3 Review(s)

Susannah Jones' official boyfriend Jason is the perfect foil to her student lifestyle. He is ten years older and an antique dealer, so she doesn't have to live in the seedy digs her friends do. Then when she is on campus she can take philosophy very seriously and dabble in the social and sexual freedom of 1970s Sussex University. In fact, it was philosophy that led her to the sex: Rob, with whom she is having an affair, is her tutorial partner. Then she discovers things are even more complicated than she thought and, forced to look beyond her friends and lovers for support, finds help from Kierkegaard and other European philosophers. The Women's Room meets Friedrich Nietzsche in this bittersweet coming of age novel, in which love is far from platonic and the mind-body problem a pressing reality.