I'm a true fan of the movie version featuring Nicole Kidman and as I began to read Ira Levin's story I felt as though the plot was sticking rather well to the movie. But somewhere around the time when there was suddenly no details to the life within Stepford did I become increasingly lost. Yes, the daily grind that Joanna goes through is described along with the sudden fear in which she harbors, but this was not until the end.The book felt empty compared to the movie. But more compounding was my utter confusion in the end. I understand based on the movie what happens, but there was no evidence of the robotic clones as evidence throughout the book. Do the women change? Yes, but without explanation, leaving the reader lost. The behaviors of these women just changed.
Could be drugs, hypnotism, or as in the movie computer chips. Could the missing pieces to allow for the reader to build their own story? What about the politics within the community? Maybe by watching the movie more times than I can count I found myself lost on this book.
Overall it's a good read, but I found so much to be missing that the ending was more confusing than it was fulfilling. I would have to say that the movie was better than the book this time around.
