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17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful., September 19, 2000
This book is out of print, sadly, which is a crying shame. Story of an upper class woman with two snotty daughters, a weary loyal maid, and an insufferable social climbing lawyer husband, all living in Manhattan. The woman begins an affair with a possibly dangerous man, a famous author. The middle aged crazy emotions our heroine rollercoasts through are familiar stuff, but so well written. And the details of their lives, the wonderful descriptions of apartments and dinners and fashions, of a New York City that is sadly no more (late '60's, when it was affordable for people other than Donald Trump to live there) - just one of the best novels I've ever read. Funny/sad, often maddening, you might look at a real life example of this well-dressed, well -off woman and wonder (as someone states in the movie version, at a group therapy meeting at the end) - just what does this woman have to be unhappy about? You read about this woman's life, the material things, the parties, the life in the middle of the greatest city on earth, and you wonder why she is unhappy, just what the hell does she WANT? Well, she's not sure, but something isn't right in her life. The affair is bad, wrong, and inevitable and as necessary as air to breathe. So just what do women want? I'm not really sure. But here's an insight - "money does not buy happiness". If you ever run across this book, I recommend it highly, it was one of my favorites years ago and time has not diminished it at all.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
ME, MYSELF, AND I..., September 11, 2007
This review is from: Diary of a Mad Housewife: A Novel (Paperback)
I recently saw this on my bookshelf and decided to read it again after a hiatus of many years. Well, time has not diminished the power of this book to engage the reader. Humorous and thought provoking, it allows the reader a glimpse into the mind of Bettina Balser, an upper middle class woman, living in Manhattan somewhere in the late nineteen sixties, who feels that she is losing her mind. Consequently, she begins to keep a diary, because she finds it cathartic. Through her diary, the reader sees a dawning awareness of self, a self that she has long repressed.
Bettina married her husband Jonathan, when he was an idealistic up and coming Assistant District Attorney. When his political aspirations did not bear fruit, he left public service and became an insufferable, materialistic, social climbing corporate attorney. He is also a total control freak, planning every aspect of their lives and disparaging his wife at every opportunity. The sad thing is that he is totally unaware of what he is doing to his wife, so self-absorbed is he. They have two equally insufferable little girls, who seem to emulate their father at every turn. It is no wonder that Bettina feels that she is sinking into an abyss. It is as if she were a displaced person with no place to go, no place to run, no place to hide. Where has her self gone?
The author takes the reader into the inner workings of Bettina's mind. The reader sees how she copes with her struggle to find the woman within the shell she has become. In its time, this book was viewed as being feminist in nature. What else would one call it, when the book is clearly about a woman's struggle with the hand that fate has dealt her simply by virtue of her gender? Although some of the references seem a little dated, such as the cost of certain things or the fact that everyone seemed to smoke cigarettes, it is simply reflective of its time and quite fitting. Full of humor, wit, and discreet social commentary, this is a book that has become a modern day classic.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
MAKES FOR GOOD READING!, November 29, 2000
By A Customer
I first read this book back in the mid-1980s, and I just loved it! It's funny, heartbreaking, insightful and, above all, entertaining. I may not be anybody's wife or mother, but as a woman living in a big city I feel I can still relate to Tina. How many times have I had to deal with overbearing snobs like her husband Jonathan, bratty kids (I'm an aunt to 8 nieces and nephews) like Sylvie and Liz, and heartless, unfeeling men like playwright George Prager. I highly recommend this novel, but it's too bad it's out of print. ENJOY!
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