I saw a great Charlie Rose interview of Matthew Weiner (creator of Mad Men) and I learned some fascinating tidbits. My favorite is the fact that Weiner defers to two books as his guide to what women's lives in the 1960s must have been like: The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan and Sex and the Single Girl by Helen Gurley Brown.
I can easily see the influence of Friedan's book in Betty's identity crises as a housewife, and Joan practically embodies the financially independent, swinging city gal that Gurley Brown so emphatically describes in her book.
In 40 years or so, if someone wanted to make an authentic TV series about the lives of women in 2008, what books should they read? They could, of course, include descriptions of the fashions of the time like gladiator sandals, tent dresses and apparently pegged jeans (?!). Or not.
One thought I had was Eat, Pray, Love, since I can't seem to ride a bus these days without spotting a woman with it on her lap. I know plenty of women don't like it, but it certainly resonates with enough of us. Fiction, memoir, guides to life — what books do you think capture the lives of American women in 2008?
Mad Men photos courtesy of AMC, source
Masini Gioielli
6ixty 8ight
Duccio Del Duca
I know for sure, nothing by Bushnell, please, for the love of all that is holy...If we're going with fiction, I think something by Jennifer Weiner because she seems to encapsulate women with spirit, charisma, insecurity, self doubt, success, and love. Her characters are never perfect, but flawed, yet lovable. I think that's what American women today are.
Nonfiction is a little harder. I agree Eat, Pray, Love is a very popular book but doesn't seem quite right. Gosh, I really don't know. This is a hard one!!!!
1Tough question, for sure. Eat, Pray, Love comes the closest, but I agree that it doesn't seem quite right. But, then, I'm not sure that I know what else I'd choose.
2I feel like such a bad woman b/c I haven't and don't want to read Eat, Pray, Love. I'm one of the few females left
Actually a couple of my guy friends enjoy this book.
3omg - if i hear the name 'eat pray love' one more time - ugh! when the book first came out - i read it - and now i can't walk 5 feet in my office without hearing some girl talking about it and about how it helped them get through their break up etc. it's sooo irritating to be honest with you.
4This is such a great question and one that I am struggling to find the answer to. Even though enough of us find fault with "Eat, Pray, Love", it still continues to resonate with a great number of women. The fact that they're still reading it and talking about it two years after it published says something about its influence on women in the 21st century.
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