“Koslow…is a sharp observer of Manhattan’s elite…and smart enough to make the once-pampered Georgia a sympathetic character.” ~ USA Today

The Widow Waltz by Sally Koslow

About this book: (from the publisher) Georgia Waltz has an enviable life: a plush Manhattan apartment, a Hamptons beach house, two bright twenty-something daughters, and a seemingly perfect marriage. But when Ben dies suddenly, she discovers that her perfect lawyer-husband has left them nearly penniless. As Georgia scrambles to support the family, she and her daughters plumb for the grit required to reinvent their lives, and Georgia even finds that new love is possible in the land of Spanx.

Inspiring, funny, and deeply satisfying, The Widow Waltz is a compulsively readable tale of forgiveness, healing, and the bonds between mothers and daughters.

About the author: Sally Koslow is the author of three novels. She lives in New York City and can be found online at SallyKoslow.com.

Genre: Fiction/Contemporary

Would I read this book, judged on its cover alone? Yes. I like how the author herself describes it when praising its designer, who “captured the ultimate optimism of this book while demonstrating that fifty-year-old women can still have great legs.” Amen, sister.

If this book were a movie, I would rate it: R for the usual suspects: language and sex

Reminds me of… Elizabeth Berg

You’ll want to buy this book if …you enjoy sophisticated literary humor about society’s elite.

Why did I read this book? For Plume for review

Would I read another by this author? Yes, even though she espouses a worldview not my own. But isn’t that one of the primary purposes of reading a wide range of types, to expose ourselves to people and opinions unlike our own?

My take: A novel like this fascinates me because it proves what a gifted writer can do: take a cast of characters whom I don’t particularly like, with whom I seemingly have little common, and make their story one I want to read. In this case, the characters and I hold different values, moral codes, religions, lifestyles; we even live on opposite coasts. And yet…what do share is the most important thing of all, and that is that we are human. Therefore we similarly struggle and hope and fail and try again. We have growth edges.

In this case, the growth edge is courage. Being brave, even when it means faking it…until it becomes real. And then letting the reality transform a life (or two). This, I found, was a truth I could wrap my arms around. As I suspect you could too, no matter who you are.

Despite our differences, I liked journeying with the remnants of the Silver-Waltz family as they each found her way to wholeness and healing. And in the hands of Sally Koslow, their improbable conclusion became not only plausible but hoped for.

Thanks to Plume for providing me a free copy to review. All opinions are mine.

End notes: What’s your opinion on fictional characters who don’t share your bedrock values? Does it make a difference as to whether you will or will not read a book? Or like it?