Without some sense of the varying agendas of mid-20th-century feminists and
the debates among those agendas this novel will not make much sense. Women who
participated in the movement from the late sixties and early seventies responded
to this novel strongly, often finding it extremely alarming. Younger women
lacking the same background often found it baffling. Ask yourself as you read
not whether events such as it depict s are likely to take place, but whether the
attitudes and values it conveys are present in today's society.