Have Faith
Most of the irony in this novel is of the Alanis Morrisette “bummer” variety than the sophisticated literary type. Foremost of the bummers—or one character at least—is that Zoe introduces Greer to Faith only to watch as Greer proceeds to enjoy Faith’s faith more so than Zoe.
Having Faith
An even bigger bummer of an irony concerns the financial backing of Faith’s foundation. You know, the one that espouses hardcore feminist belief? Turn out that a misogynist is the economic backbone of her particular espousal of feminism.
To Become a Feminist
Back to that bummer of a relationship between Zoe and Greer as it relates to falling under the sway of Faith. To become a feminist is not a particularly awful choice as an alternative title for the book. Falling under the sway of Faith leads to a race to the finish line to become the iconic vision of feminism. For much of the story, this seems to be a race that will be easily won by Greer with little genuine opposition from Zoe. By the story’s end, however, this is clearly not the case and it is Zoe who has become the iconic feminist.
Trump (Unnamed)
A Presidential election takes place over the course of the narrative and it the results are described abstractedly as “the big terribleness.” Names are not mentioned, but it is quite obvious that the reference is to the 2016 election for U.S. President. The terrible irony of that election is put into directly observed and spoken thought:
“The thing that really gets me…is that the worst kind of man, the kind that you would never allow yourself to be alone with, because you would know he was a danger to you, was left alone with all of us.”
The Irony of Mentorship
History is a catalog of ironic recurrence lacking genuine progress. Repetition proves the adage that there really is nothing new under the sun (though, of course, original thought also serves to disprove this very same adage, occasionally.) This also proves to a point the ironic consequences of the entire concept of the mentor/protegee relationship which so often produces merely a repetitive re-enactment. After all the sturm und drang inherent in the three-way interaction between Faith, Zoe and Greer, what Greer’s book ultimately accomplishes is little more than repeating the same path already undertaken by Faith with the publication of her own feminist manifesto:
“One person replaces another, Greer thought. That’s what happens; that’s what we do, over and over.”
