Unaccompanied Women : Late-Life Adventures in Love, Sex, and Real Estate

by JUSKA, JANE

• ISBN13: 9781400063192
• ISBN10: 1400063191
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-05-02
• Publisher: Villard

Summary

"Before I turn 67, I would like to have a lot of sex with a man I like." This inspired personal ad from Jane Juska drew tremendous response and swept the retired teacher into a whirlwind existence she barely recognized as her own. She relayed her fun and frank exploits in the bestseller A Round-Heeled Woman. Now Juska continues her astonishing story in this much anticipated new adventure. Five years after that fateful ad, Juska has become a friend and confessor for women of all ages who confide in her their poignant, tragic, or blissful stories unaccompanied women who are alone for now, but ever searching for intimacy. And in spite of Juska's own success, "unaccompanied" is a description that applies to her as well. She's still looking for a man to keep her companynot a husband, not even a partner, but simply the perfect lover, once described by Katharine Hepburn as one who "lives nearby and visits often." Unaccompanied Women embraces not only Juska's continuing explorations of Eros (note to fans: her younger lover, Graham, is still on the scene) but also a blossoming literary career that catapults her from San Francisco to New York, London, and Paris. At book signings, earnest men place themselves purposely at the end of the line in order to engage her in private conversations, while women linger to confess their own erotic longings and their experiences with the good, the bad, and even the ugly. All the while, Juska is coping with the unnerving possibility of losing her home, a tiny cottage in Berkeley, Californiaand so her search broadens and intensifies, not just for love, friendship, and sex but also for enough money to keep a roof over her head. Jane Juska shares all this richness of living in a poignant and humorous exploration of emotional terrain rarely discussed in our society. This wise and warmhearted book provides vivid evidence that the pursuit of pleasure and lasting relationships is not just for the young, but also for the young at heart.

Author Biography

Raised in rural Ohio, Jane Juska moved to California in 1955 and has lived there ever since. She has taught English for more than forty years–in high school, in college, and in prison. With the publication of her first book, A Round-Heeled Woman: My Late-Life Adventures in Sex and Romance, Juska became a spokesperson for the romantically active senior set, and she appears frequently before book groups and women’s groups. She has had to get an unlisted phone number.

Table of Contents

CHAPTER 1 Puzzle Pieces	3	(6)
CHAPTER 2 Friendship	9	(15)
CHAPTER 3 Betrayal	24	(14)
CHAPTER 4 In Which Our Heroine Becomes a Sexpert	38	(11)
CHAPTER 5 Getting a Date	49	(6)
CHAPTER 6 Other Women	55	(9)
CHAPTER 7 Auld Lang Syne	64	(8)
CHAPTER 8 At the Plaza	72	(12)
CHAPTER 9 If There Were World Enough and Time	84	(10)
CHAPTER 10 Be Careful What You Wish For	94	(10)
CHAPTER 11 The Snows of Yesteryear	104	(10)
CHAPTER 12 Identity Theft	114	(6)
CHAPTER 13 The Body Electric	120	(13)
CHAPTER 14 Passionate Exile	133	(21)
CHAPTER 15 Oh, Dear, What Can the Matter Be?	154	(16)
CHAPTER 16 The 92nd Street Y: Something for Everyone	170	(5)
CHAPTER 17 The Valley of the Kids	175	(9)
CHAPTER 18 Just One of the Boys	184	(12)
CHAPTER 19 The Last Lamplighter	196	(10)
CHAPTER 20 The Young One	206	(12)
CHAPTER 21 How Reading Can Change Your Life	218	(7)
CHAPTER 22 Reunions	225	(7)
CHAPTER 23 Staying in Touch	232	(10)
CHAPTER 24 A Gentleman Caller	242	(8)
CHAPTER 25 Gimme Shelter	250	(5)
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS	255