Choose: Snakes or Ladders by Sally Forest

Stereotyping based on gender or social standing is an injustice. It is demoralizing and just plain wrong. Some people believing they are better than others are simply because they wear the latest fashions. One gender physically and mentally oppressing another under the impression that superiority. It is possible these will be rooted in the oppressors’ insecurities. Insecurity about their place on the social hierarchy being taken by another. 

Mitty Bedford is an ambitious woman. She worked hard to become a typist. She enjoys her work and is mighty good at it. She is capable of much more. A challenge is thrown her way. She gracefully takes it up and is a massive success. She goes from typist to clerk. For a woman, this is quite a leap. This is the kind of achievement that is frowned upon in the 1950s. A woman’s place is the kitchen and bedroom. She has no business sitting among men to work. 

The men in the office are uncomfortable with Mitty’s impending professional progress. Mr. Wolfe will hear nothing of her exemplary capabilities. Even some women in her life scandalize her for going after a life as a professional. They do not understand her desire to live a ‘man’s life’. They are convinced she will not succeed. Mitty even uses all the doubt and cynicism as a driving force. They are all proved wrong. 

Mitty faces many challenges being the only woman working on the clerks’ floor. She can handle those. However, the man with the plump lips on the train is becoming a bit of a problem. He forces himself on her. The only reaction to this is stinky stares from fellow women who do nothing to rescue her from the situation. Mitty later arms herself with a hatpin and hair spray. A working woman has to have protection.

Col Lander is a good man. He shows up for Mitty exactly when she needs him to. He rescues and comforts her. In his arms, Mitty is powerless to her desire for him. She falls in love quickly. Society’s expectations of her keep her from submitting to her desires. She restrains herself from truly expressing her love for beloved Col. 

Sally Forest does a good job of presenting the life of a working woman in 1950s Australia to the reader in all its pomp and color. This is a story about love, life, loss and a bit about misguided religious fanaticism. It is written in first person narrative, which works to have the reader truly immerse himself/herself in Mitty’s life. One will enjoy the dialogue between the characters immensely.

Choose: Snakes or Ladders is an accurate depiction of the hardships women were subjected to just by virtue of being women. It evokes thoughts of how far the world has come. The themes in this book are still rampant today albeit in smaller doses. There is still a long way to go.

This is an enjoyable look into the past of sexism among other social sins. Sally Forest is deserving of five stars on this one