The Stepford Wives – Book Review

Following on from our Book Group’s choice for last month, “The Last Tycoon” our book for this month was “The Stepford Wives”* by Ira Levin, published in 1972.  I’d heard the name before but, to be honest, I hadn’t realised it was a book, I thought it was only a film!

The Stepford Wives

Joanna and Walter Eberhart move to Stepford with their two children, to escape big city living.  Joanna, a part-time photographer, is an independent and intelligent woman looking for similarly-minded friends.  With two exceptions, she finds all the Stepford wives are addicted to housework – one even waxes her floors at night!  And they all look like Barbie dolls with model figures and perfect hair/make up.  While Walter joins the Men’s Association, Joanna finds there’s no longer a Women’s Association, it closed due to lack of interest.

After Joanna’s only friends also become housework queens, she realises all the Stepford husbands have replaced their wives with robots.  The switches happen during romantic weekends away when the real wives are murdered and replaced by their fembots.  (Shades of “Invasion of the Body Snatchers“ here?)  Will Joanna escape their fates and expose what’s been going on?  I won’t spoil the ending for those who haven’t read the book yet, but it’s a shocker, with a final twist too.

“The Stepford Wives” is a very short book, only 123 pages, and I found it an easy read.  It’s also very tightly plotted, and, once Joanna realises there really is something wrong, the action zips along incredibly quickly.  The tension just keeps on rising as things begin to drop into place for the reader.

Are the 1970’s themes still relevant today?

Levin wrote “The Stepford Wives” as a stinging indictment on a media-obsessed society that valued youth and looks, no matter what the cost.  Sound familiar?  Yes, because, really, what’s changed in today’s celebrity-obsessed culture?  His sense of humour also comes over loud and clear.  The Stepford husbands claim to be building and repairing toys for children in need – oh, the irony!  And the book also deals with the familiar issues of trust and betrayal.  How well do you really know your partner?  Can you, and should you, trust them completely?  Joanna’s shock at Walter’s willingness to sacrifice her feels as familiar and fresh today as it no doubt did when it was first written.

The 1970’s themes of gender roles, and women’s place in society in particular, are also still relevant.  I think the theme of men controlling women’s lives is one that is currently echoed in many countries.  Based on what I’ve read, and what I see in the media, this seems true in parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan.  And particularly so in Saudi Arabia, where until very recently women were not even allowed to drive a car.

Films vs. book

The novella is a brilliant psychological thriller and I can well see why it was adapted into a film – two films in fact.  A 1975 version* starring Katherine Ross and a more recent 2004 update* rewritten as a comedy, starring Nicole Kidman.  I’ve not seen either but online opinion seems to favour the earlier version as truer to the novel.  Wikipedia says there was a television ad campaign that for the 1975 film that ended with the words: “See ‘The Stepford Wives’… before your husband does.”  Eeeeeek!  Katherine Ross looks much more how I imagined Joanna, so I think I’m going to watch this one.  It will be interesting to see how it measures up to the book though.

Would I recommend it?

Yes, I LOVED this book!  So much so that I’ve already read it again and found it even better second time around.  A recent Goodreads Twitter thread asked for a three word summary of users’ current reads.  I described “The Stepford Wives” as “scary as hell.”

Truly, the last few pages of the novel are so frightening that I genuinely shivered when I put it down.  The term “Stepford Wife” may have passed into everyday vocabulary, but I think it doesn’t take a great deal of imagination to see that, with modern AI technology in the wrong/paranoid hands, Levin’s science fiction thriller could quite conceivably become science fact.

Have you read “The Stepford Wives”? What did you think? Have you read any of Levin’s other books?  Did you like them or not?

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