Photo: Ben Goldstein/Studio D
20 of 49
An Available Man
By Hilma Wolitzer
304 pages;
Ballantine Books
Edward Schuyler, a reserved science teacher whose idea of a fine evening
is ironing his dead wife's clothes ("It was oddly comforting to smooth
the wrinkles out of her blouses, to restore their collapsed bosoms and
sleeves") finds that, just months after becoming a widower, he is
suddenly a hot item. His reluctant reentry into the singles scene after
20 happy years of marriage drives the plot of Hilma Wolitzer's tender,
witty novel, An Available Man (Ballantine). The story spotlights an
uncomfortable cultural reality: While women's romantic options tend to
narrow with age, men's choices expand. Edward's female friends either
try to fix him up or hit on him. When his stepchildren secretly place a
personal ad for him, 46 women reply. Edward is mortified by the ad, but
he's also lonely and missing sex. So he goes on a few blind dates that
tend toward the broadly comic: An abrasive overachiever ("good-looking
in a hard-edged, female-action-figure sort of way") assumes their
disastrous evening will end in bed; a teary widow shows him her wedding
photo at brunch. But while Wolitzer celebrates the humor in these
scenes, she also shows compassion for her characters, who stumble
through life and love like the rest of us. Smart and poignant, An Available Man explores some universal truths—that the past is never past, life is for the living, and dating is really, really hard.
— Karen Holt