White Widow

By Jim Lehrer

Book Overview

Praised by the New York Times Book Review as "an...affecting morality tale," Jim Lehrer's devastating White Widow brings the reader to the brink of one man's unstoppable, ruinous passion for a complete stranger.

Jack T. Oliver has a solid marriage, a cozy house in Corpus Christi, and a job he loves as a driver for the Great Western Trailways bus line. In a few weeks, Jack is going to be promoted to Master Operator in recognition of his years of perfect service and on-time driving. It's a good life. Until a White Widow boards his bus, on a one-way ticket from Victoria to Corpus Christi.

A White Widow is a wild card, a woman traveling alone who can change the course of a driver's life, and not always for the best. What happens when Jack Oliver's White Widow passes through his life is as unforgettable as it is irrevocable. Within weeks, without ever even learning her name, he will fall passionately in love--and lose everything he has, a few things he never had, and some he never thought about until they were gone.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 189162041X
• ISBN13: 9781891620416
• Release Date: May 2000
• Publisher: PublicAffairs
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.5" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Small town Americana

After reading and enjoying Lehrur's new title, "The Special Prisoner," I read "White Widow," a book about a bus driver obsessed with a beautiful, mysterious and unknown female passenger. The bus driver let's his imagination get carried away to the extreme. My wife, who read the book, could hardly accept that a happily married man could become so obsessed. I guess I would characterized "White Widow" as a story about ordinary, average folks living in South Texas, struggling with the same challenges we all face -- especially who we are and can we accept our ourselves and live in peace with ourselves."White Widow" is a great read which will generate a great deal of thought and conversation. High recommended

Enjoyable and surprisingly eery....

This is a story that starts out rather slow, but builds up into a writhing tale that reaches a climax that will leave the reader stunned. Jim can really write a good yarn. My major interest is non-fiction, but I would recommend this book to anyone. It illustrates real human emotions and how people deal with them. Also, it shows the dangers that arise when we cease to live in reality. A must read!

fascinating!

The White Widow came and went, leaving our hero a shadow of a man. Although Lehrer's novel has an ending, the reader is allowed to bring further conclusions into play even after the book has been set aside. Jim doesn't let his story end with his ending...he allows his reader to end it with their own idesa or wishes. Thanks, Jim.

Enjoyable read and confirms that reviews are worth reading

I was very pleased that I picked up White Widow --it was not the type of book I usually read --it was very small town and a subject that would ordinarily not interest me --but Jim Lehrer tells a wonderful and compelling story and it left me with a good sense of post-war rural texas and what Lehrer experienced working for a bus company

Tragic cautionary tale. Great story-telling

As in classic tragedy, Master Operator (bus driver) Jack T. Oliver's fatal flaw - his attraction to a "white widow"- causes his inexorable fall from grace. Jim Lehrer's easy-going pace does not prepare the reader for the catastrophic events which ultimately occur. I highly recommend this not-too-long novel to fans of the classics and fans of suspense