Terrible Virtue

Feldman’s latest (after 2014’s The Unwitting) chronicles the life of Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger from her point of view, with occasional shifts to the people in her orbit. Raised in a large family headed up by a father who encouraged radical views, Margaret becomes a nurse, reluctantly marries, and has children. She gravitates, with her husband, Bill, toward socialist causes. It soon becomes clear, much to Bill’s chagrin, that monogamy isn’t for her. As Margaret struggles to publish information on preventing pregnancy and open a clinic for women, she blossoms into a media-savvy activist who wittingly hides her dalliances while brandishing a motherly public image. Feldman successfully paints Margaret as someone who is so wrapped up in her causes and fame that she neglects her family. As Margaret’s fight has her fleeing the U.S. to avoid prosecution and hobnobbing with well-heeled contacts abroad, the country’s attitudes toward women’s rights slowly change. While the book focuses on many life events, such as her second marriage to a wealthy man and the role she played in securing funding for research on the Pill, everything whizzes by a bit too quickly. Agent: Emma Sweeney, Emma Sweeney Agency. (Mar.)