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Author Profile

The Interestings (Riverhead, 2013) deals with, ‘If a horse could write, it would
with envy and creativity, and this latest write like a horse. I’m a feminist, so I
novel, The Female Persuasion, addresses write like a feminist.’ ”
“ideas about misogyny, ideas about The Female Persuasion couldn’t be more
power, ideas about feminism,” she says, timely, as the #MeToo movement calls
as well as the political climate we’ve out men who have abused their power and
found ourselves in: “a darkening of the privilege to take advantage of women,
moment.” It’s also about “the person you whose accounts of mistreatment have
meet who changes your life forever.” She been diminished or disbelieved. Greer’s
adds: “The title was a North Star for me. experience mirrors that of many #MeToo
It’s a pun, really, because there is a per- activists: a man sexually assaults her, and
suasive woman in [the book], and it’s the she is immediately silenced. “I started
idea of the slightly icky female persua- thinking about having language for
sion, the coyness of that phrase. It means things; it’s not even just about having the
women, but also how women influence right words. Some people are uncomfort-
one another. What does it mean to have able saying what they feel,” Wolitzer
power in the world? What does it mean says.
to influence people?” Part of Greer’s journey is learning how
The novel centers around several char- to speak out. Wolitzer’s journey, too,
acters: Greer, a young woman who, during involved developing a more authoritative
her first semester of college, meets the voice. “I think my writing changed when
legendary Faith Frank, author of the book The Female Persuasion, I put the in front of my titles,” she says. “It had more command.
“which essentially implored women to see that there was a great This is The Wife, there is no other, this is the one. Before then
deal more to being female than padded shoulders and acting my books were Sleepwalking and Surrender, Dorothy. I didn’t do
tough”; Greer’s best friend, Zee, a lesbian with a passion for it on purpose, but I realized it at some point, and it was funny
social activism who introduces Greer to Faith’s work; Greer’s to me.”
boyfriend, Cory; and Faith herself, a sexy-boot-wearing second- In August, Wolitzer published an essay in Lenny Letter, the
wave feminist. online feminist newsletter created by Lena Dunham and Jennifer
Greer and Cory are described as “twin rocket ships” because Konner, called “Learning to Feel Powerful,” where she talks
of their intelligence and ambition. “They shared a single-mind- about the evolution of her own sense of agency. The first moment
edness that you couldn’t teach someone; a person had to have she remembers feeling some sense of control was at five, when
it as part of their neurology,” Wolitzer writes. After college, she placed a bunch of magnets in her mouth. As she matured,
Greer works for Loci, Faith’s speaker forum and charity funded she drew power from things she excelled at. But in January
by a venture capitalist; Zee wants to work for Faith, but ends 2017, she felt the sudden power of objects again while taking
up teaching for a nonprofit in Chicago. Cory, meanwhile, gives part in the Women’s March in D.C. “Our [pink] hats were
up a high-paying consultancy position because of a tragic objects, symbols, shields, and they remain inextricable from
accident. everyone’s memory of that day.”
“What I wanted to do in the book is look at success and Objects take on a charged significance in Wolitzer’s book,
meaning in different lights,” Wolitzer says. “On the one hand, too. Faith’s sexy suede boots and a letter that Zee writes to Faith
you can go to work for the famous feminist Faith Frank; on the and entrusts Greer with play significant roles in the novel.
other hand, you can be like Cory and clean houses and take care Readers, Wolitzer says, “want things that make the world
of your mother and do what has been seen as women’s work, bristle with life. It’s not just the characters who do this. It’s the
domestic work, and give up your more conventional goals. inanimate objects as well.”
That’s another life that may really be a valuable one.” The Female Persuasion is ultimately a realistic and hopeful
In a story that deals with political content, the characters, not book. The ideal world so many women envisioned when they
the themes, have to lead the way, Wolitzer notes. “You have to voted for Hillary Clinton is something Zee wants, too: “To live
humanize people and give them weird little quirks.” She writes in a world of female power—mutual power—felt like a desirable
flawed characters (“Imperfection: my specialty!” she says), dream to Zee. Having power meant that the world was like a
which makes them feel real. pasture with the gate left open, and that there was nothing
Hesitant to define her book by a single category, Wolitzer stopping you, and you could run and run.” ■
says: “I don’t know if it’s a novel about feminism. There’s a
really nice Grace Paley line that Mary Gordon told me: ‘You Michele Filgate is a contributing editor at Literary Hub and on the board of
write like a woman,’ someone said to Paley, and she answered the National Book Critics circle.

38 PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ■ JANU AR Y 22, 2018