Her Mother's Daughter; by Marilyn French.

Personally this is my more favourite one - even though Women's Room is great without any doubt - for many reasons. So many of the characters are unforgettable, even apart from the protagonist, it has to be because it was written with much love and it shows.

The story spans four generations of women and their men, their children, and their lives, the travails they go through to not only survive but more to the point to keep their children alive and in good shape, good health, forgoing often much in the process. It got easier at one stage and then more difficult if anything, and even that easy part was only for those that dare, others had it often harder.

Funnily enough while the main line of four generations is memorable enough, the one that keeps wafting through memory is the fragile Joyce - the baby who went toddling through the back yard grass, laughing, the young girl hurt deeply in love by the family of her upper class boyfriend who took care to separate them because she was not of the same class, and she kept that hurt silent in her heart, never speaking about it; and finally the woman who fought with all conventions and norms in separating from a husband for sake of her children, their stability of a home and education, and showed such grit in keeping a roof over their head and food on their table while working three times as hard as any man, so she could feed them and do better - and her secret help was her mother in law, not the father of the children or his father or social justice, much less courts.

Joyce's children appreciated her, and it is only what she deserved after all.