The Life Swap [Paperback]

Nancy Weber (Author)

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Nancy Weber is the author of many novels, notably The Playgroup and Brokenhearted, and co-author of two unswappable children, Rose and Albert. She lives in Greenwich Village, where she runs the small catering business Between Books She Cooks. She is co-lyricist of Seagull: The Musical, now in development, and is at work on the ultimate entertaining guide, Party Math. All the while, The Life Swap (the novel), a collaborative fiction, simmers online.

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Backinprint.com (December 8, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0595378218
• ISBN-13: 978-0595378210
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,469,976 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best & Funniest of All 70s Novels -- Only It's Non-Fiction!, September 29, 2000

By 

William Adams (Ashland, OR USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The life swap (Hardcover)

How can this book possibly be out of print? If it had been a novel, it would be a classic and a perennial, and the fact that it actually happened only makes it better. I read it every few years, am always royally entertained and filled with a springtime sensation that the world is still full of possibilities; this despite the fact it's definitely a period piece. I buy a used copy wherever I find one -- everyone who receives it as a gift is blown away.

In 1973, the bright and talented but also somewhat ditzy Nancy Weber was living an enchantingly carefree, somewhat cushy life as a freelance writer in Manhattan with a hefty allowance from her parents and a wide and disparate cast of trendy friends. In an act of '70s self-exploration, she put an ad in the Village Voice offering to completely swap lives -- clothes, jobs, lovers, names, everything -- with another woman for a month. This is her fantasy, and she will enjoy it, but the woman who agrees to swap with her, a somewhat rigid and politically correct bisexual feminist psychologist, discovers that -- like most of us -- she really can't stand the idea that other people make drastically different life choices, and begins to meddle in "Nancy's" life from day one.

More than this I can't say without spoiling the suspense and surprises. There is a catastrophe, and then we get both sides of the story in the words of the participants (each trying to subtly discredit the other's account), plus

additional essays from witnesses on both sides of the story; it's a grand, goofy Aquarian "Rashomon." Because Nancy is a superb writer with no internal censor (and her swapee is no slouch, either), the whole thing -- sex, drugs, bizarre interpersonal relationships, seven or eight new kinds of self-embarassment, the beautifully-captured trendy Manhattan milieu -- becomes one of the best satiric and comic "novels" you will ever read, as all the protagonists give away so much more of themselves than they intend with every sentence they write.

So why isn't it a famous classic? Mainly, I suspect, it's because the class of people being exposed in it is the same class of people who wrote all the book reviews, then and now. But if ANNIE HALL and MANHATTAN got past those people, you'd think this would. Maybe Nancy Weber doesn't get credit for the result because she didn't make it up, it actually happened; but I think she could get extra credit for surviving it. I should add that my comments on the actual people involved are only in reference to the way they appear in the book; there's no such thing as completely non-fiction. And although the book is hideously funny and "satirical" in a sometimes unintended way, I don't mean to imply that the author is completely unconscious of the effects she's creating, or that you wind up laughing at her and not with her. On the contrary, despite all her efforts to win the catfight of conflicting stories at the end, she comes off as completely charming and likeable, as well as intelligent and gutsy. I have no idea if I've succeeded in suggesting the unique character of this sui generis book. Buy it, read it, mention it every time you meet a publisher. This should be in print again, and always.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Read this book 25 times, October 1, 2004

By 

Patty (New Jersey) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The life swap (Hardcover)

I owned this book when it first came out, and read it so many times it became too ragged to read. Recently I borrowed it from my local library and was pleased to note that some events took place near my home; specifically Ben's house on River Rd. (near Princeton NJ) in Bucks County.
Does anyone know what happened to the author? Married? Children?

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Most interesting book I have ever picked up., October 11, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The life swap (Hardcover)

I'm cheating because I am not done with the book yet. I picked it up yesterday in a thrift store and spent the next 5 hours completely absorbed in the story. What a fascinating tale, I can't wait to see how it ends!

Nancy what a wild adventure you went on. I'd love to talk with you about it - please send me an email if you happen upon this review.