"Then make it different." (Esther's aunt and Esther, 22) See also: The Red Tent by Anita Diamant, The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd, People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks, City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert, Maine by J. All storylines examine the gendered distribution in power: stark in ancient Persia and in the 1970s, more subtle but still present in 2016. Vashti and Esther's story echoes through Vee and Lily's stories, which prove to be connected. In 2016, Lily reckons with her choice to be a stay-at-home mom to two daughters in Brooklyn, though she knows her mother, Ruth, wishes she would have a career as well. In 1973, a politician's daughter and a Senator's wife is caught in a Vashti-like situation at a party in her home in Washington, D.C., and flees to her friend's home in Gloucester, MA. In ancient Persia, Queen Vashti is disposed of (dead? banished?), and Queen Esther ascends - but finds she has no real power of her own, and even the king is under the sway of his evil minister.
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