Thursday, April 11, 2013

Review - Calling Invisible Women

Title: Calling Invisible Women
Author: Jeanne Ray
Publisher: Crown (May 22, 2012)
Format: Hardcover; Pgs 256
Genre: Women’s Fiction
Source: Library


This is so not the book that I was expecting. When I read the description, I was preparing myself for a storyline around the feeling that women get when they become invisible to the world. We are no longer young, but at the same time, we are not old. That in between time where we do not seem to fit in. When our families take us for granted and like Clover Hobart, our spouses sense our essence but no longer “see” us. Where we are no longer suitable in our old careers and must somehow make a new difference.

That is not what this book is. Clover Hobart and a group of other “invisible women” have come together to find out why they literally have disappeared. It look as if the one thing that they have in common is that they have each taken a combination of prescription drugs manufactured by a single company and that each of them have had at least one injection of Botox.

Now, if that is supposed to be symbolism for what women resort to during menopause, maybe I get it, but come on now, that is a stretch.

So with the help of her daughter’s potential future mother in law, this group takes on the pharmaceutical conglomerate and in doing so – comes out to the world.

At this point, the storyline feels unfinished to me. I am sure that Jeanne Ray was aiming for a happily ever after feel, but an epilogue on how with the help of green tea and an ashram some women were having visible days again just seemed silly.

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