This is such a readable book. I have never so enjoyed a book that also infuriated me so much, excluding possibly The Heart's Invisible Furies. For a book set in the 1950's and early 1960's, there was so much relevant content that makes me want to tell everyone I know to read this book.
She only ever seemed to bring out the worst in men. They either wanted to control her, touch her, dominate her, silence her, correct her, or tell her what to do. She didn't understand why they couldn't just treat her as a fellow human being, as a colleague, a friend, an equal, or even a stranger on the street, someone to whom one is automatically respectful until you find out they've buried a bunch of bodies in the backyard.
The only thing that kept it from a full five-star rating for me was that there was what felt like an unintentional modernization of the characters. Obviously, Elizabeth was meant to be very ahead of her time in terms of her opinions on society, equality, etc. (This is a sentence I hesitate to even include because the concept that recognizing that women/other marginalized groups are people too is 'modern' is, I think, misleading and inaccurate.) However, there were several times throughout the story that the narration, mostly from Elizabeth and sometimes from Madeline or Wakely, went a little bit too far. Sometimes that was with very modern opinions, but it was also in the characters' formality and speech. It just felt like when an author writes a romance set in the Victorian era, but they use completely modern speech so it is not authentic to the time period at all. This wasn't as bad as that, but I did have a distinct feeling of being pulled out of the atmosphere of the story when one of these moments happened. The author was clearly very well-researched for this novel (in terms of events, culture, and behaviors of the time period), but it seemed that at times she just couldn't help herself from adding a little joke that had a bit too much of a modern touch.
Along with that thought, we have to talk about Six-Thirty. It was a cute concept, reminiscent of Watchers (but a happier setting). However, it was another little detail that took me out of the story. A dog learning 900 words? Yes, I am a doubter. It wasn't that fact so much that was the issue, but rather the internal monologues the dog would have, as if he had human intellect. I love dogs, I think they're very smart, but this was overdoing it. It was cute, it was fun, but it came at the cost of the integrity of the story in my opinion.
The reduction of women to something less than men, and the elevation of men to something more than women, is not biological: it's cultural. And it starts with two words: pink and blue. Everything skyrockets out of control from there.
Last little qualm with the book was that I was underwhelmed by the ending... Or perhaps it was just too cheesy? The tone of the last 2-3 chapters just didn't match the tone of the rest of the book.
I want to make it clear that although I've listed several "issues", they were actually pretty minor in terms of my overall enjoyment of the book, and I do recommend it. Elizabeth Zott is the newest icon in modern literature and my personal hero.
