The title, Braided Lives, is far too nice for this story of a young Jewish woman who leaves her working class home in Detroit and goes off to the University of Michigan in the 1950's. The title does not convey the dynamism and the brutality of the book. Piercy has ripped off the veneer of the "quiet 50's". With a driving determination, she wants to set the record straight that life for women, for Jews and the working class was difficult. A more apt title might have been "Blood on the Tracks" which would have prepared the reader for a "coming of age" novel that is unusual….

If there are any readers who still swallow the phony "life is beautiful" mystique so carefully perpetrated by President Reagan, Piercy is ready to shove their faces into the despair of downtown Detroit and the selfish brutality of Grosse Pointe. She even destroys any illusions about loyalty among friends.

Yet, unlike so many novelists that elegantly write that life stinks, Piercy argues that love, politics, food, sex, and friendship make life irresistible.

She is very present in this book since it's written in first person with present day comments from the narrator. It becomes almost impossible not to believe the book is autobiographical….

Piercy doesn't want us to overlook any aspect of women's lives, even the details we would rather forget. Abortions, rapes, beatings—they're all packed into Braided Lives. Unlike The Women's Room which exposed sexism yet left the reader hanging. Piercy enthusiastically endorses politics as a solution. Make no mistake, though, this is not the book of a successful, self-satisfied writer who has found the answers. This is the book of a feminist who can honestly face the brutality in our lives and can still maintain a gluttonous appetite for life.

Two aspects of Piercy's writing which can't go unmentioned … are her views on lesbians and her portrayals of men. The main character in Braided Lives has her first sexual experiences with other girls. When this information gets out among her college friends, she never denies it or apologizes. She is very close to a woman in her dorm who is kicked out for a lesbian relationship. It is Jill who persists in learning the woman's address to write despite what eyebrows might be raised by this display of friendship. Jill is, though, only sexually involved with men as a college student.

In Vida and Small Changes, Piercy wrote dialogue between men and women which brought to life the men's subtle power plays. In Braided Lives Jill's first true love is the master of the artful tyrant. In the name of teaching her, he questions, undercuts, and dismisses her every idea. My regret is that Michael is the only man who does this. Other men are selfish or demanding yet Piercy holds back showing how they operate. This is regrettable since nobody can write these scenes the way Piercy can. Plus, we women need to have explicit examples of how our everyday relationships with men can eat at our self-respect.

Braided Lives is Piercy's most explicitly feminist book since Small Changes. This time, though, every character is fully drawn. The book is good. Piercy is telling our stories as if they were her own.