- Paperback: 448 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd; New edition edition (24 Feb 1983)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0140062130
- ISBN-13: 978-0140062137
- Product Dimensions: 18 x 10.9 x 2.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 975,802 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
America in the fifties meant McCarthyism and Ban the Bomb, jitterbug and jazz, girls in padded bras and clinging pastel twin-sets - but that was not all. In this story of the women who liberated us into the seventies, Piercy recreates the fear and tensions that lay beneath the surface.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I am sorry if that title is a cliche, but it is true. I bought "Braided Lives" as a student in 1983 when it first came out in paperback in this country. No novel, before or since (and I read a lot) has spoken to me with the same immediacy, wisdom, beauty or truth. I read it in a weekend, turned immediately to the first page again after reading the last, read it monthly for three years and at least yearly ever since. It is a masterpiece and I have no idea why it ever went out of print. If you happen to read this review, I beg you to pick up one of the secondhand copies available. It will be the best £ you ever spent.
So why is it so good? Jill, the central character, is the most believable and fully rounded character in literature. Partly, I suspect, because she is semi-autobiographical. (Indeed, Piercy's autobiography "Sleeping with Cats" (also well worth reading) confirms this). I also love the book because it is so dense. Not in the sense that it is hardgoing (anything but) but that every word is valuable. I just believe in the world of that novel more than any other. Jill's triumphs and humiliations illuminated mine as a young adult and I get something new from it every time I read it. I now identify more with the older Jill who tells her story in flashback than with the brash young college kid, but both still say so much. Come on, Women's Press or Persephone Books, get this fantastic novel back in print so that it may shine on the lives of a new generation.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
7 reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Passionate, Vivid, Absorbing
14 Jun 2000
Format:Hardcover
This book is one of my top 3 favorites, along with two novels by Margaret Atwood (and what writer wouldn't want to be grouped with Atwood?) I was a sophomore in high school the first time I read Braided Lives and have read it perhaps 5 or 6 times in the ensuing 15 years. Although the prose seems at times a little overblown, this book throbs with emotion, and with each read-through I experience new depths to the story of Jill and her friend Donna. This novel went a long way toward developing my own political sensibilities, for which I'd like to thank Marge Piercy. Her characters, settings, and themes remain as vivid in my mind as if I'd lived this story myself.
Highly, highly recommend!
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Womens' fiction on a new level...
4 Nov 2002
Format:Paperback
It is very easy to group all women writers into one category, especially in the UK where it seems that every woman is a twenty-something writer of tales of lost boyfriends and work stress. Marge Piercy is a world class above these writers, depite the dodgy publiscist she has who gives all her novels terrible covers! This book is an enticing tale of women surviving in a society that does not hand them anything. It's a sobering tale for those of us who feel we have a relatively firm grasp on our lives/careers in this new millenium. Spend some time thinking about the struggle women face on the most basic level day in day out and try not to cry during 'that bit'!
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
My favourite book - ever
9 Jun 2002
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Like one of the other reviewers, I have reread this book at least once a year since it was first published in the UK in 1984. Unbelievably, it is no longer in print there. Marge Piercy has created the most believable fictional world I have ever read - in part I suspect because Braided Lives is fairly autobiographical - and her memoir "Sleeping with Cats" confirms this (also a great read). I learn something new every time I read the book. Jill, the main character, is rounded, complex, politically aware and self-sufficient. I wish I could write as well as Marge Piercy to urge every woman to buy and read this book - I know my life would have been poorer without reading it. It really is that good.
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