Norvell is an independent writer who has published short fiction and often writes about literature. In this essay, Norvell discusses how the characters in Wetzel's story reflect the pre-feminist period in which the story is set.

Marlene Reed Wetzel's story is set in 1967, a few years before the modern feminist movement began gaining momentum in the 1970s. One of the things that makes Wetzel's story coherent and successful is that its characters are unfailingly true to their time. They are thoroughly and consistently prefeminist in their attitudes and behaviors. Today's reader does not read them as modern characters, although they were created less than forty years ago and appear in a story that seems modern in many other ways, from its global air travel to its unblinking portrayal of adultery and divorce. As different as Carla, Ben, and Mantini are from one another, they have one thing...