The summer without men
By: Siri Hustvedt
Publisher: Sceptre
Published: 2011
Place of publication: London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 216
ISBN-13: 9781444710540; 9781444710526; 9781444720259
Subjects: 18.06 Anglo-American literature; Divorced women; Women poets; Frånskilda kvinnor; Skönlitteratur; Fiction; Interpersonal relations; Kvinnliga poeter; Mänskliga relationer
Description: Out of the blue, your husband of thirty years asks you for a pause in your marriage to indulge his infatuation with a young Frenchwoman. Do you: a) assume it's a passing affair and play along b) angrily declare the marriage over c) crack up d) retreat to a safe haven and regroup? Mia Fredricksen cracks up first, then decamps for the summer to the prairie town of her childhood, where she rages, fumes, and bemoans her sorry fate as abandoned spouse. But little by little, she is drawn into the lives of those around her: her mother and her circle of feisty widows; her young neighbour, with two small children and a loud, angry husband; and the diabolical pubescent girls in her poetry class. By the end of the summer without men, wiser though definitely not sadder, Mia knows what she wants to fight for and on whose terms.