Search


GO

Give a Gift

Bookswim Features

Book Rental Categories

Rent: The Improvised Woman: Single Women Reinventing Single Life

By Marcelle Clements

Overview & Description

We have come a long way, baby. When a group of women were asked what the ideal relationship was, none of them mentioned traditional marriage. Hmmm. Far from a collection of woeful tales of singledom, The Improvised Woman thoroughly debunks the traditional perception of lonely single women. Author Marcelle Clements takes a journalistic view of her interviewees, who range in age from their 20s to their 90s, and her objectiveness is refreshingly telling. Says one woman about her lover, "I would never marry him. I think any woman who reaches a mature age would be foolish to. Why should I give up my independence? Why should I give up my privacy?"

The majority of women that Clements talked to certainly aren't afraid of single motherhood ("it's much easier to raise children by yourself than to handle children and be a wife at the same time"). Their lives are full of passion--but passion for anything but men. Most of the divorced and widowed women profiled in the book are much more self-actualized and content with their lives than they were when they were married. A frequent refrain heard from these women is that "the ones who aren't hopeless are married," and that it's better to be alone than to feel lonely while maintaining empty relationships, which one woman described as "unsatisfying limbos."

This hefty, illuminating book will not only make for empowering reading for single women, but it could also be a kick in the pants for those men who claim that women are inscrutable. The beliefs and self-perceptions of the women profiled in this book--on subjects such as sex, work, romance, and family--are powerful testimonies about what it means to be female at the turn of the century. Clements has compiled a lively chunk of sociological history here. --Erica Jorgensen

Read full description

Book Details

ISBN 10: 0393319539
ISBN 13: 9780393319538
352 pages.
First Published:6/1/1998
List Price:14.00
FREE to rent with membership

 

Categories this title is in
Health, Mind & Body, Nonfiction, All Categories, Self-Help, Psychology & Counseling, Social Sciences, Sociology, Marriage & Family, Women's Studies

Reviews:

+ more reviews

Linda H. writes,

Marcelle Clements picked an interesting subject for The Improvised Woman, and amoung the interviews with single women in this book some are insightful. However, some are repetitive, and some just plain uninteresting. Also, Clements writing can get monotonous, and she fails to draw meaningful conclusions in this work.
I would recommend this book to be checked out from a library or purchased used, because it is unlikely that one would read it a second time.

Richard W. writes,

I'm single, I'm 30 and I don't feel like I'm a pariah so this book just wasn't for me. I was really hoping it would be some uplifting, positive stories about women I could look to as role models.
This book is more on how to "deal" with being single...really more for those who are RECENTLY single than Reinventing single.

Dorothy L. writes,

I've just recently picked this book up again and read it through for the second time! So inspiring. I always felt "different" when it came to relationships with men & what my friends were doing or felt. Why didn't I dream about marriage? Why when I thought I had found "the one" (even got engaged) did it seem like a sham? All my friends say "you just haven't met the right guy. When you do, you'll feel differently."

I don't believe them. I love men, but I just can't see giving up my privacy & autonomy. I always excel at the first year or two of a relationship because you still have that to some extent...then they want more, or they want their mommies, or to go to that "next-level." ugh. I also have NO positive role models to prove me otherwise...

This book has shown me that HALLELUJAH! it's not just me. That I don't have to get married. That I can love and live and be free and not feel like I missed out on something. That marriage is NOT the end-all-be-all of what we (men and women) have to aspire to. And it's interesting that, being in the "Gen X" grouping, many of them/us have still been "programmed" to believe this! Isn't that amazing? But let me tell you something...my 80-year-old grandmother agrees with me and the book! She just wishes she could have gotten her two cents in! Thanks Marcelle!

 

FAQ | About Us | Media / Press | Contact Us | Help | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use | Blog | Affiliates | Paperspine Members Welcome
© 2007-2009 Bookswim, Inc. All rights reserved.