SOURCE: See, Carolyn. “The Time When Women Belonged.” Los Angeles Times Book Review (10 June 1984): 1.

In the following review, See paints “… And Ladies of the Club” as a ponderous yet valuable look at the realities of small-town life.

What we will be looking at here in a shamefully short review is a true literary curiosity, an artifact much more than a novel, a monument of words, a tool for the student of American history, a private compilation, a channeling of tremendous, idiosyncratic effort.

Most people interested in publishing must know by now that “… And Ladies of the Club” is the life's work of an obscure woman already living out her days in a nursing home. They know this book was printed in a small edition by the Ohio State University Press. All this is unusual enough, but the truly miraculous aspects of this curious story are that this book...