I think most people today would struggle to understand that a country as modern (in many ways) as Switzerland was the last country in Europe to give women the right to vote. This is the subject of Claire O’Dea’s novella, Voting Day. It takes place over the course of one day in February 1959 when men voted on whether to give women the same right and follows four women. Vreni is a middle-aged farmer’s wife and mother of four setting off to spend the day in Bern where her daughter Margrit lives and works, before checking into hospital for an operation. Beatrice is the hospital administrator and women’s suffrage activist who is also helping the hospital cleaner Esther gain custody of her son. Their lives have taken different paths, dreams followed or abandoned and almost forgotten. Vreni sees her operation and recuperation time as a holiday from the monotony of daily life while Margrit, who escaped the farm for an independence of city life is caught in a different kind of trap. Beatrice, crushed by the failure of vote – 2/3 of Swiss men who voted on that day in 1959 did not think women should be allowed - nevertheless finds hope in a new project.

I knew that Swiss women didn’t get the right to vote until 1971 before I started reading so O’Dea’s 1959 setting was unexpected and intriguing. I loved how sensitively she brought to life these very different women and their hidden depths and strengths. The juxtaposition of twentieth century modernity against deep conservativism, prejudice and tradition. And while the vote failed to enfranchise women, there is a lovely note of optimism and hope to the novella that I also really liked.

My thanks to Fairlight Books and Netgalley for the opportunity to read Voting Day. Highly recommended.

Set in 1959 against the backdrop of Switzerland’s failed referendum for women’s suffrage, Voting Day is split into four sections, each dedicated to a different Swiss woman, all of whose lives end up intersecting. This novella is short, sweet, and to the point: O’Dea deftly carves out a rich inner life for each of her four protagonists, and the story crescendos bittersweetly during the anticlimax of the result of the vote.

The only problem I had was with the sentence-by-sentence writing, which felt overly modern, simplistic, and occasionally under-edited:

"Oh God, she saw Luigi. I can’t say he’s a work colleague… maybe a neighbour? I’m so disappointed in him. He was up front all along, so why did he have to get so secretive in the end? It doesn’t do justice to what we had together."

"Well, seeing as I was in that special situation with Herr Fasel, and not looking for anything serious, I thought, why not? I have no time for all this fuss people make about love and heartbreak and bagging a man. I’m a modern woman, and I don’t have to fit into some outdated mould."

As this only takes about an hour to read, I have no hesitation in recommending it if this is a premise or period of history that particularly interests you, but unfortunately I don’t think this was as brilliant as it had the potential to be.

This novel touched the heart deeply. It is hard to think not that long ago women weren't given the right to vote over anything: men controlled voting. Didn't matter what the subject matter was about. This novel, in my opinion, deserves an award for showing the struggles a woman faced during the times of not being able to vote. It it hard to fathom the truth of history sometimes, and with the many outputs of books and documentaries on the topic it might never be a bad idea to look back and see just how far we have come. Rights for all kinds of people. Hopefully one day the world will unite and accept the facts that we all are human; we all have flaws, but with the likes of others we can make a difference in the world. With the hope of one day, children can grow up and become whoever they want to be; vote for the things they feel truest in the heart and to love their special someone.

I was unsure during the first rather bleak episode about a disgruntled farm wife, but once this set of linked stories moved on to the next segment I was hooked. Four Swiss women with four points of view (the outer two third-person, the inner two first-person), each of whom observes, is somehow involved with and comments on one or more of the others ... their stories are deftly linked into a little chain that becomes a circle at the end, rounded out by their mutual concern with another character who at first seems to be only a minor distraction. It's a microcosm of a particular place and time in history that opens up a window into many human concerns that vex us to this day.

I don't want to give away more about the plot or characters because much of the pleasure of this slim narrative is observing how O'Dea builds it up, step by step, out of the lived experience of women's lives. On this historically significant day, these women are denied by male Swiss voters their right to participate politically in society, yet they retain the right to choose - to choose life, agency, empathy, and creativity over passivity, stasis and despair. Yes, all people deserve the right to cast a ballot, but it's our will to "vote" with our hearts that will ultimately determine our future.

This is my 4th Fairlight book, and I have enjoyed them all. This was a 'small' story about a family and voting day and whether women were going to be allowed to vote in the next election.
One day that intersects the lives of four women, Verni, a farmer's wife, Margrit her daughter, Esther, a cleaner desperate to find her lost son, and Bernice a hospital administartor working towards a "yes" vote for women.
The Author did an excellent job breaking down small acts into happenings. As the book opens, "It was going to be the best possible day." Verni, the protagonist is going to spend the day with her daughter, Margrit
I found the at times, the direct, to the point vernacular charming.
For example, when Peter, Verni's husband describes his daughter moving into to town to work, "How long do you think Margrit will keep up this life now? The tiny attic room, those smoky streets. She stands to lose her looks."
And when Verni takes the train to meet her daughter, upon seeing her, she states, there is something wrong, because she "has lost her glow."
Please keep going with this series; they are all gifts in a small package that I look forward to.

Thank you NetGalley & Fairlight Books for the opportunity to read and review this delightful book.
jb/https://seniorbooklounge.blogspot.com/

I was confused when I picked this book on Netgalley: a novel set in Switzerland in the 1950s, written by an author whose name is so obviously Irish? Well, this is Europe after all (albeit not the European Union, because Swiss people are very particular about maintaining their independence and particular culture), and I was intrigued by the story. Most of the book happens over the course of one particular day in 1959, when men are called to vote and decide if their womenfolk will have the right to vote. Will they say yes? Will they say no? We don’t follow them cast their ballots and count the results, we see the day through the eyes of four different women, who live very different lives but cross path on that day, however briefly.

The first woman we meet is Vreni, a farmer’s wife who comes to town for an operation at the hospital. Women’s troubles, she doesn’t want to say more. As she gets ready for the trip and the two weeks stay, we see how much she does in domestic work at home and in the farm. Of course her husband doesn’t pick up what she won’t do, she had to ask another woman to come and cook, clean, wash etc. She even slightly looks forward to the hospital stay as a sort of vacation. We also meet Vreni’s daughter, who has finished school (an exception in the village) and settled down as an office girl in the city. We also see Esther, who works as a cleaner at the hospital and recognizes Vreni from afar, and Beatrice, who is something of a manager at the hospital and very much into activism for the women’s vote.

I really enjoyed the back stories of each of the women and how they also misjudge, ignore or misunderstand one another. There’s a lot of hardship and abuse in the book, but it is still hopeful and positive in the end.

Let’s cut the chase: Swiss women did not get the right to vote that day. In fact, it was only in 1971 that they actually could vote, a shockingly late reversal, and something that tells a lot of the weight of patriarchy and conservatism in that period. The book was a wonderful discovery and I’d love to read Clare O’Dea’s next novel.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley. I received a free copy of this book for review consideration.

Politics is not my favourite thing but I am always very aware of how important it is to vote.

Sadly in some countries the voice of women is still not heard but it might come as a surprise to you that women in Switzerland only gained their right to vote in 1971 when a referendum decided with a two-thirds majority.

But only 12 years earlier in 1959 the same initiative failed with a two-thirds majority against it.

Clare O’Dea was fascinated with this earlier attempt and it sparked her novel Voting Day.

In February 1959 four Swiss women go about their lives as the men head to the halls all over the country to vote.

Vreni is a farmer’s wife, who is off to the city for an important appointment while her husband and sons go to vote.

Margrit, her only daughter has left the farm already and is trying to make a different kind of life in the city but finds herself in a difficult predicament.

Esther is working as a cleaner in a hospital and her only wish is to be reunited with her son.

Beatrice works at the hospital as administrator and wants to make a change.

It’s a different story than I expected but I loved how Clare O’Dea told the story of so many women through these four on a day which sadly ended with a NO vote but as we know women don’t give up easily. I am looking forward to reading more by @clareodea_author and from the Fairlight Modern Series.

Thank you to @netgalley and @fairlightbooks for providing me a free copy in exchange for an honest review. This book will be published on 1st April 2022.

When you think of modern Switzerland, visions of prosperity, orderliness and cleanliness come to mind. And yet it bears remembering that however progressive the place seems now, it didn’t give the women a right to vote until 1971…insanely late in the game by any world’s standards. That’s the ugly side of direct democracy – essentially the male votes who had all the power chose to have things a certain way/their way for as long as they were able to get away with it - until the EU pressure became too much.
This short novel highlights that particularly ugly note on Swiss record. Set in 1959 when the vote went 2/3rds against, it features four interconnected perspectives of four very different women as they go about their lives, lives that’ll intersect on that voting day.
An engaging quick read shining the light on the often overlooked downside of the good ole’ days, this book turned out to be a very good character driven read with a message. The balance is just right, the message doesn’t overwhelm the narrative and each individual strand of the narrative works well individually and interwoven into the grand total. Very nicely done. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.