- Sceptre
- 9781444710540
- $25.00
- Paperback - B Format
- March 2011
- 224 pages
- Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945)
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The Summer Without Men
An exhilarating tragicomedy about the war of the sexes and what makes women tick by the internationally bestselling author Siri Hustvedt.
'Some time after he said the word pause, I went mad and landed in the hospital. He did not say I don't ever want to see you again or It's over, but after thirty years of marriage pause was enough to turn me into a lunatic.'
When Mia Fredrickson learns that her husband is having an affair, she suffers a brief breakdown then retreats to her childhood town and her mother's embrace. Alone in a rented house, she rages and fumes and bemoans her sorry fate. Slowly, however, she is drawn into the lives of those around her: her mother and her close friends who face their twilight years with zest and in one case, playful subversion; her young neighbour with two small children and a loud angry husband; and the adolescent girls in her poetry workshop whose scheming and petty cruelty carry a threat all their own. Over the course of the summer, Mia gains a whole new perspective on her life.
By the internationally bestselling author of WHAT I LOVED, this a wonderfully witty, spirited and provocative novel about women and girls, love and marriage, and the so-called war of the sexes.
Staff Review
Rehab for immortals – what is not to love?! That’s right, nothing. It’s awesome.In all seriousness, this is the best book I have read all year. Based around a completely refreshing concept, it is powerful but often very funny, a brilliant mix of light and dark that, even after I finished it, I couldn’t stop thinking about. Nastasya’s world at River’s Edge is now firmly embedded in my mind, and I absolutely can’t wait for the sequel! And, it gets even better on the reread! Fabulous.
Clare, The Sun Bookshop, VIC
Beautifully written, this a novel so many women will relate to in the “war of the sexes” and women’s friendships. It will stay in your thoughts long after the last page has been turned.
Susan Chapman, Account Manager – Brisbane
Mia is a women who embarks on an enforced journey of transformation and self-discovery when her husband requests a ‘pause’ from their 30 year marriage, seemingly out of nowhere. She finds out that the ‘pause’ is indeed a younger work colleague whom he has taken up with, apparently discarding their melded life around the raising of their daughter, Daisy.
So crucial is this life based around Mia’s family to her very existence, that to begin with she cannot conceive of herself as a person who can function without it… and she slips into temporary insanity for a time. ‘I went mad and landed in the hospital.’ It’s the enormous shock which is initially so impossible to deal with, but then she returns home to contemplate ‘Boris, the rat man who married a poet in 1979’, and soon realises she ‘has to get out of the apartment, because being there hurt’. And so she goes to her elderly mother, to seek refuge and solace.
From here we are taken on a huge journey with Mia, as she reflects on her life and the incredulity and grief of what has taken place. And as she is supported, amused and nurtured by varying groups of women: her mother’s group of friends, the ‘Five Swans’ (one of whom sews subversive, pornographic embroidery as her revenge on genteel society’s expectations of her!); the younger woman next door, with a violent husband and a little girl who has retreated behind her perpetual wig; the group of wily adolescent girls for whom she runs a summer poetry class; and her whirlwind daughter, Daisy.
This is an amazing book. Siri Husvedt is an amazing writer.
Ani Peet, Hodder National Accounts Manager
A wonderful and insightful story. I almost read the book twice with the amount of re-reading of certain sentences. She is a very wise, analytical and deep woman. It is almost non-fiction disguised as fiction to get her points across.
So many beautiful pieces that have stayed with me and brought me to tears when relaying to booksellers.
Such a slim but powerful punch of strong thoughts and observations.
Adele Fewster, Account Manager – Brisbane City
This is an intricate tale of the lows and highs of the female experience. I loved the often erratic shift in thoughts and emotions felt by Mia when her husband of many years requests a ludicrous and almost comic ‘pause’ rather than a separation, in the name of a younger female co-worker. Many women will be able to relate to the blend of confusion, love, hurt and anger felt by Mia as she processes the situation and her new, unexpected future. I like the honest way that Mia confronts her thoughts and the outside world when she takes leave to her childhood town to be close to her mother. In her hometown Mia begins teaching a poetry class to a group of pre-teens. With this young group Mia is reminded of the patterns of human behaviour that have affected us all, when one of the girls is isolated and teased in the subtle yet damaging ways of young women. Mia develops relationships with the girls of this young group, a young struggling mother next door and the elderly women who live with her mother in a nursing home. Although each generation is different, Mia discovers that women face difficulties at every age, but with them come subtle gifts of happiness.
The Summer Without Men is beautifully written and will often make you laugh at the most unexpected of moments. It also ends in a way that leaves us open minded about acceptance, self worth and forgiveness.
Rebecca Wallbank, Hodder Product Coordinator
