The Improvised Woman: Single Women Reinventing Single Life

by Marcelle Clements

Book Overview

What is it like being a single woman today? A groundbreaking work of scope, wit, and exceptional empathy, The Improvised Woman answers that complex question, while in the process capturing-and celebrating-the real lives of single American women. Over the past seven years, journalist and essayist Marcelle Clements asked over one hundred women from across the country-young and old, never married, divorced and widowed, childless and single mothers-to...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393319539
• ISBN13: 9780393319538
• Release Date: October 1999
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.5" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

he's not that into you and you don't give a dime!

Are we women going to stop reading all the books -written basically by men- telling us what is that "they" want from us, how should we "behave" in order to get them, and so so . Is anybody,is any of us going to be brave enough to stand and say "I don't give a dime and excuse me, by the way, when are "you "going to care for what I want? Marcelle Clements book make so much sense and is an oasis of relief for all of us who choose to be single just because is fabulous to be happy with your life because of life itself and not just because there's another person to give it any sense. I recommend this book over and over and all the women that I know who read it, they all felt more blessed after.

Hallelujah!

I've just recently picked this book up again and read it through for the second time! So inspiring. I always felt "different" when it came to relationships with men & what my friends were doing or felt. Why didn't I dream about marriage? Why when I thought I had found "the one" (even got engaged) did it seem like a sham? All my friends say "you just haven't met the right guy. When you do, you'll feel differently." I don't believe them. I love men, but I just can't see giving up my privacy & autonomy. I always excel at the first year or two of a relationship because you still have that to some extent...then they want more, or they want their mommies, or to go to that "next-level." ugh. I also have NO positive role models to prove me otherwise...This book has shown me that HALLELUJAH! it's not just me. That I don't have to get married. That I can love and live and be free and not feel like I missed out on something. That marriage is NOT the end-all-be-all of what we (men and women) have to aspire to. And it's interesting that, being in the "Gen X" grouping, many of them/us have still been "programmed" to believe this! Isn't that amazing? But let me tell you something...my 80-year-old grandmother agrees with me and the book! She just wishes she could have gotten her two cents in! Thanks Marcelle!

Finally -- acknowledgment of our existence & happiness!

How refreshing to finally find a book that acknowledges that there are plenty of single women who are happy that way, who do not hate men, and who are not "mentally ill" or "maladjusted" (unless you define those terms as "rejecting the expected roles"). As one of the women interviewed in the book says, "It's not the men [I dislike], it's the roles." I wouldn't be surprised if there are also plenty of men who want to stay single for similar reasons --independence, privacy, and not wanting to play a role in which the tedium and/or pain outweigh the rewards.

Being single(independent) & connected at the same time

A fantastc book! I found this book when my girlfriend and I were sitting in B & N at 66th & Broadway in NYC last Saturday. and I would recommend it to my best female friends(my girlfriend did not like the book).Today there are more & more independent guys who love independent women, while more and more independent women are single. I'd like to argue that the women interviewed in the book did not choose to be single. They chosed not to pursue couplehood because of the difficulies in finding Mr. Right, as well as the frustrations and disappoinemnts out of their past soulmate searching experience. As more people get connected through the net, as more balanced work-life relationship and living styles emerge, as society and culture becomes even more open and diversified, I think it will be easier for every one to relate to other like-minded people. To be independent & connected at the same time - that's where we are going.BTW, I'm a single guy who grew up in China and now in my late 20s, working as an entrepreneur, living in New York city, and having a few good single female friends.Buy the book.

Clements provides new perspective on single woman status.

What I enjoyed most is Clements' insight, her wit, her dry, wry commentary, the way she'll turn something over as if it's a unique piece of sushi, never before seen on earth, but edible. The premise that today's single woman is a phenomenon we don't yet know, unquantified, unexamined, with more resources than anyone realizes, works well. Anecdotes and speculations by the many individuals engaged my interest, usually, serving to break up the commentary. We are let in on a whole range of elations, bafflements, hardships, achievements, guided by Clements' clear and clever voice. It's a tough era for all and the dance of the sexes has never been more challenging, but this book is both helpful and delighting.