Loving Women [Hardcover]

Pete Hamill (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 18, 1989

A novel of the Fifties.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Although it covers well-worn ground--a 17-year-old sailor's passage to manhood in the 1950s--veteran journalist Hamill's latest novel is told with such emotional urgency and pictorial vividness that it has the flavor of a well-liked old story rediscovered (in fact, it shares a good deal of atmosphere and incident with Neil Simon's Biloxi Blues ). Brooklyn-born Irish Catholic Michael Devlin (who narrates from middle age, heading toward his third divorce) arrives at his Navy base in Pensacola, Fla., with ambitions to become a cartoonist, lose his virginity and solve some of the mysteries of adult life. Lessons are imparted by a brutish master-at-arms, an ineffably hip black musician, and a cynical, smart fellow sailor who is a closet homosexual. Most important in his life is Eden Santana, a kind, emotionally bruised older woman with whom Michael falls hopelessly in love. Although Hamill's characters all have a ring of familiarity, and he insists too firmly on giving every one of them a sad secret and a predictable confessional monologue, he invests real passion, narrative energy and fondly remembered detail in this novel, and it pays off. BOMC alternate.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

For Michael Devlin, a middle-aged photographer working on his third divorce, life has never been as good as it was in 1953, the year he joined the Navy, left Brooklyn for the first time, and met the only woman who ever understood him, the mysterious Eden Santana. Now, driving his sports car by the naval base in Pensacola, Florida, Devlin tries to recapture a time when his world view derived entirely from Steve Canyon and Buz Sawyer comic strips. Reexamining simplistic Cold War thinking as a Steve Canyon nightmare is a great fictional premise, and had Hamill pursued it, much of the two-dimensional characterization in this novel might have been justified. As it stands, however, the book is just another maudlin Fifties memoir in which self-realization is synonymous with great sex. Only fans of that overworked genre will enjoy it.
- Edward B. St. John, Loyola Law Sch. Lib., Los Angeles
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 414 pages
• Publisher: Random House; 1st edition (March 18, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0394575288
• ISBN-13: 978-0394575285
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.5 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,709,992 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Pete Hamill is a novelist, journalist, editor, and screenwriter. He is the author of 15 previous books including the bestselling novels Snow in August and Forever and the bestselling memoir A Drinking Life. He writes a column for the New York Daily News and lives in New York City.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Deserves to be reprinted, February 7, 1999

By 

Tom Bruce (East Moriches, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Loving Women (Paperback)

I found this book in a used book shop, and being a fan of Hamill's, I bought it. Somewhat semi-autobiographical, the book follows a Brooklyn youth into his induction into the Navy and life at its most raw. The story thrusts one suprise twist on top of another, one exciting episode is immediately replaced by one even more thrilling. And this may be the most erotic book I have ever read. Not quite pornographic, the scenes of lust between two lovers are very descriptive and will stick with the reader for some time. I have read thousands of books, and this has to be in my top ten. Look for it, the search will be highly rewarding.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good story, but anachronisms abound, February 1, 2005

By 

Don M Howard "Don M. Howard" (Rimrock, AZ) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Loving Women (Paperback)

I liked Pete Hamill's "Loving Women" and found most of his characters real and sympathetic. Michael Devlin, the young sailor growing up after boot camp at his first duty station is a character with whom any of us who served in the military can identify. The characters at the Navy base are familiar and could have been found on any military base in any branch of the service.
The love affair with Eden Santana is absorbing. The erotic passages are well done - you can almost taste and smell the sex.
However, it is a little jarring when he gets some of the historical details wrong. Though the novel was set in 1953, he went on about the Dodgers moving to Los Angeles which didn't happen until April of 1958; wrote about James Dean and his famous red jacket from "Rebel Without a Cause" which was released in 1955.
These kinds of sloppy writing mistakes jar a reader out of his suspension of disbelief for a moment or two and make what otherwise would be a wonderful historical novel into just a pretty good one.
Still a good read - but it could have been a great read.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Rattigan's again - - -, April 7, 2007

By 

Geoff Brandt "JackFrostNFL" (Quintana Island, Texas USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Loving Women (Paperback)

Never any secret about where he grew up. Have read most of his work, and "Snow In August" remains my favorite. The references to Bird, Miles and Minton's (yeah, I'd take the A-Train up to Harlem and would be the only white face for miles, strolling to see Tony Scott, Percy, Klook, Baby Washington -- and Carman MacRae tried to get me to actually like Soul Food -- never did, but she was a super lady!)---(also flunked a tryout with the Dodgers at Ebbets Field in '52, but that doesn't matter; I know his haunts, well) -- and, although his experiences were different, there were sooooo many familiar feelings. Talks my language. Good book. Not great, but good.