I loved this book! When I wasn't listening, I was thinking about Katarina and her world. The narration for the audiobook of A Woman of Intelligence was fantastic. The story was unpredictable and unique.

3 stars

Katharina feels trapped & overwhelmed in her role as a mother, & instead of being honest about her feelings & asking for help she lies to everyone to pursue the thrills of being an FBI informant. Decent writing, an interesting if slow plot, & good setting & historical details made this book an okay read. I don’t like the MC though, which made it hard to actually like this book.

[What I liked:]

•I enjoyed learning about the CRC, & while the book tends towards anti-communist sentiment as a matter of fact of American patriotism, there is a small amount of nuance given in the overlap of the US Civil Rights movement in the 1950’s with the CPUSA. In other words, the book’s message is: communism = very bad, but some good though misguided people joined the party for noble idealistic reasons so we shouldn’t hate them.

•I liked Ava’s character a lot. She’s a paradox, which makes her compelling. Turner was interesting too, his motivations & ideals also complex & conflicting at times. With Jacob we didn’t get as much insight into his character, but he’s still a colorful person.

•I’m glad a certain person didn’t leave his family. I would have lost respect for him if he did.

•I actually appreciated the ending. I liked it much better than most of the book. Rina finally (to an extent) is honest with her family & asks for help & stands up for herself & takes steps towards building the life she wants. Yay. Finally she starts acting like the smart, wise, strong, independent person she has constantly been declaring herself to be.

•I do appreciate that the book’s message, & Katharina herself, don’t totally dump on motherhood as a good choice for some women. Not that most feminists do or most feminist literature does, but I still appreciate when it’s clearly articulated that there’s nothing wrong with choosing a “traditional” path, that the real issue is whether or not women have the choice. Carrie likes being a full time mother (although Rina disdains her for it). Marianne likes being a single career woman (although she’s not portrayed as the nicest person either). Rina wants to be a mother and have a job outside the house, & all of those are valid choices. Not every woman has to want or like the same lifestyle, & not everyone thrives in the same environment, & that’s okay.


[What I didn’t like as much:]

•The novel takes a long time to set up the main action. It’s almost 40% over before the MC starts working as an informant.

•I have a hard time liking the MC. I get why she felt trapped & ignored & overwhelmed, but I don’t find her solutions to be admirable. Does she ask for help, or tell anyone how she’s feeling? No, she even lies that she’s happy & fine when people ask her if she’s okay, then resents them for believing her. So maybe asking for help & being honest wouldn’t result in help, but she didn’t even try! She decided to solve her problems with alcohol abuse & by putting her family in danger & lying to everyone some more, all the while secretly priding herself on how much better she is than other women for not finding motherhood %100 fulfilling. I absolutely don’t think it was wrong she decided to be an informant or wanted a life outside childcare, but I don’t like how self pitying she is, & how she thinks doing this job will absolve her of having to be honest with her husband & getting mental health help 🤷‍♀️

•Oh, & the other reason I don’t like Rina? Her teenage niece is under extreme pressure from both parents to perform at a ridiculously elite level of athletics, & so because Rina “likes her” she writes a letter to her pressuring her to do better 🤷‍♀️ You’d think Rina, who is suffering under the overwhelming burden of unrealistic expectations, would have compassion.

•Thoughts on the audiobook narration: the narrator did a decent job overall, but at times she seemed over enthusiastic. It felt like 90% of the sentences she spoke were in a gushy, over excited voice which got annoying.

•This may be a nit-picky criticism, but Tom seemed a bit extreme in his characterization. He’s verbally abusive, over protective, extremely demanding of others, & very controlling. There were flashbacks to Rina’s happy memories of him when he treated her well & as his equal, & it is possible that he was really like that once upon a time & that career stress & sleep deprivation simply turned him into a controlling, raging, entitled, sexist jailer. But at times it felt like those flashbacks were inserted as an excuse for Rina to justify her staying in the marriage. But, I’ve never been married, or in a LTR as long as Tom & Rina’s marriage, so maybe this is a very realistic portrayal.

CW: infidelity, self harm, alcohol abuse, sexism, racism, murder, suicide, verbal abuse

[I received an ARC ebook copy from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. Thank you for the book!]

Katharina Edgeworth is a very complicated character but I'm not sure it's on purpose. The story takes place in the 50s and focuses on the life of a woman who during the war was running around with her fellow 20-year-old girlfriends sleeping with loads of men while she worked at the UN (it's mentioned numerous times that she speaks at least 4 languages) and now is married to a super-successful blue blood doctor and the mother to two children she doesn't like but still loves very much. I don't blame her on that last part, kids are terrible and hers sound just awful.

The problem with A Woman of Intelligence is that for being an intelligent woman, Katharina has almost no agency and is continually making incredibly stupid decisions, erring on the side of deception rather than communication, and all of her fun new (and dangerous and ultimately fluffy to the story) adventures are just opportunities handed to her by men. She doesn't ever actually make any decisions for herself, and she is incredibly irresponsible.

I want to clarify that the irresponsibility doesn't bother me as far as a character trait is concerned; it's the fact that Katharina suffers from Admired-by-Every-Man-She-Meets syndrome and she feels incredibly shallow; it was a missed opportunity and she is weakly written.

I did appreciate the exploration of alcoholism although it is a really glancing look at why and how it happened with such great frequency to women of the time. There is a lot to be said about women during the war facing less restriction (because all the men were gone and capitalism needs labour), finding fulfilling jobs (often contributing to the war effort), and experiencing freedom, only to have all of that stripped away when the soldiers return because priority number one was the men, their "need" for wives and children, and their places in the world. I can't even imagine having opportunities and a job I loved then being shunted to the side and expected to be a happy, doting mother to two hellraisers, while my interests are belittled and dismissed by my husband. NO WONDER they drank.

The narrator for the audiobook is Jennifer Jill Araya and as usual, the narrator is not the problem. That said, the male characters felt like caricature and I found myself thinking about how what was being said would have more gravitas if it hadn't been delivered by a cartoon.

This is a fine, distracting read but really had very little substance.

I received a copy of this audiobook for free from NetGalley and Macmillan Audio in exchange for an honest, voluntary review.

Katharina is feeling trapped by motherhood, or at least her husband's expectations of her role as mother. His idea of a good mother is one who is ALWAYS with her children. Understandably she has lost any other part of herself except for "mother".

After a rough day where she struggled to meet this mothering expectations she's unexpectedly approached by an undercover agent who wants her help as an informant.

It's like a door has been flung open for her and a whoosh of fresh air has rushed in. She fully embraces the role and excitement of it all. Suddenly she's being seen again. Not as a mom, but as an intelligent, interesting woman.

Will she be able to balance this secret life as a spy with her husband's expectations of mothering? Will she be caught? Will her marriage survive? Can Katharina find herself again?

It's wild how timely a book set in the 50s can be in 2021. Women often still continue to struggle to maintain their ownness in light of motherhood. It's easy to drown in the role.

It seems that there are a proliferation of books lately about Russian spies and the infiltration by average American citizens to combat the leaking of those secrets. This latest is certain to be a welcomed addition to the genre.
Katarina Edgeworth, the main character, lives in New York City and has the making of a perfect life. She had previously worked at the United Nations and is now married to a doctor living the wealthy life with all its trappings. However, life is not always what it's suppose to be. So, the timing is just right when she is approached by the FBI to help in their spying endeavors.
If you are familiar with New York City and its various addresses, you will love its descriptions and will be able to follow the story from one part of it to the next. That was done so deftly by the author.
I was carried along with Katarina's mission, routing for her the entire time. The narrator deserves credit for grasping the author's words so well that the reader is swept along for the adventure. The ending was just what I hoped for making it a totally satisfying read!