Fatherless Women: How We Change After We Lose Our Dads

by Clea Simon

Book Overview

Praise for Fatherless Women
"Elegant prose. . .sheds new light on the father-daughter dynamic." -Boston magazine"If it can be said about a book on loss, Fatherless Women is a pleasure to read. Clea Simon is a warm, honest, intelligent, and trustworthy guide, not only for grieving women but for the men who support them. Simon's insights about father-daughter relationships are profound." --Neil Chethik, author of FatherLoss
"Clea...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0471228958
• ISBN13: 9780471228950
• Release Date: August 2002
• Publisher: Wiley (TP)
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.72 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.0" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

This is a good book..

My father died almost a year ago and I bought this book in October 2004. I'm still having a hard time reading it; not because it's not easy reading, but because of the depth of emotion it conjures up as it pushes me to reflect on the relationship between me and my dad. No matter how old I get, I will always miss him and wish I could have stayed young and he could've lived forever. I think when I get to the end of this book, I will have gone through more healing through my grief. It's that kind of book..

An Excellent Aid in Dealing with the Death of Your Father

This book is really outstanding. I recommend it to anyone who has just lost their father or for someone who has not gotten a handle on their loss however long ago it was. Clea Simon writes as though she is speaking directly to you. She tells her own painful story and comforts her reader in doing so. Ms.Simon tells of many other women's experiences of losing their fathers so the reader gets many different perspectives on father/daughter relationships and how these daughters dealt with losing their fathers.Fatherless Women, for me, chronicled all the feelings I had felt, did feel and would feel during the grieving process. I was very comforted by this book. It made me feel I was part of a group so I stopped feeling so alone and isolated. It made me familiar with my feelings so I could give a name to what I am/was going through.Her book is an easy to read, informative, reassuring and very personable account of one of the most difficult things women go through. I would not have been able to begin my healing without this book. I thank you from the depths of my soul, Clea Simon.

Deeply felt and beautifully written

I heard an interview with Clea Simon on a public radio show, and having lived through the loss of a close relative myself, I invested in her book. I found it to be a comforting and perceptive book, with many interviews that shed light on the possibility of living through loss and getting beyond it. Simon is generous with her own reflections, and her writing is lovely. I will be recommending this book to my friends.

An important book on loss

This is a warm, meaningful book on life after losing a father - one of the greatest losses you can experience in life. It's so encouraging to know that I am not alone - that every emotion I feel is okay and there are plenty of other women out there feeling the same way I do. This is a very helpful guide on surviving this difficult time and gaining insight into my life and the life of my father.

moving through grief to growth

"Fatherless Women" explores what for many of us will be a scary, and challenging journey: Growing up from "good girls" to become "smart women." With lots of stories from dozens of women, it shows us how we grieve -- not always what you'd expect! -- and how, if we let ourselves mourn the death of our fathers, we can learn to appreciate them as humans and then understand all the ways they influenced us. With other stories, we're shown how this new insight not only helps us with our sadness and guilt -- it can also free us to be the women we want to be, taking the best of our fathers' legacies to us and dumping the worst (including our own overreactions). An invaluable guide -- and really affirming of my experience since my dad's passing!