The Cost of Loving: Women and the New Fear of Intimacy, by Megan Marshall (Putnam, 222 pp., $14.95)
One of the most portentous books of 1984 has been completely missed by the liberal press. The Cost of Loving is written by a disillusioned feminist insider and suggests that, by that year, not only had the political expectations of feminists proven to be hollow, but also that feminism was losing its appeal to the “elite” young women who had hitherto provided its most fertile recruiting ground. Feminists have, in recent years, tried to whip up support among traditionalist women through the exploitation of the pornography issue, but, after reading Mrs. Marshall’s book, one wonders if the very opposite may not be occurring: whether, fed up with the sterility of feminism and careerism, many previously liberal women are turning to
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