Research Catalog

An available man : a novel / Hilma Wolitzer.

Title
An available man : a novel / Hilma Wolitzer.
Author
Wolitzer, Hilma
Publication
New York : Ballantine Books, c2012.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Filter by

1 Item

StatusFormatAccessCall NumberItem Location
TextRequest in advance PS3573.O563 A95 2012Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description
285 p.; 22 cm.
Summary
"In this tender and funny novel, award-winning author Hilma Wolitzer mines the unpredictable fallout of suddenly becoming single later in life, and the chaos and joys of falling in love the second time around. When Edward Schuyler, a modest and bookish sixty-two-year-old science teacher, is widowed, he finds himself ambushed by female attention. There are plenty of unattached women around, but a healthy, handsome, available man is a rare and desirable creature. Edward receives phone calls from widows seeking love, or at least lunch, while well-meaning friends try to set him up at dinner parties. Even an attractive married neighbor offers herself to him. The problem is that Edward doesn't feel available. He's still mourning his beloved wife, Bee, and prefers solitude and the familiar routine of work, gardening, and bird-watching. But then his stepchildren surprise him by placing a personal ad in The New York Review of Books on his behalf. Soon the letters flood in, and Edward is torn between his loyalty to Bee's memory and his growing longing for connection. Gradually, reluctantly, he begins dating ("dating after death," as one correspondent puts it), and his encounters are variously startling, comical, and sad. Just when Edward thinks he has the game figured out, a chance meeting proves that love always arrives when it's least expected. With wit, warmth, and a keen understanding of the heart, An Available Man explores aspects of loneliness and togetherness, and the difference in the options open to men and women of a certain age. Most of all, the novel celebrates the endurance of love, and its thrilling capacity to bloom anew"--
Subject
  • Widowers > Fiction
  • Older people > Fiction
  • FICTION / Literary
  • FICTION / Contemporary Women
  • FICTION / Sagas
Genre/Form
  • Romance fiction
  • Love stories
Processing Action (note)
  • committed to retain
ISBN
  • 0345527542 (acid-free paper)
  • 9780345527547 (acid-free paper)
  • 0345527569 (ebook)
  • 9780345527561 (ebook)
LCCN
^^2011037248
OCLC
  • 721886919
  • SCSB-11501624
Owning Institutions
Harvard Library