The widows guide to sex and dating a novel reviews

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I will continue to indulge in Real Housewives episodes but perhaps this will be the last book I read by a Real Housewife. I received a free copy of this book from First Reads in exchange for a fair review After Claire's husband is abruptly killed by a priceless piece of art she not only has to readjust to life on her own, but she also has to cope with all the implications and stigmatisations of being classed as a widow. The married women in her social circle suddenly see her as a husband seducing vixen so they attempt to eliminate the competition by setting her up with all sorts of inappropriate but available men.

And as the weeks pass by and Claire endures one disastrous date after another, she After Claire's husband is abruptly killed by a priceless piece of art she not only has to readjust to life on her own, but she also has to cope with all the implications and stigmatisations of being classed as a widow. And as the weeks pass by and Claire endures one disastrous date after another, she feels the increasing pressure of losing her widowed virginity.

The Widow's Guide to Sex and Dating started off very quirky and interesting but it quickly went downhill after that. My main issue with the novel, and particularly main character Claire, is that despite the tragic accident that sets up the story there is very little to be found within the pages that showed she is grieving for her late husband.

As a sexologist in life he had a unique approach to their marriage, claiming that relationships are either sex or love but never the two together, yet despite his ideas on the matter she seemed to care deeply for him so it is peculiar that almost as soon as he passed away she felt the need to move on to someone else.

Her slew of therapists and gurus makes me believe she has a real issue making any decisions for herself, so perhaps the fruitless attempts at replacing her husband so swiftly had more to do with her own fears of being alone rather than a lack of compassion for the man she was married to. Nonetheless, the easy way with which she seemed to dismiss her late husband and her marriage made her come across egoistical rather than sympathetic and made it very hard to care for her and her struggles.

What also made it rather difficult to get stuck in to this book is that it was hard to classify. At times it read like a chick-lit, at others as erotica and there were even hints of an old-fashioned detective buried underneath. However, because it is all over the place it ended up being none of the above. The novel would've benefitted from author Carole Radziwill choosing one genre to focus on, as well as more of a plot than "a new widow goes through a series of dates".

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In all it certainly wasn't quite so terrible that I didn't finish it, but I did struggle with the increasingly bland storyline until I was relieved when I turned the last page. Review originally posted on my blog: Dec 22, Michelle rated it liked it Shelves: It was a quick read, and definitely strikes me as the kind of novel that would be ideal to pick up in an airport bookstore.


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Basically, Claire Byrne's husband, Charlie, dies at the beginning of the novel, the casualty of a fake Giacometti sculpture Why does it need to be a fake? Because Giacometti has been faked? I never figured that one out. Because it added some depth? Because it was a quirky detail for a quirky novel filled with quirky characters? Charlie is a sexologist who believes that sex and love cannot coexist within the same relationship whoa, mansplaining , so while he "loves" Claire, she's pretty much been there to support him since they married.

Claire abandoned her own work and focused on Charlie, so when he dies, she's left with little other than his unfinished book about Hollywood's sex-icon, Jack Huxley. So, because Claire has nothing really of her own except for a short story about sex and Woody Allen called "Hustling Woody" that she published long ago , she's the perfect vessel for everyone else's ideas about what a widow should be.

She sees two therapists, a psychic, and a botanomanist so that they can tell her what to do. Eventually her friend Sasha convinces her to date, and her husband's publisher convinces her to work on her late husband's book. I hate this guy, so I should not go on a second date, but maybe see the guy I just dislike again. This book feels a lot like an episode of "Sex and the City," where Miranda is pressured into behaving like Samantha and has to find the happy medium after her husband dies, with the addition of the idea of widowhood as a "new virginity" to lose.

A lot of it was kind of dumb, and incredibly unrelatable for those of us that aren't Manhattan socialites. Additionally, the author is apparently a "Real Housewife of New York," so I guess she's used to a certain amount of fictionalized reality.

The Widow's Guide to Sex and Dating by Carole Radziwill

Maybe that's why most of this book doesn't really ring true. Still, it's entertainment, and it's chick lit made quirky and privileged. I would probably recommend to fans of "Housewives" or "Sex and the City" I don't fall into those categories. Mar 19, Diane rated it really liked it. Claire Byrne is married to Charlie, a reknowned sexologist, author of many books on the subject. One day, he is killed by a huge statue falling from a crane on Fifth Avenue in New York.

Claire finds herself a widow in her 30s and completely lost as to what to do next. She goes to two different therapists, visits psychics and even follows a griot, a storyteller who travels the city sharing stories about famous New York City dwellers, to try and find her way to a new life.


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Then she meets Jack Huxle Claire Byrne is married to Charlie, a reknowned sexologist, author of many books on the subject. Then she meets Jack Huxley, the notoriously heterosexual movie star whom every woman wants, and has some sort of relationship with him.

Throughout the novel, Claire shares the rules she is learning about sex and dating for widows, like Rule "Never discourage anyone who continues to make progress, no matter how slow" Plato Rule A boy says, "Have a good trip", a man says "Call me when you land. Kennedy and his wife Carolyn in a plane crash.

It is a brilliant book, and so I was interested to see what her fiction would be like. This is definitely a book for anyone who loves to immerse themselves in the wealthy NYC culture; those who religiously watch The Real Housewives of New York City will love it and Radziwill is a cast member of that show.

The Widow’s Guide to Sex and Dating

Claire is an interesting character, a little snarky, and her journey through widowhood the depression, the setups with widowers forty years older rings true. She is trying to find her place after being in the shadow of her famous husband, what her friend describes as "Charlie's Sundance to Claire's Butch Cassidy. The best part of the book are the Jack Huxley sections. Huxley clearly is meant to be George Clooney, and Radziwill dated Clooney years ago, which makes this novel all the more delicious.

I'm not sure Clooney will be thrilled though. Fans of Gigi Levangie's books The Starter Wife will like this one; there is the same mix of humor and poignancy. Apr 22, G. Thus, we have our quest: Her need to redefine herself and her need for a man give us endless pages of maudlin musings along with unproductive sessions with two therapists. Finally, Claire decides on a truly bizarre project. At this point we enter a familiar Aristotelian arc. The flame flickers toward extinction. Happily ever after looms on the horizon.

Mar 29, Alison Diem rated it liked it Shelves: This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I really enjoyed the prose in the book, and for the most part, even enjoyed Claire's dating shenanigans. I went in knowing this was big "L" literature, as opposed to a romance novel, so there was no expectation for a happy ending on my part.

And because I knew it was literature, it didn't bother me that there wasn't a whole lot happening, in terms of plot. I found the prose beautiful and the journey interesting, mostly because she wasn't a weepy mess. The loss of her husband wasn't the worst thing I really enjoyed the prose in the book, and for the most part, even enjoyed Claire's dating shenanigans. The loss of her husband wasn't the worst thing that could happen to her, as it has been portrayed in so many other novels, and the soul searching she does to determine just what her husband meant to her is refreshing and different.

I was sad that her relationship with Huxley went nowhere, although we were told that's what would happen from the beginning. The romance reader in me wondered if this would be the case where Claire was able to change him because of their connection, but no, this wasn't that book. Perhaps for the better. I felt as though Claire was very alone. None of her friends seemed like particularly good friends, and were mostly pretty self-centered themselves. While that might be "real life", it just made me feel even sadder for Claire- she had a horrible husband who she didn't even seem to like that much, let alone love, and then when he's gone, she's left with a bunch of assholes who can't think about much beyond their issues.

I felt like the ending was very tacked on and the author clearly was advised to remind readers of all the clues that she supposedly left about who Claire would end up with. After reading the reminders, I still wasn't impressed with the ending. While I don't think that Huxley was the man for Claire, I almost would have preferred her to be alone but happy with herself than to have this tacked on ending that came out of nowhere. But, despite those issues, I did feel like the book was an enjoyable read, the prose excellent, the story at times sad, at times funny, and the world one that I wasn't very familiar with but interested none the less.

Claire, resta vedova, non riesce a capacitarsi cosa e come sia successo, lei n http: E poi a dirla tutta anche lei, un personaggio che si lascia manipolare dagli amici che le girano intorno, a volte sembra che tutto le sia indifferente, a volte invece cerca di reagire ma con poca convinzione. Apr 03, BookPage added it Shelves: At 32, Claire Byrne is smart, beautiful and married to famous author and sexologist Charlie Byrne. Then Charlie is improbably killed by a falling piece of art while walking home from a tryst with his publicist, and Claire finds herself with the burden opportunity?

She fumbles through dates set up by well-intentioned girlfriends, drinks a lot of wine, sleeps too much and consults a ridiculous series of questionable therapists. An award-winning former TV reporter, Radziwill is also the author of the well-received What Remains—a memoir of her marriage, which ended when her husband died of cancer in Jul 09, Helene Barmen rated it it was ok. When I first heard of this novel I thought the idea behind it was great.

KIRKUS REVIEW

I have read Carole Radziwill's memoir and seen her on Real Housewives of New York and feel like she has the best starting point possible for writing about widowhood with a little bit of an edge. Unfortunately, the idea is better than the execution in this case. Claire Byrne very suddenly becomes a widow in her early thirties. She's been married to a somewhat famous writer and when she all of a sudden finds herself alone she When I first heard of this novel I thought the idea behind it was great.