Let’s just say after reading this book I am really, really happy I did not come of age as a woman in the fifties. It’s remarkable to me that the men all went off to war, the women kept things going and then when the men came back the women were suddenly supposed to forget that they were capable, intelligent beings and just go back to being well, doormats.

Perhaps it worked for some but it wasn’t working for the protagonist of this novel, Edith. She found a freedom that she was unwilling to give up when her her husband came back from the war. He expected her to stay at home and conform to the roles he wanted her play.

This did not work for Edith so she bolts. What follows is a story of self discovery for well, both of them.

I will admit that it was a little bit of a struggle for me at first but I did find my rhythm with the book and ultimately enjoyed the story. ( )

An author whose work I never miss is Anne Leigh Parrish. Her previous novels (Our Love Will Light the World,

The Amendment and A Winter Night) dealt with families living in the Finger Lakes region in contemporary settings.

Her latest novel, An Open Door, is an historical novel set in the aftermath of WWII. When we meet Edith she is a young woman working at the United Nations in New York City, and married to Walt who is studying to be a lawyer and living in Boston.

Edith enjoys her freedom working in New York and living with her husband's widowed aunt. Many people question why a married woman would choose to live and work in a different city than her husband, including her husband who pressures Edith to return to Boston.

After having watched her mother being stifled by her marriage to Edith’s overbearing father, she did not want to live a similar life. When she returns to Boston, Edith intends to continues her PhD studies in literature, but women at that time were discouraged from such a higher level of education. She saw that “the problem was what the world expected women to be, which was always less than a man.”

Unhappy in her marriage and with her life in general, Edith “wished that knowing where you didn’t belong meant knowing where you did.” When an opportunity to buy the neighborhood bookstore (along with two other people comes along), she sees this as a chance to do something more meaningful and fulfilling with her life. Edith’s life begins to revolve around the bookstore, and as someone who works in a bookstore, I so enjoyed reading about the joys, and the trials and tribulations of owning a bookstore.

No one writes characters better than Anne Leigh Parrish, and Edith is no exception. Parrish takes the reader into the heart and head of her characters so brilliantly that we relate and understand them, even when they do things with which we disagree. Edith is not perfect, and she does things that people will find objectionable.

Parrish writes so beautifully, I found myself returning time and again to her words, like this quote from her mother- “One thing I’ve learned is that kind people love kindly; careless people love carelessly; cruel people love cruelly.” She always gives her readers something deep to ponder. I give An Open Door my highest recommendation. ( )

We're all familiar with the image of Rosie the Riveter, the strong and capable woman who stepped in when American men went off to fight in WWII. But what happened to all the Rosies out there once the war was over and the men came back, went back to school, and rejoined the work force? Very few people address women's lost freedoms of the late 1940s and 1950s. In Anne Leigh Parrish's newest novel, an open door (lower case intentional), her main character is directly affected by this unfortunate and unfair regression and by the expectation that women settle back into the world they inhabited before the war.

Edith works as a secretary at the UN in New York and lives with her estranged husband's unconventional aunt. She has left Walter and endures his frequent letters imploring her to return to Cambridge, where he is in law school, and to take back up the mantle of a proper (and appropriate) wife. Her life in New York is more fulfilling than her life in Cambridge but she is still unsatisfied. After an alcohol-fueled one night stand with the son of a friend of Aunt Margaret's, Edith abruptly decides to return home to Walter, going back to a stultifying existence of cocktail parties, intellectual stagnation, and ignoring her husband's infidelities.

Edith had to abandon her own plans to pursue a doctorate in order to conform to Walter's and society's idea of the perfect post-war wife. She grew up with the message that girls and women were lesser, her father being borderline abusive to his wife and daughter. Despite the examples all around her, she cannot quite force herself to completely conform to the expectations of the times. The novel is character driven and both funny and sad. It's sad for the way in which women were so trapped and forced to endure a life and marriage that wasn't in any way fulfilling. "They married. The first time they had sex they fell off the bed, which Edith found hilarious, and Walter found mortifying. The sex was terrible, and Edith told herself it would get better with practice. It didn't." (p. 31) But there is humor in there too.

Pieces of Edith's past and her long relationship with Walter are woven into the present of the narrative, showing the reader just who Edith is, why she reacts the way she does, and how she'll find her way to happiness and selfhood in a time and society that didn't present any easy alternatives to a stifling life for women. Edith is thoughtful and intelligent and while she will acquiesce for a time, she won't stay a second class citizen forever. The door to a new life may be a small and seemingly insignificant but it is open and she'll find a way to walk through it. There is a quiet tone to the story and there is no big climactic scene driving the plot but the novel is beautifully written and Edith is a complex, flawed, interesting character. I'll always search out everything Anne Leigh Parrish writes. ( )

an open door is a strong character driven novel that takes place in the 1950s. The war is over and the soldiers have come home to start their lives and their families. A grateful nation makes sure that they have job and educational opportunities even though they have to get rid of all of the female workers who kept the factories running during the war. Plus most women were no longer accepted at colleges because men studying using the GI bill took precedence over them.

Edith had known Walter for years and when he got back from the war, she was hard at work on her doctorate degree. When he started law school, he ordered her to put her dreams on hold so that she could be the type of wife he needed - a wife who kept the house clean, the food on the table and was always available to plan dinner and drinks for friends. She quit college and tried to do things his way. It didn't take long for her to realize that she couldn't live her life as the person he wanted her to be so she moved to New York city with his rich aunt who believed that women should live like they wanted. Edith returned to Walter after his letters begged her to come home. Even though she goes back, she isn't sure that she can continue her life with him as a second class citizen. When she finds a book store for sale, she jumps at the chance to become the person she always wanted and needed to be to find fulfillment in her life.

This book is about the life of women in the 50s. After having freedom to pursue their dreams during the 40s, they find themselves in a male dominated society where they exist as wives and mothers and not as free women. This is a strong feminist book without being preachy. After reading about Edith's life as a married woman it is easy to understand her internal conflict. We only see her bloom again when she opens her bookstore and is able to follow her dream of who she wants to be. ( )