Rebecca Woolf

This book will definitely be polarizing. Above all else, I respect and appreciate Woolf's candor. I have no idea what it's like to be in her shoes, and I can't judge. As she says, I imagine there are many women who relate to her story but fear the repercussions if they are open about it. I agree with many of the reviews that say the first part was gripping, but the second part less so. It seemed to lose the thread a bit. As for the writing, I follow Woolf on instagram, and I think her style is great for online content, but I think sometimes it doesn't translate to a book. That's a personal opinion/preference, but certain phrasings are Very Online and that takes away from the timelessness. On the other hand, there are some lovely turns of phrase. If you like memoirs about complicated women, this is a must-read.… (mehr)

An unflinching book about the accommodations females make throughout their lives to attract, appease, and keep their men as well their own "status" in modern society. Her frank take on the complicated work of being a relatively young caregiver to her 40-something dying husband, a solo parent to 4 young children, and the primary breadwinner for the family will speak loudly to anyone trying to make it in "the sandwich generation." I appreciated that she not only explores the end-of-life aspect of her story, she also doesn't shy away from the messy emotional and logistical challenges of carrying on as a young, sexually active widow and solo parent in the aftermath of her husband's death and during the global Covid pandemic. I've never read any of Woolf's previous writing, but I will definitely seek it out soon. The bottom line is I didn't always like her when I was reading this book, but I do respect her greatly for writing it with such candor and skill.… (mehr)

Giving this 4 stars for the first half, none for the second. The author's husband, with whom she's had a miserable marriage and four (WHY???) children, is diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer and dies in agony a few months later. Her descriptions of her frequent hatred of Hal, their decision to split, and then the impact his sudden illness has on those uncomfortable plans is vividly rendered. It was also more memorably told in Evvie Drake Starts Over, a novel by Linda Holmes, when the heroine's physician husband dies suddenly before she could leave him.

The second half turns into Rebecca's hedonistic plunge into recreational one night stands, during which she tries to convince the reader that it's her just desserts for staying in her untenable marriage. I am not convinced and I didn't find it titillating, nor was I empathetic, just got tired of her meaningless romps and her justifications of same.… (mehr)