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In the Family Way
A Historical Fiction Novel by Laney Katz Becker
Subgenres:
- Women's Fiction,
- Female Friendship,
- 1960s America
This book is for you if you're into...
- Suburban housewife friendships tested by secrets and shifting loyalties
- Historical fiction exploring motherhood and autonomy before Roe
- Book club reads with layered female perspectives
From Little Stack
Set in 1965, this story follows a group of suburban housewives and a pregnant unwed teenager they welcome into their fold. The main focus is its two main characters: housewife Lily and Betsy, the teenager who has been sent to be her live-in babysitter from a home for unwed mothers. They are both pregnant but their experiences couldn’t be more different. Not only will Betsy be forced to give up her child, but she is completely naive about sex, pregnancy and childbirth. It is a stark reminder how important good sex education is. And as the story explores topics such as pregnancy, miscarriage, abortion, women’s rights and body autonomy, it reminds us how vital women’s rights and access to contraception and safe abortions are, and how dangerous life was for women without them.
Set in the 1960s before Roe, In the Family Way is a poignant and powerful book club novel in the vein of Lessons in Chemistry and Big Little Lies, about the friendship between a group of suburban housewives who help one another navigate through their personal challenges, marriages, and their pregnancies—both wanted and unwanted.
In 1965 America, women can’t have their own bank accounts, credit cards, or sign their own leases; divorce is scandalous and difficult; and abortion is illegal. Every week, a group of suburban housewives meet for their Tuesday canasta game. As cards are drawn and discarded, the women in this found family share advice and confidences.
When prim and proper Lily Berg, a doctor’s wife, discovers she’s pregnant with their second child, she follows her friend Becca’s suggestion and takes in Betsy, a pregnant teen from the local home for unwed mothers. Betsy, who’s never met anyone Jewish before, is to live with the Bergs for six months, help with babysitting and housekeeping, have her own baby, and agree never to contact the family again. But things quickly get complicated. Lily, who’s opened her home to the teenager, never planned on opening her heart, yet that’s exactly what happens.
Meanwhile, Becca is pregnant with her fourth, and comes up with a scheme to get a legal, therapeutic abortion, and Lily’s sister, Rose, discovers the man she married isn’t who he purported to be, and turns to Lily and her husband for help.
Moving and atmospheric, full of history and heart, In the Family Way is a timely novel of female friendship that captures the experiences of women on the cusp of liberation as they struggle with their own complex feelings about being wives, mothers, and women with their own dreams and ambitions.
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