The central character, Joanna, has just moved to Stepford, a suburban town somewhere in America, I don't think where is too important. She describes herself to the local newspaper as interested in tennis, photography, politics and the Women's Liberation movement. Sociable and intelligent, she tries to make friends with her female neighbours, but they are all too busy doing housework to have time to chat. Despite their continuous cleaning schedules they are all remarkably beautiful too, in a very smooth skinned and big bosomed way.
Luckily she makes some other friends, Bonnie and Charmaine, who have also recently moved to the area. Despite sharing her interest in women's liberation, her husband Walter joins the local Men's Association club, where no women are allowed - to change things from the inside, he says. Then first Charmaine and next Bonnie suddenly change from being funny, vivacious allies to submissive, housework mad shadows of their former selves. Joanna panics - is there something in the water, or is she going mad? Why was her husband reluctant to kiss Bonnie's cheek? What really goes on behind the darkened windows of the Men's Association?
This is a spooky little story that I enjoyed. Sadly I don't think it's that far-fetched, except from a technological viewpoint. I'm sure that a certain group of men, probably the sort that buy mens magazines with photos of skinny young girls who happen to have enormous breasts, would love to have sexually submissive, housework obsessed robots for wives. I noticed that Joanna's surname, Eberhart, is an anagram of 'Breather', which is quite clever.
For more small-town spookiness, next I might read John Wyndham's The Midwich Cuckoos.
