Three Women at the Waters' Edge

by Nancy Thayer

Book Overview

Now available for the first time in audio, this classic novel by New York Times bestselling author Nancy Thayer deftly and movingly explores the ebb and flow of love, fulfillment, and change for a... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0553227491
• ISBN13: 9780553227499
• Release Date: January 1983
• Publisher: Bantam Books
• Weight: 0.38 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Great Novel For Any Woman Who Has Felt Overwhelmed By Life

Nancy Thayer brings to life three women, each at an important turning point in her life. Each faces a life-changing situation that will cause her to utilize her strongest survival skills as she seeks to find happiness and satisfaction amongst the debris. At the heart of this story is twenty-nine year old Daisy, the devoted mother of two young children and pregnant with her third child. She devotes her days to making her young children happy, but her husband finds her growing frumpy and desserts her for a younger, professional woman unencumbered by diapers, formulas, and Captain Kangaroo. Daisy's daily travails as she struggles with rejection, single-parenthood, and reduced income are brutally true-to-life for anyone who has been there, done that. And her troubles, like a stone thrown into a river, cause ripples in the lives of her mother and her younger sister.Her mother, Margaret, is approaching 50 and wants to enjoy the freedom of an empty nest. After a lifetime of being the perfect cookie-baking, nose-wiping mother, she walks out of her seemingly-happy marriage to seek her own identity. She is eager to grasp glamour and the pleasures of a self-centered life as opposed to being everyone's shoulder to cry on as she has always been.Daisy's younger sister, twenty-four year old Dale, is feeling the joy of first love with its intense longing and lust accompanied by her deep-seated fear of what happens when love ends.Each woman must take the plunge into unchartered waters and find a way to live that will be rewarding. Nancy Thayer writes with such frankness and honesty that you will stand up and cheer at some parts and be ready to throw dishes at the wall in other parts. But most of all, you will be touched by three women who take life as it comes with its unexpected slaps in the face and its unasked for detours. Will they succeed? Watch them as they live each mind-boggling day and decide individually what makes a life really worth living.

Three Women at the Water's Edge

I read Three Women at the Water's Edge for the first time in my 30's, and have read it many times since. At 53, I have just finished reading it again. Over the years I've been able to identify with Dale, Daisy, and now Margaret. Nancy Thayer has been able to capture the intensity of women's feelings and emotions at three different life stages with an accuracy that is truly incredible. Her descriptions of the sensual pleasures in a woman's life are perfect, from the overwhelming intensity of first love, to the feel and smell of holding a newborn baby, to the calm and inner peace of a woman sitting alone in front of the fireplace in the first home she's ever owned by herself. I've read every book Nancy Thayer has written, and I've loved them all, but this one is the masterpiece. Every woman should have the experience of reading this book.

I absolutely love this book!

I just wanted to write in and say that I bought this book years ago and loved it and I loaned it to my sister. I never got it back. I bought another copy of the book and I eventually loaned it to a friend. She "conveniently" lost it too. I think she really just loved it and didn't want to part with it, just like my sister. I am now buying my third copy because I can't bear to be without it either.

I always wanted to thank Nancy Thayer for this book!

When I first discovered Three Women at the Water's Edge my children were small and I related exactly to the character with the three small children. My friend and I could not get over how Nancy Thayer accessed exactly the feeling of overwhelming love, frustration, isolation, and responsibility of being with three small children each day, every day. The smallest physical details, every feeling, were exactly on target. Years later I reread this book and related to the mother, starting a new life of her own and wanting to be there for her daughters but not wanting to get overwhelmingly involved in the responsibility of their personal lives again. It just amazed me that the author could so target the emotions of a woman at different stages in her life. Time and again I would think, "Yes, this is how I feel." I'm so grateful for authors who can put my hopes, fears, inadequacies, and strengths into words.

The best book I have ever read.

I had to literally force myself to put this book down in order to get any work done on the weekend I bonded with it. All three women spoke to me in their unique ways - I understood each one, sympathized with each one, and felt that I was living inside the skin of each one. Nancy Thayer is my favorite author - she is so detailed in her descriptions of her characters' lives and she knows exactly how women feel in all kinds of live's situations. I lived inside each woman in this book as their stories unfolded - it was wonderful and I have reread it many times. I have also recommended it and lent it to my daughters and friends - they have all enjoyed it and we have had many good discussions surrounding Daisy, Dale and Margaret. This is not a book to be missed