mangoreadsbooks's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
I loved reading from the perspective of Edward and experiencing his grief, wisdom, mistakes and hope. Slow paced but engaging, Hilma Wolitzer won me over with this book.
heybethpdx's review against another edition
3.0
I liked this pretty well - I read it in one sitting on a Sunday afternoon. The main character was sympathetic, and his experiences in getting back into dating and life after the death of his wife were believable.
maryrobinson's review against another edition
3.0
This is a sweet story of an older man who has lost his wife and is forced back into the dating scene, actually by his children. The portrayal of this likable man’s grief and the awkward and funny blind dates he has are believable, although the end of the book gets a little dramatic. Does not have the charm of Major Pettigrew but is a nice read.
kszr's review against another edition
4.0
A man finds himself widowed, and finds himself out in the dating world again after his adult children place a personal ad for him in a newspaper. While trying to find his way through his grief, he dips his toe into the world of dating with fear and dignity.
A sweet story around how a man navigates his way through grief to find life again.
A sweet story around how a man navigates his way through grief to find life again.
jeannedes's review against another edition
5.0
This is a sweetly touching story, with well-drawn characters, kindness, perplexity, detail of place and relationships. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
cmbwell's review against another edition
3.0
The description says this book is "tender and funny". I agree with tender, but funny escaped me. Still, it's a nice book.
bjr2022's review against another edition
4.0
I was introduced to Hilma Wolitzer's work through her new anthology of short stories Today a Woman Went Mad in the Supermarket and chose to read An Available Man because it was her next most recent book (2012). I really enjoyed it, but it makes me even more eager to see her next book, now that Wolitzer is in her nineties and still writing strong.
An Available Man is about a happily married man who is widowed, with step-children who remain "his children," and how he negotiates "dating after death." It's about people who live normal domestic lives and grapple with love, loss, and loneliness (alliteration in honor of Wolitzer's fun-making of same in personals ads—the humor in this book is gentle and kind).
In any other hands, a story like this might bore me after a while because it is from the normal-domestic-lives side of the street that I have never inhabited. But I'm suspecting that anything Hilma Wolitzer writes will excite me. As with her short stories, here she writes real people. There is no nicey-nice, no airbrushing, no Hallmark anything. So for me, inhabiting the life of protagonist Edward Schuyler and his family was like re-education into what normalcy can be—no horrendous violence; there is a little insanity from a former girlfriend, but honestly, by the time she came along, I was so wallowing in normal love that she is the only character I wanted to get away from.
I cannot wait for Hilma Wolitzer's next book. I have no doubt it will be an honest, vibrant look at life and love in your nineties and my mouth waters at the prospects of the secrets I'll learn.
An Available Man is about a happily married man who is widowed, with step-children who remain "his children," and how he negotiates "dating after death." It's about people who live normal domestic lives and grapple with love, loss, and loneliness (alliteration in honor of Wolitzer's fun-making of same in personals ads—the humor in this book is gentle and kind).
In any other hands, a story like this might bore me after a while because it is from the normal-domestic-lives side of the street that I have never inhabited. But I'm suspecting that anything Hilma Wolitzer writes will excite me. As with her short stories, here she writes real people. There is no nicey-nice, no airbrushing, no Hallmark anything. So for me, inhabiting the life of protagonist Edward Schuyler and his family was like re-education into what normalcy can be—no horrendous violence; there is a little insanity from a former girlfriend, but honestly, by the time she came along, I was so wallowing in normal love that she is the only character I wanted to get away from.
I cannot wait for Hilma Wolitzer's next book. I have no doubt it will be an honest, vibrant look at life and love in your nineties and my mouth waters at the prospects of the secrets I'll learn.
ashere's review against another edition
3.0
I loved the firt half of this book; but then it almost seemed to change into a soap opera---the main character became harder to like. Too much drama...