The Three Weissmanns of Westport

by Cathleen Schine

Book Overview

A New York Times Best Seller
A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice

Betty Weissmann has just been dumped by her husband of forty-eight years. Exiled from her elegant New York apartment by her husband's mistress, she and her two middle-aged daughters, Miranda and Annie, regroup in a run-down Westport, Connecticut, beach cottage. In Schine's playful and devoted homage to Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 031268052X
• ISBN13: 9780312680527
• Release Date: February 2011
• Publisher: Picador Paper
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.4" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

A Wonderful Romp, with Poignancy and Intelligence

This is a very intelligent, poignant, and hilarious book that has parallels to Jane Austen's 'Sense and Sensibility'. Whether or not the reader is familiar with Austen, this is a book to love and relish. It is a thinker's book and a reader's book, a book written by an author who respects her readers' intelligence and knowledge of culture. The book begins when Josie, 78 years old, tells his 75 year old wife, Betty, that he wants a divorce. They have been married for over 40 years. You guessed it - there's a younger woman in the picture. Josie has raised Betty's daughters, Annie and Miranda. She was married once before and widowed when her two daughters were very young. Annie is a librarian, serious and often fearful and protective. Miranda is the histrionic one, given to flights of love and fancy. As the story begins, Betty is thrown out of her upper West Side apartment and invites her two daughters to live with her in a 'cozy' cottage in Westport, CT that Cousin Lou has offered her. She wears black, preferring to act like a widow rather than an "irrelevant" divorcee. Miranda is on the verge of bankruptcy and is being sued by various publishers. Her literary agency has represented what she calls 'awful authors', authors who lied about their lives and Miranda has sold these stories to publishers such as Knopf. She's even appeared on Oprah to explain the situation. (Does this sound like Nan Talese to anyone else? Remember the memoir, A Million Little Pieces by James Frey?) As Miranda says, "My whole career was built on cheesy lurid tragedy. Cheesy lurid tragedy that turned out to be fake cheesy lurid tragedy." Annie is trying to raise two sons on her own and money is really tight for her. She figures that if she were to sublet her apartment and move in with her mother and Miranda in Westport, the three of them could use the sublet money and survive financially. Thus begins the story of the three women and their lives and loves in Westport. There are many cultural and artistic references in the book. Schine references Shakespeare and Dickens as easily as she does D.H. Lawrence and Rex Stout. She talks about Keith Haring and Richard Serra. The Brontes and Erskine Caldwell get some airtime as well. What is so delicious is that she expects the reader to be along with her on the ride. Do we know who The Rat Pack is? What about Orlando Bloom or Jake Gyllenhall? Are we familiar with Skype and Costco? E.B. White and Alex Katz also join the crowd. It's such a fun group and this is only the tip of the iceberg. If one is perspicacious enough, other artists, authors, and writers will speak up to you in these pages. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. At times, I belly laughed and at other times, I had tears. It's a book to cherish for the long haul and a wonderfully rare treat. It is a fantastic romp through our culture.

Utterly Charming on Its Own Merits; Delicious Austen Update

As a Janeite, I have noticed that there are two kinds of Austen fans--those who despise the spin-offs/sequels/as-inspired-bys and those who write them. Well, not quite. But I still feel like a bit of an oddity because I like some but find most really plebeian and some truly offensive. What I love about THE THREE WEISSMANNS OF WESTPORT is that you can read and enjoy its wit, charm, and humor without making any Jane Austen parallels whatsoever--yet, if you're a JA fan, you note each one with admiration and a frisson of recognition. The story isn't the oldest one in the world, but it is certainly a familiar one in 2010--a man trades in his wife of many years for one much younger, in part as an attempt to stave off mortality. When Joseph Weissman leaves Betty, his wife of almost 50 years, she goes through a panoply of responses to the loss. His step-daughters (whom he considers his daughters) are equally emotionally savaged, even though both are well into adulthood. When the three wounded Weissmanns move into a Westport "cottage" together, they do so primarily for financial reasons. Yet they discover that the move allows them to move forward into entirely different (and for the most part, more positive) lives. I don't want to give too much of the plot away--or the parallels to SENSE AND SENSIBILITY that are perfectly modernized. The Marianne and Eleanor roles are inhabited by people we've known or observed in today's world, yet true to Austen's vision of the sense/sensibility sisters. Betty is cannier and more central to the novel than the original Mrs. Dashwood, though just as improvident financially. The narrator/author is a wise, observant and entertaining observer of a rather large bit of ivory. Of course no one can compare to Jane Austen--the thought of such a thing is too ludicrous to countenance. But this is a worthwhile novel for Austen fans and modern fiction fans alike.

A terrific read!

What a terrific read! Once I picked it up, I couldn't put it down until I finished. The author sets up her situation very quickly and draws readers in with fine characterizations, unpredictable plot turns and excellent insights. She also does a wonderful job with setting the scene - whether it is in New York City, a Westport beach cottage or Palm Springs. Her writing is subtle and accessible, without unnecessary flourishes or affectation. All in all, whether you do or don't want to compare the book to Jane Austen's "Sense and Sensibility" [as the very positive front-page review in The New York Times Book Review did], this is a book that you'll enjoy and tell your friends to read.

Wonderful Story of us Older Ones.

By, Albert C. Bender, Author of "You Are Forever In Time"...Never to old for life to begin in ernest again, I say. Three women reinventing themselves once again sounds great..Its true in real life all the time, and not only in a fictional story...Being 75 or older should not stop anyone...The story has fine humor throughout, that one will enjoy...Life is an adventure, and a journey that never stops...We live in "Hope" at all times...It is what keeps us alive....Everyone should read this fine novel. And, that is one of any age...Well written and I like its substance to give it a high rating...

Starting Over

Catherine Schine has written a funny and on-target tale of three women starting over in their lives. Rarely in fiction is one of the heroines a 75 year old woman who is being dumped by her husband of five decades. The title refers to Mrs. Weissmann and her two daughters, forced to live together because of various dire financial circumstances. Ms. Schine examines the foibles of love and of relationships between men and women in middle age and the senior years (the 1987 movie "Moonstruck" comes to mind). It is refreshing to read of romance late in life, especially in a novel as well-written as this one.