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A review by gina_gina
A Round-Heeled Woman: My Late-Life Adventures in Sex and Romance by Jane Juska
2.0
3.5 stars
28 March 2019
I read this back in 2003 or 2004, and it is one of the few books that has survived countless moves and several rounds of decluttering. I had not re-read this in that time, and I decided to give this another read.
Juska's writing style is lovely, although there are times when she gets a bit wordy (her critique of Margaret Fuller's essays), but I was not bored.
I will state that I have had it with book titles that lead you to expect one thing, while the innards deliver another. Yes, most of the chapters are about Juska's "late-life adventures in sex and romance," but there are many chapters devoted to her upbringing, her career, her parents, her child. I feel a bit swindled by this.
When I first read this book, I was living in Seattle, and I was dating via the personal ads. I remember thinking that this was such an innovative topic -- a post-menopausal woman advertising for sex! In some ways, it still is. I am closer (now) to Juska's age then, and I am sad because we have not come any further in terms of seeing women over 50 as viable and sexual beings.
I liked this book (then and now), but I feel an even deeper sadness that Juska did not require more. She allowed herself to be treated badly. And before you take the moral route and state that sex for sex = being treated badly... It does not. Sex with shithead men = being treated badly.
28 March 2019
I read this back in 2003 or 2004, and it is one of the few books that has survived countless moves and several rounds of decluttering. I had not re-read this in that time, and I decided to give this another read.
Juska's writing style is lovely, although there are times when she gets a bit wordy (her critique of Margaret Fuller's essays), but I was not bored.
I will state that I have had it with book titles that lead you to expect one thing, while the innards deliver another. Yes, most of the chapters are about Juska's "late-life adventures in sex and romance," but there are many chapters devoted to her upbringing, her career, her parents, her child. I feel a bit swindled by this.
When I first read this book, I was living in Seattle, and I was dating via the personal ads. I remember thinking that this was such an innovative topic -- a post-menopausal woman advertising for sex! In some ways, it still is. I am closer (now) to Juska's age then, and I am sad because we have not come any further in terms of seeing women over 50 as viable and sexual beings.
I liked this book (then and now), but I feel an even deeper sadness that Juska did not require more. She allowed herself to be treated badly. And before you take the moral route and state that sex for sex = being treated badly... It does not. Sex with shithead men = being treated badly.