原本读完觉得格局太小，几乎所有故事从女性视角出发千篇一律，但读完后的几个星期一些故事片段不断在脑中闪回，haunting me，重新再读才读出用极致精准文笔描写下的生活百态。摘录其中一段关于过去的描写：Here they found themselves year after year—a group of busy, youngish women who had eased their cars impatiently through the archaic streets of Rosedale, who had complained for a week previously about the time lost, the fuss over the children's dresses and, above all, the boredom, but who were drawn together by a rather implausible allegiance—not so much to Miss Marsalles as to the ceremonies of their childhood, to a more exacting pattern of life which had been breaking apart even then but which survived, and unaccountably still survived, in Miss Marsalles' living room. 惊心动魄。