The Life Swap

By Nancy Weber

Book Overview

In February of 1973, Nancy Weber put an ad in the Village Voice offering to trade places with another woman, a stranger, for a month. In hopes of better understanding what was fixed and final in each... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 080374806X
• ISBN13: 9780803748064
• Release Date: January 1974
• Publisher: Dial Press
• Length: 262 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Timeless

I read this book when it was first published, back in the 70's. I was a very young twentysomething and became absolutely fascinated with Nancy's idea and Nancy's life. The book gives you very strong glimpses of what life was like in the 70's in New York City, and the two women who are polar opposites swapping identities. I think Nancy has been ripped off. This idea has been played out many times in tv movies and novels, but her's was the real McCoy, the original. She is painfully, almost brutally honest about herself and the people she associates with and meets in her grand adventure. I lent the book to someone and never got it back, so I bought another copy and somehow that was lost too. So....I bought a third, because it is the kind of book that you want to read again and again periodically. Just for the pleasure of being taken back to the 70's. Just for the pleasure of.....meeting old friends. Because that is what the people in the book will become to you. There is a certain voyeuristic pleasure into looking into someone's closet, medicine chest, seeing all the little aspects of their lives, right down to what they drink, how they drink it, the kind of flowers they like, the little rituals they have. I also wondered what became of certain individuals. Maybe one day Nancy will grace us with a sequel. But for now, this will have to do.

Read this book 25 times

I owned this book when it first came out, and read it so many times it became too ragged to read. Recently I borrowed it from my local library and was pleased to note that some events took place near my home; specifically Ben's house on River Rd. (near Princeton NJ) in Bucks County. Does anyone know what happened to the author? Married? Children?

Swapping tales on "The Life Swap".

"The Life Swap" sits on my bedside table, ready for me to pick it up at almost any time. I bought this book about 20 years ago on the "sale" table at a Long Island book store and quickly became absorbed in it. It gave me a glimpse into the early-70's, when I had graduated from high school and lived on the fringe of that generation. I enjoyed it thoroughly and thought it reflected the times, the life choices, and the baby boomers in a realistic and entertaining light. Years later, I have wanted to read a sequel--to see how Nancy Weber (who pulled no punches on her choices and lifestyle) and the other people featured in the book have lived their lives during the past 28 years.

Best & Funniest of All 70s Novels -- Only It's Non-Fiction!

How can this book possibly be out of print? If it had been a novel, it would be a classic and a perennial, and the fact that it actually happened only makes it better. I read it every few years, am always royally entertained and filled with a springtime sensation that the world is still full of possibilities; this despite the fact it's definitely a period piece. I buy a used copy wherever I find one -- everyone who receives it as a gift is blown away. In 1973, the bright and talented but also somewhat ditzy Nancy Weber was living an enchantingly carefree, somewhat cushy life as a freelance writer in Manhattan with a hefty allowance from her parents and a wide and disparate cast of trendy friends. In an act of '70s self-exploration, she put an ad in the Village Voice offering to completely swap lives -- clothes, jobs, lovers, names, everything -- with another woman for a month. This is her fantasy, and she will enjoy it, but the woman who agrees to swap with her, a somewhat rigid and politically correct bisexual feminist psychologist, discovers that -- like most of us -- she really can't stand the idea that other people make drastically different life choices, and begins to meddle in "Nancy's" life from day one. More than this I can't say without spoiling the suspense and surprises. There is a catastrophe, and then we get both sides of the story in the words of the participants (each trying to subtly discredit the other's account), plusadditional essays from witnesses on both sides of the story; it's a grand, goofy Aquarian "Rashomon." Because Nancy is a superb writer with no internal censor (and her swapee is no slouch, either), the whole thing -- sex, drugs, bizarre interpersonal relationships, seven or eight new kinds of self-embarassment, the beautifully-captured trendy Manhattan milieu -- becomes one of the best satiric and comic "novels" you will ever read, as all the protagonists give away so much more of themselves than they intend with every sentence they write. So why isn't it a famous classic? Mainly, I suspect, it's because the class of people being exposed in it is the same class of people who wrote all the book reviews, then and now. But if ANNIE HALL and MANHATTAN got past those people, you'd think this would. Maybe Nancy Weber doesn't get credit for the result because she didn't make it up, it actually happened; but I think she could get extra credit for surviving it. I should add that my comments on the actual people involved are only in reference to the way they appear in the book; there's no such thing as completely non-fiction. And although the book is hideously funny and "satirical" in a sometimes unintended way, I don't mean to imply that the author is completely unconscious of the effects she's creating, or that you wind up laughing at her and not with her. On the contrary, despite all her efforts to win the catfight of conflicting stories at the end, she comes off as completely charming and likeable, as well as intelligent

Most interesting book I have ever picked up.

I'm cheating because I am not done with the book yet. I picked it up yesterday in a thrift store and spent the next 5 hours completely absorbed in the story. What a fascinating tale, I can't wait to see how it ends!Nancy what a wild adventure you went on. I'd love to talk with you about it - please send me an email if you happen upon this review.