Five Women [Mass Market Paperback]

Jaffe (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 1998

Once a week, five women meet over dinner and drinks at the Yellowbird, their favourite Manhattan bar. To the shared table they bring their troubled pasts, their hid den secrets. And through their friendship, they each find a new beginning. '

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Jaffe again delves into the lives and relationships of a select group of American women. She started down this road with The Best of Everything (1958), in which she detailed the experiences of young working women in New York City. Fourteen novels later, in this same city, we encounter a group of mid-life friends: Gara, a divorced psychologist and cancer survivor; beautiful black attorney Felicity, married to a rich but controlling man; Kathryn, haunted by the brutality of her parents' marriage; the unabashedly narcissistic actress, Eve; and former rock star Billie, owner of the bar where they meet weekly. Scrutiny into their pasts and presents offers lively if predictable reading. Jaffe's fans will be looking for this title in their public libraries.?Sheila M. Riley, Smithsonian Inst. Libs., Washington, D.C.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Jaffe, author of 14 novels, including The Cousins (1995), has got it down to a science: she designs a group of formulaically diverse women who, over wine and salads, recall the traumas of their past while negotiating the trials of the present. In this long, lulling mind-commute of a novel, four women friends meet regularly at a hip hangout called Yellowbird, a "monument to Janis Joplin," which is owned and run by the fifth woman of the title, Billie, a husky voiced loner who tells folks that she could have been like Janis. They wonder how; it doesn't seem possible that she could ever have been a singer. She was, of course, but what she means is that she could have died young, like her idol. But she survived and got her life back on track. Sigh. And that's only one melodramatic story out of five: there's Gara, the divorced psychologist; Kathryn, the rich and cheery gal with a bloody family history; Eve, the mediocre actress who likes to tie up men; and Felicity, the lawyer with a bullying husband and a fickle lover. There are no small moments here, no ordinary events; it's all domestic violence, psychosis, adultery, abandonment, even murder. But, hey, that's what the readers who make best-sellers sell best want, and Jaffe, at least, writes with polish and momentum. Donna Seaman --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: Mira; Reprint edition (April 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1551664240
• ISBN-13: 978-1551664248
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,660,045 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Pathetic, middle-aged lonelyhearts, November 1, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Five Women (Hardcover)

I couldn't wait to be finished with this book. I only continued after the 18th chapter because of the time invested; and there's 44 of them! What a waste of time. The story moves quickly enough; for some characters their lives moved within a matter of sentences, others times you are dragged through the emotional pathos and dysfunction for pages. Every character in the book has had or is having some crisis that steers the course of their lives. These women are all looking for 'love', but will take shallow, self-serving, non-committal sex in it's place, and places the reader in a postion to pity them when it doesn't work out. The weekly 'pity party' these characters have lures you into thinking there is a true commaraderie; only to discover it's pathetic agenda.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Realistic, December 18, 2007

By 

E. Tantum (North Carolina) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Five Women (Mass Market Paperback)

This was a book about five middle-aged women friends. It goes back into each of their pasts. I liked this because it added dimension to the characters and you then understood why they behaved the way they did in life and love. This is not a feel-good book. The characters all have tragic and depressing issues in their lives, which made it kind of a downer to read. But it also made it real. I was engrossed in this book and was surprised to see so many negative reviews. The author tied up the story nicely in the end as well. I would recommend this book to anyone, especially middle-aged women.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not My Favorite..., May 22, 2006

By 

Mercedes L. Johnmeyer "The Most Happy" (Summerville, SC) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Five Women (Hardcover)

Well, after 7 Rona Jaffe books, I've finally reached one that was a disappointment. I just didn't feel as much for the women of this book as I did for characters in the other 6 books I've read.

This is the story of five very different women in their 30's and 40's who meet up weekly at a New York City bar/restaurant, and dish about life, love, and their pasts. Of the five women, one was incredibly annoying, another was very annoying, two were just so-so, and the fifth, probably the most interesting of the bunch, we never really get to learn much about.

There's Eve...whom I hated...whose a struggling actress, a despicable mother and a questionable friend. She's so pushy and rude, and some of the things that come out of her mouth just make you cringe at how immature and inappropriate they are. There's Felicity...whom I wanted to smack...who's in a somewhat abusive marriage, and all she does is complain about how much she hates her husband, and wants to leave him, and how she can't live without her lover Jason. Her constant weakness and complaining got on my nerves real quick.

Then there's Gara, and Katherine...Gara's a psychologist whose husband of 20 years just left her for a younger woman, and she's struggling to pick up the pieces; and Katherine, who comes from a very bad childhood, and a few failed marriages, is determined to have fun in her later years, and make up for lost time. Both these women were ok...but not much more. And finally there's Billie...the owner of the Yellowbird (the place where the women meet). I liked her the best. She had a normal childhood, a short stint with fame and fortune, and then (after much drama) settled into her gig as owner of a NYC restaurant, and mom to her young son.

Overall, this was most definitely not my favorite Rona Jaffe book. I felt it went on about 100 pages too long, and the majority of the characters were just not likeable. I'm just really glad that this was not the first book of hers that I picked up. If your thinking about reading this, skip it...she has so many other great books out there...and I still look forward to all the ones I haven't read yet.