Westward Women
Book •
Alice Martin's Westward Women is a literary speculative novel set in the early 1970s that imagines an ‘infection’ prompting young women to abandon their lives and travel toward the Pacific.
The story centers on three narrators—Amy, Teenie, and Eve—whose intersecting perspectives reveal personal motives, social context, and the collective nature of the phenomenon.
Martin blends road-novel tropes, feminist themes, and historical detail to explore desire, agency, and the limits of escape.
The novel emphasizes social contagion over biological explanation, using the itch metaphor to probe psychological and cultural forces driving movement.
Ultimately, the book interrogates the Western frontier myth and the cost of seeking reinvention through physical flight rather than confronting entrenched relationships and structures.
The story centers on three narrators—Amy, Teenie, and Eve—whose intersecting perspectives reveal personal motives, social context, and the collective nature of the phenomenon.
Martin blends road-novel tropes, feminist themes, and historical detail to explore desire, agency, and the limits of escape.
The novel emphasizes social contagion over biological explanation, using the itch metaphor to probe psychological and cultural forces driving movement.
Ultimately, the book interrogates the Western frontier myth and the cost of seeking reinvention through physical flight rather than confronting entrenched relationships and structures.
Mentioned by
Mentioned in 0 episodes
Mentioned by ![undefined]()
![undefined]()
Chris Holmes
Alice Martin
Alice Martin, "Westward Women" (St. Martins Press, 2026)
