TBC: Kate Quinn says she “really wanted to look at a microcosm of the issues that are hitting women in the early 1950s.”

Some of the issues the women represent:
Sydney Sutherland–domestic abuse by her husband and father-in-law
Reka Muller–emigrant whose valuables were stolen by their sponsor and prejudice because she is an emigrant (not allowed to teach one of Bea’s home ec classes)
Grace March–espionage
Claude Cormier–racism because he is black
Claire Hallett–lesbian in love with Sydney Sutherland
Arlene Hupp–McCarthyism
Fliss (Felicity) Orton–societal expectations to be bubby and together to counter the perception of being cold and reserved because she is English
Bea Verretti–societal expectations that she should be more ladylike
Nora Walsh–upward mobility by being “the kind of person who only has to hear it once to learn.”

I think Reka Muller resonated with me the most because she deliberately made people dislike her so that she would be left alone. Reka’s accent made others think that she didn’t understand English and she was expected to be grateful for being in this country. “An old woman with an ugly coat the color of a dirty sidewalk and a carpet bag sitting on her feet like a tired dog. Sometimes people dropped coins at Reka’s feet, thinking she was a panhandler.” Reduced to poverty from her pre-immigration profession of art professor. Neither did her husband’s education as a journalist transfer to a similar job in the US; he was a janitor. Her thoughts of her husband Otto demonstrate how lonely she is. So, Reka went to the Sutherland residence get back the sketches that had been stolen from them, but is sent home without them and $50 in her pocket. Grace’s sign painting reveals Reka’s talent; their conversation and Fliss’ invitation to Christmas eve services helps Reka plan to steal back her paintings. She has empathy for the battered Mrs. Sutherland who gives Reka the paintings. Grace tells Reka to try happiness. In an effort to do that, she returns from New York with artist supplies and her husband in her head telling her that it is “better than cocooning yourself in blankets and old bitter memories.”

Arlene represented the stereotype of what a young woman should strive to be in the 50s. Her purpose was to get her M.R.S. degree. To snag that man and a wedding ring to prove her conquest. Her goal was to be the perfect wife. The perfect mother. The perfect “Red” rat. In her desire to achieve those goals she failed to be a good human being.

Claire represented what the effects of poverty and survival of the great depression had on children. How she would do anything to earn/steal money to secure herself a home no one could take from her. She also represents the Lavender Scare as a gay woman in the 50s. This explains why she appears to be stand offish, I think. To Clare money meant security. Not getting too close to her house mates meant not being discovered as a gay person.

Felicity dealt with single parenting while her husband was at war. She also suffered from postpartum depression which was not recognized in the 50’s as a medical condition. She tried to be the perfect mother single handedly. The thought of having another child when her husband came home from Japan sent her into a panic.What she really wanted was to be a nurse. Sadly, young mothers were frowned upon if they held a job.

Reka was a Hungarian artist who escaped Berlin in the thirties. She was also a commie for a period of time during her youth and years in Germany. She had to sell her treasures to secure a life of freedom in the States. But was she really free- living in the McCarthy era?

Bea was the woman who saved baseball for the US during WWII by playing in the Woman’s League. But, once the war
was over, and the men came home there were few places for her in that sports arena she so dearly loved. Add to that the injury to her knee at a time in history when knee replacements were not a thing and she was sidelined. Bea did not do well in the female assigned role as a teacher but for a while she chipped away at the glass ceiling by being a scout for men’s baseball teams.

Sydney, the Senator’s wife was not only gay but she was physically abused by her husband. She did not want to bring any more children into this violent household. But at that time, husbands needed to give doctors permission to write prescriptions for birth control for their wives. Her husband controlled her financially, emotionally, sexually, and physically. Only through Reka and the Briarwood residents did she begin to find a way out of the black hole she was living in. It was the death of her husband that finally set her free and her son free.

Grace survived Stalin’s 900 day death decree that killed her entire family because they starved to death. She escaped the commie regime by becoming a commie spy and then being sent to the US. She mastered the art of escaping, leaving her commie life behind to become the mentor, the weaver of magic, the ray of hope for those living in the Briarwood House.

Mrs. Nillson was a vindictive woman who abused her children emotionally and physically. She denied her daughter, Lina, the glasses that would have improved her vision considerably. she denied her son, Pete, the food his growing body needed and she denied him his right to an education. Doilies also denied her children access to their father. In the end Mrs. Nillson was not able to sell Briarwood House because the house was in her husband’s name and he refused to sell his children’s home. Women in the 50’s could not own property.

I see Nora as a pioneer in the Women’s Liberation Movement which really didn’t get started until the 60’s. She had a goal for advancing in her job and stood her ground about being associated with Xavier, even though she loved him, to attain her goal.

Senator Margaret Smith stood up to McCarthy with her speech on the senate floor about exercising our rights. “The right to hold unpopular beliefs. The right to protest. The right of independent thought. When she was asked why she stuck her neck out like that she responded,”Because something had to be done about that man … and no one else seemed likely to do it.” Now here we are in 2025 fighting for the very rights that Senator Smith spoke about in the 50’s.

These women were ground breakers in so many ways. They were the leaders of fights that we continue to fight all these years later.

I was born in 1947, watched my little town run one of my teachers out of town because they thought he was a commie, marched for women’s rights in the 60’s, needed my dad’s signature to purchase a car in the 70’s, watched our soldiers return from a war they didn’t choose to fight in to be spit on by our citizens, and I was in an abusive marriage. So many of these issues resonate with me in one way or another.

• This reply was modified 3 days, 14 hours ago by Libby Baker.

Thank you, Libby, for your detailed comments and your deeply personal perspective. Thank you, Nancy.

Each woman represents an issue in a unique and specific way and I also see some they share. The shared issue I see is their struggle for autonomy as women, to have an identity separate from the men in their lives, Fliss to be a nurse, Claire to own a home, Nora to be the Chief of Building and Grounds for the National Archives, Reka to be a recognized artist. Bea comes close by being a MLB scout. More than the other women, Grace seems to be more assured and comfortable as confidant and nurturer.

I agree with Libby, some of these issues women still fight. But, I always had credit in my own name, supported myself before I married and never doubted I would have a career and work that had meaning for me and children when we both agreed to do that. Clearly, there is a faction in U.S. politics that would like to undo that and there are plenty of policies being advanced here that are downright “Handmaid’s Tale” material. So, I think we continue to march or protest in whatever way we can!

I think most of the women in the book chafe against the societal expectations and strict conservatism (and the misogyny often disguised as morality) of the 1950s—especially the idea that a woman’s only place/role is in the home, raising children and caring for her husband (but I’ll note I in no way denigrate the women who do). My mother, who was a teenager in the early 1950s, struggled with these pressures. She would sometimes tell me about her desire to break free from those expectations and was often wistful that she hadn’t been able to pursue the education she truly wanted when she was younger (money and her mother being roadblocks). I see her story and her struggle reflected in many of the women in the book, especially with Felicity — at home, taking care of the kids, but longing to put her talents to full use.

Reka to me was like the Avant Garde artists of the 1930s of Berlin, Paris, Vienna who shocked the establishment with their music, art, film. Many had to flee to the United States prior to the war or during the war because of the Nazis. Some Berliners became successes in the US – Max Ernst (artist mentioned in the book), Kadinsky, Marlene Dietrich, Billy Wilder, Otto Preminger (I’ll note that Preminger played a big role fighting against the Hollywood blacklist during the Red Scare.) These artists often came under scrutiny by McCarthy (because he liked to target celebrity). They had lived through the hardships of dictators, the war, having to leave their lives and families behind. So I thought Reka’s story spoke to the immigrants who came over having lost their careers, status, and homes in order to save their lives.

Nora and Bea want careers but both seem to know they have to sacrifice their personal lives for them. Nora couldn’t be seen as having any moral impropriety. It’s an injustice, because her brother and Xavier can get away with crime and corruption and it doesn’t affect their careers. Yet, being a woman she faces a moral scrutiny. Bea also faces that double standard having to work twice as hard and be seen as “one of the guys” to pursue her career and knowing that as an athlete she was always seen by men as second tier.

Claire and Grace to me exemplify the women survivors. Those that have endured tremendous hardship – true poverty, starvation and violence. Yet they hide their strength from the world. I don’t know if it’s out of fear or wisdom or a bit of both. But they are pragmatic about the world, Claire maybe being a bit more cynical than Grace. Grace, I feel, is fearless after escaping from an unimaginable repression. All the women are repressed in some way but she has had the most extreme of it, yet she opens her heart. She’s truly resilient, like so many women are or are forced to be by circumstances.

I don’t know if I identify with any one woman in particular but I can recognize their struggles, in the stories the women in my family have shared with me and with some of the experiences I have had in my life. I think Kate Quinn has a talent for drawing out universal women’s issues and experiences through her historical stories. And Jane, Nancy, and Libby thank you for sharing your comments and experiences too.

I’m so impressed with everyone’s answers to this question. You all have covered the issues in the book far better than I could. From the fictional to real experiences discussed, it just goes to show how much we’re personally touched by the culture and politics we grow up in and are surrounded by.

Nora resonated with me the most. The issues she faced with family, her role and responsibilities within the family unit and her struggle to define her boundaries within. I also resonated with her philosophy of being “the kind of person who only has to hear it once to learn.”

Many of the other issues that this book touched on also resonated with me: domestic violence, immigrant issues, racism are a few of the issues I’ve faced, or have been faced by members of my family.

Thanks, everyone, for providing so much insight into this book and for sharing so much of yourselves here. I appreciate you all.