re: #198 Obdicut

I do remember the passage you’re talking about, and the perspective of the woman was ridiculous— that children amount to a limitation on the ability of a woman to work. Part of Lillian’s subtle point was that that argument is exactly the one that companies used in order to justify lower pay for women.

My favorite part of the book I think is the car trip where Lillian finally blows up at Frank (when they’re in the car with all the kids and everyone is giving them attention and Frank is playing to the crowd) and says “This is not the antepenultimate, nor the penultimate, but the ultimate.”

One thing that totally bothered me when I was reading the book (I was in 8th grade) was that only 11 children participated in the family adventures. There was a 12th child, Mary, but she is never mentioned in the book as being actively part of the family. Did she die at birth? Was she developmentally disabled and institutionalized? It was never explained. I assumed that she passed away at a young age, but she could have been institutionalized.