Manless in Montclair: How a Happily Married Woman Became a Widow Looking for Love in the Wilds of Suburbia

By Amy Holman Edelman

Being short with big boobs means living life off-balance. Isabel knows this all too well; at ?ve-feet-nothing with a tendency to tip over in heels, she's struggled for twenty-?ve years to make clothes, careers, and boyfriends ?t. Enter Michael. Divorced father, recovering alcoholic, and ?fteen years her senior-he was the last guy she thought would make the cut. But when he proposed over a pastrami sandwich in a New York City deli on the anniversary of their ?rst date, Isabel knew, improbably, that he was the one. Fifteen mostly happy years and two kids later, Isabel walks into her living room to discover her husband dead on the floor, leaving her a widow at forty-one. At Michael's funeral, a guest solemnly informs her that the of?cial mourning period for a Jewish widow is thirty days. At that moment, Isabel can't imagine a time when she will stop grieving. Not helping the process is this: as a single mom living in the very married suburbs, for the ?rst time in ?fteen years Isabel once again just doesn't ?t in. It takes her younger daughter's request for a new daddy to set Isabel on a journey through online dating, shifty matchmakers, and painfully orchestrated singles dinners. But after endless dates and a story on page three of the Daily News, Isabel begins to realize that another man may not be the answer and, surprisingly, that's when things begin to change for the better. . . .

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0307236951
• ISBN13: 9780307236951
• Release Date: November 2007
• Publisher: Shaye Areheart Books
• Length: 244 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.8" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

What a great book

I loved this book!!! It sends such a great message about how to cope with lose and to move on as a better person. Life is never easy and this book reminds you that no matter how hard things get it will get better and you can learn and grow and become a better person because of it. I would highly recommend this book!!!

Witty look at coping with change

Reviewed by Jamie Driggers When Isabel went out to get her teeth whitened, she didn't know that she would return to a life she couldn't recognize. Husbands shouldn't die unexpectedly, leaving their happily married wives as widows. And young daughters shouldn't request a new daddy for Chanukah. Where is a suburban woman supposed to find love when she thought she was out of the dating pool for good? Manless in Montclair is a fictionalized account of Amy Holman Edelman's own journey. Sudden widowhood was bad enough, but finding a new daddy for her girls through 21st Century dating had its own challenges. When internet dating, dating services and speed dating didn't work, she tried an email blast offering a free trip to the person who found her next husband. In a journey back and forth through time, from dating her husband, through their relationship to his sudden death, we get to know what makes Isabel tick. She isn't just another woman desperate for a man; she is a mother desperate to honor her daughter's wishes. You have to laugh at her antics while also feeling sorry for her situation. I admit that the time travel in the beginning of the book was disconcerting. It took a while before I felt relatively confident about what was going on. It also felt like we spent most of the book in about two weeks worth of time and then went into hyper speed because of the method. Also, East Coasters will probably better relate with this book than Midwesterners as many topics were rather foreign to me (I've been in the burbs my whole life). But overall, it did work, so give her a chance and stay with her. Manless in Montclair is a witty and heartbreaking story of coping with sudden change.