYU's reputation as a hotbed of protests), they accomplish far more than they ever hoped: They develop a sisterhood that enables each woman to bravely pursue her dreams and live her life more fully. They evolve into far more than appendages to their accomplished husbands.
In the genre of The Wednesday Sisters and The Friday Night Knitting Club, the book portrays a circle of friendship that women crave and need, no matter what their role or station in life.
Fun, Gutsy and Not Entirely Fiction! October 21, 2008 I really enjoyed this book - the characters are intriguing and I really felt like they were real, fully-dimensional people. However, this book is rooted in fact when it comes to the destructive tendencies of Manhattan University (a thinly-disguised New York University). NYU really DID tear down Edgar Allan Poe's last Manhattan home, and their expansionist plans continue to wreck havoc in Greenwich Village. Considering that Ms. Rendell's husband is a member of the NYU faculty, writing this book was a very gutsy thing to do, and I want to extend a personal thank you to her, because I was one of the locals fighting to save the Poe House back in 2001.
Interesting Story About Strong Women October 17, 2008 "The Professors' Wives' Club" tells the story of four strong yet very different women, in alternating chapters and perspectives. These women start off as strangers but their common appreciation for their faculty housing's garden unites them in a mission to save it from the hands of the `evil' Dean Jack Havemeyer. At the start of the book we learn that the dean's wife Mary is an outspoken author and professor who transforms into a shrinking violet in the presence of her husband. Sofia, once a successful Hollywood agent, is dealing with the consequences of leaving her career to raise her children fulltime. Hannah has left her modeling career to pursue her artwork but much to her frustration, her husband refuses to take her new passion seriously. Ashleigh is working hard in her family's law firm while trying to keep her true identity a secret from them.
What I loved most about the book was that Joanne Rendell created characters who, despite some mistakes made along the way, still remained great role models until the very end. These women devote their lives to their families and careers and yet always strive to remain true to themselves and what they believe in. Women's fiction too often features women who obsess too much over their materialistic woes and triumphs and so this story was quite refreshing. There are a number of complex issues that the women must face throughout the novel, such as spousal abuse and infidelity, which test the women's strength and will power. As individuals, their stories are equally enjoyable to read about, however I would have loved for the women's friendships and connections to have been examined further. The amount of intimate interaction among the women is relatively minimal, although this does give readers the opportunity to peer into their respective lives more thoroughly.
This was my first time reading a novel that explored the inner workings of university life and the lives of the professors' wives. The unique subject matter made this book an interesting read, right off the bat. Though this book revolves around a fictitious Manhattan University, I enjoyed seeing the politics of academia play out and much of the action was easy to envision. This is probably largely due to the fact that Joanne Rendell is the recipient of a PhD and a professor's wife herself, making her story as credible as it is entertaining!
Look out for Joanne Rendell's next book "Crossing Washington Square", to be released in summer 2009, which explores the inner world of Manhattan University and academia in greater detail!
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