“Mrs. Dalloway,” Virginia Woolf
“Mrs. Dalloway”, often considered Woolf’s best piece of fiction, follows the life of Clarissa Dalloway and related characters during one day–the day of Clarissa’s party. All of the side characters are somehow related; profoundly, being friends of Clarissa’s, or only passing by each other in the park and existing in the same social circles. “Mrs. Dalloway” is considered groundbreaking in terms style and narration, mainly because there are no chapter divisions nor narrative divisions; one character’s thoughts flow freely into another’s and vice versa. Ironically it is one of her easier-read novels; after reading “To the Lighthouse” I was hesitant to read this, but it turned out to be easier to follow, so don’t let her reputation deter you.
“Fear of Flying,” Erica Jong
Continuing with the train of thought of Sylvia Plath and numerous other feminist writers of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, Jong’s novel follows her late-20s protagonist Isadora as she not only explores the patriarchal society she lives in, but ultimately discovers herself–her wants, needs, desires and dreams.Through marriages and affairs and divorces, Isadora is forced to eventually be alone and be comfortable with being alone, an intense luxury hardly ever afforded to women, especially those of the 1970s. I can easily see why one would call this novel radical–it is radical in the sense that for once we have the perspective of a woman who wants nothing to do with the patriarchy or its demands on her (children, housewifery, and other bullshit) but is still a product of the patriarchy and has to fight through it to become a whole person in spite of it.