This book focuses on the way in which second-wave feminism has been represented in American popular culture, and on the effects that these representations have had on feminism as a political movement. Kim Loudermilk provides close readings of four bestselling novels and their film adaptations: Marilyn French's The Women's Room, John Irving's The World According to Garp, John Updike's The Witches of Eastwick, and Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale . According to Loudermilk, each of these novels contains explicitly feminist characters and themes, yet each presents a curiously ambivalent...