Customer Reviews

Sheila Levine is Dead and Living in New York

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I am so glad this book was re-released for my reading pleasure. A little different from my usual reads, but worth every minute.
Sheila is a 30 something unmarried, unattractive, overweight Jewish woman living in NYC and hating every minute of it. A controlling mother, no real friends and alone in the city that never sleeps. Sheila's answer to her misery is to commit suicide. The entire book is her suicide note to all the people in her life that have caused her pain.
Sheils gets all her affairs in order including her will, the Rabbi to read her eulogy, her cemetary plots, etc and wants to make sure that everyone knows that she died because she was not a married woman.
This is a serious issue but has some LOL moments that will keep you reading until you finish the last page.

Sheila, darling, I miss you. I see you're out of print, and,boy, what a shame. Such a sad thing to happen to such a nice Jewishgirl. You embodied (and a nice body, what do you mean fat) the angst of all women who don't resemble Barbie Doll. I watched your mother plotz, I listened to you kvetch, and I empathized with your ever-postponed plan to commit suicide because no man would propose (even though you demonstrated you could cook and clean and do things in bed that nice Jewish girls weren't supposed to do). Who could resist your opening paragraph? "A few years ago, on the East Side of Manhattan, not far from Bloomingdale's, a man set up a business where he sold diet shakes, delicious chocolate milk shakes having only seventy-seven calories. Well, I tell you, fat young girls came from near and far and lined up around the block at lunchtime. Only seventy-seven calories and such heaven! I was one of the ones that had two for lunch every day..."

What a GREAT read for any woman who has or is currently playing the dating game. Sheila is the kind of woman we all would love to know. She's human to the core and oh so vunerable. I certainly believe we all can relate to Sheila and her life as she is trying to be herself and at the same time fit the mold that society has pre-ordained for single women of "that certain age". I first read this book in 1973, and just recently purchased another copy, as mine has been passed around and read by all my friends, and their friends,for the past 29 years. Sheila Levine will soon become your best girlfriend as you struggle with life's little adventures!!! LOVELY READ

A couple of reviewers have given this book a bad review. They both sound like idiots. One of them doesn't even seem to have read the book; this person said that Sheila was a PROSTITUTE! Well, let me clear THAT one up right now. Sheila is NOT a prostitute. She's a Jewish woman with stereotypical Jewish parents and she has had it drummed into her that the most important thing in life for a woman is to be married.

Sheila lives in New York and has tried to live the breezy, carefree New York girl life she's always seen depicted in Doris Day movies. But Doris Day never had to deal with living in a cramped apartment with various wacko roommates; Doris never had a low-paying boring job and a meddling, nagging mother. And Doris always had a lot of handsome eligible men vying for her hand in marriage. Poor Sheila comes to realize that life as a single, overweight, not particularly pretty woman in New York City is a kind of hell on earth, especially if you're desperate to get married...to ANYBODY. She has a long relationship with a boring unattractive man she doesn't even like but she's willing to settle for him, if he'd only marry her. She proposes to a gay friend of hers, saying that if they were married she'd have his kids and he could do whatever he wanted to do with men. Sheila is really quite sad; for her, being with someone is better than being with no one, and she feels inadequate because she's not married. She feels like a failure because she's not married and is so fed up with trying to get a guy to marry her that she decides to commit suicide. Obviously Sheila's incredibly screwed up. She believes that her obsession with marriage stems from being conditioned from earliest childhood that the most important thing a Jewish girl must achieve in her life is marriage. Maybe so. But Sheila doesn't do anything to make herself see things in a different light; she makes a few half-hearted attempts at therapy but her efforts go nowhere. The book is her suicide note.

All of this probably seems very depressing and it is in places. But Sheila's self-deprecating viewpoint, her observations about the people she comes in contact with and her descriptions of the frequently horrid situations that befall her are almost always funny as hell. Which is why it's kind of a shock that in some places in the book the reader might feel like crying. An example of this is Sheila's delayed reaction to the ordeal of having to attend her sister's wedding. You want to cry for Sheila.

This book was released in the seventies, so it may seem dated to some people. I read this book in the seventies, but it still makes me smile and feel sad for Sheila Levine. It's a great book!

Okay, I found this book at the used bookstore, looking...well, let's just say well-read. For a quarter, I felt like I'd give it a shot.

Well, this book was pretty darn entertaining. Even though Sheila Levine's life was in shambles a generation before me, her story seemed timely. Lo and behold, my Mom had even heard of this book.

I have never read a suicide note that made me laugh out loud before. Come to think of it, I believe this is the only suicide note I've ever read.

I must add that this book got funnier as it went along, with the climax of the book artfully written.

Note that this book has some racier scenes. Not for the little ones, this book! But great for reading while traveling, as I did.

Try reading this in contrast to The Bell Jar (maybe afterward...it will pick you right up from Plath's downward spiral).

Another great book in the funny death genre is Final Arrangements by Miles Keaton Andrew. Completely different, but contemporary and hilarious. Have fun!

This book is wonderful, and I hate to hear that it's out of print. There's a little bit of Sheila to be found in all us girls, even though some of us would never admit it. Laughs are everywhere in this book--Parent has a way with words that makes Sheila seem all too real.

My original $1.25 dog-eared paperback copy of this utterly amazing book is in storage somewhere, so i decided to buy another copy here. I'm so thrilled that another generation has discovered Sheila (and Gail Parent), and that ms. parent is going to be publishing a sequel!!
I've quoted from this book almost every week (no joke!) since i first read it in the mid-70s. (Of course, i remember being horrified when Sheila and Linda were contemplating turning 30 -- yikes!!) I used the paragraph describing Sheila's awakening to find her suicide attempt has gone dreadfully awry to ace my Speech 101 final at Brooklyn College. I still don't think i've ever read a funnier line than...
[paraphrasing here] "it was that voice. my mother's voice. the voice that told me i had to wear a coat over my halloween costume."
ms. parent, i've been searching for you all over the internet to let you know just how very much you influenced my life, and how much i admire your talent. please say that this sequel will be in stores soon -- i've just ordered your other books. and thank you for the use of your well-placed phrase "how attractive" (in response to "norman had to feed his cats"); i probably use that several times a day... to great reaction! I'm awaiting my "extra" copy of "Sheila" breathlessly, and can't believe a sequel is on its way!

I first read Sheila Levine is Dead... about 20 years ago and it is still one of my all time favorite books. My original copy is in shreds; so many times I picked it up just to read bits and pieces. The plot is dated (at least I hope so!), but the humor, the emotions and the day-to-day tribulations of Sheila's life are still right on target. I wish the publishers would reissue this classic.

Gail Parent's characterization of a young single female living in New York City is as familiar to the reader of the 1970's as it is to the reader of today. From Sheila's apartment hunt to her plotting to grab hold of a decent man, we almost forget she's writing a suicide note. More importantly, we see how Parent shows Sheila's strive for acceptance not only by men but also by her family, namely her mother. It's one laugh after another, and you're always cheering Sheila on. Why? Because Parent made sure the readers could see a little bit of Sheila Levine in them.

I was strongly urged to read this book by one of my friends, who is not necessarily a women's lib feminist, but nevertheless, all for a single woman's revelution. I finally got myself to the local bookstore and picked up a copy. I finished it yesterday.

In so many ways, I can relate to this protagonist. Sheila's family waits, rather impatiently, for her to marry, her friend seems to get all the guys, and she could lose a few pounds.

Soon enough, when she hits 30, she is sick of living as the laughing stock of her family - her younger sister is even married and with child. Sheila decides to kill herself.

Even though many of the things that are discussed in this book are very true and real, some of the narration was awkward (eg going for an entire chapter telling a story and then addressing the readers, specifically her parents. It seemed choppy and forced in places). I also was dissapointed in the ending, but I'll let you read that and decide for yourself.

Overall, 'Sheila Levine is Dead and Living in New York' is very funny, and makes the reader consider points that probably haven't been discussed before, even though a lot of the events and mannerisms are rather dated.