Published in 1925, the book "Women" is a collection of stories and episodes loosely organized around the common theme of life in American suburbia. Like several of Tarkington's novels, it is difficult to pinpoint its time period, since no explicit reference is made to political events of the day; however, I would place it in the early 1920s. The theme is domestic life of the upper middle class, with a focus on the preoccupations of (non-working) wives of the neighborhood -- their marriages, husbands, teas, literary clubs, gossip, and occasional worries about possible infidelities and husbands falling prey to younger, single women. Tarkington's biographer James Woodress says the book "perfectly mirrors the matriarchy of suburban America" and shows the author's "subtle insight into feminine psychology". (Contemporary readers will have a different perspective on the latter, but of course this book was written nearly 90 years ago.)

Despite the trivial nature of its subject matter and light plot lines, the book has some highly entertaining episodes. My favorite deals with the teenage Lily Dodge -- a wallflower at parties and dismissed as uninteresting by her peers, she gains confidence from a stay with relatives in another city, and her popularity skyrockets. Although readers unfamiliar with Tarkington's writing should begin with his more celebrated novels, more experienced readers ought not overlook the small pleasures to be gained with this collection.

Below is a quote -- nothing profound in content, but one that gives a sense of the style and focus of the book: "The lady gave utterance to an outcry of indignant amazement at the everlasting stupidity of a man beguiled by a woman; for, in spite of the ages during which men have been beguiled by women, the women who are not doing the beguiling never cease to marvel that it can be done." ( )