An Available Man
Hilma Wolitizer, 2012
Random House
304 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780345527547
Summary
In this tender and funny novel, award-winning author Hilma Wolitzer mines the unpredictable fallout of suddenly becoming single later in life, and the chaos and joys of falling in love the second time around.
When Edward Schuyler, a modest and bookish sixty-two-year-old science teacher, is widowed, he finds himself ambushed by female attention. There are plenty of unattached women around, but a healthy, handsome, available man is a rare and desirable creature. Edward receives phone calls from widows seeking love, or at least lunch, while well-meaning friends try to set him up at dinner parties. Even an attractive married neighbor offers herself to him.
The problem is that Edward doesn’t feel available. He’s still mourning his beloved wife, Bee, and prefers solitude and the familiar routine of work, gardening, and bird-watching. But then his stepchildren surprise him by placing a personal ad in The New York Review of Books on his behalf. Soon the letters flood in, and Edward is torn between his loyalty to Bee’s memory and his growing longing for connection. Gradually, reluctantly, he begins dating (“dating after death,” as one correspondent puts it), and his encounters are variously startling, comical, and sad. Just when Edward thinks he has the game figured out, a chance meeting proves that love always arrives when it’s least expected.
With wit, warmth, and a keen understanding of the heart, An Available Man explores aspects of loneliness and togetherness, and the difference in the options open to men and women of a certain age. Most of all, the novel celebrates the endurance of love, and its thrilling capacity to bloom anewb. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—ca. 1930
• Where—Brooklyn, New York, USA
• Education—N/A
• Currently—lives in Manhattan, New York, and on
Long Island, New York
Hilma Wolitzer is the author of several novels, including Summer Reading, The Doctor’s Daughter, Hearts, Ending, and Tunnel of Love, as well as a nonfiction book, The Company of Writers. She is a recipient of Guggenheim and NEA fellowships, an Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Barnes & Noble Writer for Writers Award. She has taught writing at the University of Iowa, New York University, and Columbia University. Author Meg Wolitzer is her daughter. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
[W]onderful…As dark as this material might sound, it isn't. Wolitzer's vision of the world, for all its sorrow, is often hilarious and always compassionate.
Nancy Kline - New York Times Book Review
[F]unny, wise and touching…Wolitzer writes so well and knows so much that her books combine absurdity with poignancy in a deft and captivating way.
Rive Lindbergh - Washington Post
“[Hilma Wolitzer is an] American literary treasure.... Wolitzer uses her gift for her chosen medium, long-form fiction, to deliver a message far broader than this deceptively accessible novel first seems to address. An Available Man is not just a cautionary tale of geriatric loneliness and sex. It’s a meditation - and then, a breathtaking roller-coaster ride, and then, a meditation again - on what we lose when we allow loss and longing to make us unavailable to ourselves.
Boston Globe
Impressively readable… Wolitzer is such a capable storyteller. …(S)ucceeds, precisely because the writer understands that it's not a childish insistence on finding everything delightful but the full complexity of experience that gives a romance, late-life or otherwise, its real beauty.
Minneapolis Star-Tribune
Families are Wolitzer’s turf, and she’s an observant and often humorous chronicler of domesticity and the stuff that comes with it: illness, loss, boredom, crankiness, and, on good days, love.
Publishers Weekly
Heartbreaking, maddening, comical, and poignant…This sweet story of a man’s diving back into the dating pool at an older age will especially appeal to readers in that demographic.
Library Journal
Wolitzer [writes] of the pain of losing a partner and its aftermath...with remarkable insight, grace, and humor. A warm, keenly incisive view of life’s vicissitudes by a writer too seldom heard from.
Booklist
Discussion Questions
1. There are so many themes in this novel (romantic love, family relationships, loneliness, bereavement, forgiveness, etc.). Which one resonated with you the most?
2. Why do you think there’s such a dearth of “available men” above a certain age? Do you think society places different expectations on women and men as they age?
3. What do you think contributed to the success of Edward and Bee’s marriage? What did you make of Edward’s difficulty coping after Bee’s death?
4. Edward’s family and friends conspire to help him find a new love. But Olga has chosen loneliness rather than being with the wrong person. Is being part of a couple best for everyone?
5. Why do you think Julie felt more comfortable going to Edward with her dating issues and other problems than to her biological father, Bruce Silver?
6. Do you think Laurel’s mental state absolves her for the way she treated Edward at the end of their first love affair, and for her unsettling persistence when she comes back into his life? Does Laurel deserve the way Edward keeps her at arm’s length?
7. Were you surprised by who Edward ends up falling in love with? Who were you rooting for?
8. When Edward goes to the different members of his family with the news that he’s fallen in love, their reactions are not what he expects. Why do you think that is?
9. Is there anyone in your life with whom you would have liked to set Edward up?
10. How would you feel if someone put up a personal ad for you as Edward’s stepchildren did for him?
(Questions provided courtesy of the author.)