Two unforgettable women see their lives change in unimaginable ways in this captivating novel spanning the explosion of feminism in the 1960s Growing up, Beth always dreamed of her wedding day. But a few months into her marriage to Jim, whose affection she once clung to desperately, she realizes she didn't anticipate life beyond the altar. Jim spends his nights out drinking with his buddies and criticizes every meal Beth cooks, and the only solution her family suggests is to have a baby-which she knows would trap her in this miserable life forever. So she takes matters into her own hands and flees to Boston. There she meets Miriam, an ambitious computer science PhD candidate who nonetheless gives up her career for an unfulfilling marriage. Alongside a cast of intellectuals, budding feminists, and political activists, Beth and Miriam find themselves rapidly evolving as they are swept up in the tumultuous social upheaval of the sixties. Experimenting with relationships and sexuality, and taking a stand for women's rights and against the Vietnam War, they learn to trust their instincts and lean on each other. Small Changes is a glimmering example of bestselling author Marge Piercy's knack for capturing the authentic struggles and desires of contemporary women with clarity and compassion.
"Small Changes speaks to the totality of a woman's experience and as such is unquestionably unique. . . . One must feel gratitude for the amity and emotional intensity of the intimate human concerns in this passionately life-oriented novel."
Adrienne Rich
"Beautiful, inspiring, realistic, essential."
The Boston Phoenix
"[Small Changes] has a wonderful generosity of detail, tone and character; it has the range and inclusiveness of old-fashioned fiction yet its insights are radical. I have never seen so lucidly represented the differences between what women and men want out of sex, conversation, relationships of all kinds."
