cover image Women Alone: Creating a Joyous and Fulfilling Life

Women Alone: Creating a Joyous and Fulfilling Life

Ione Jenson. Hay House, $12 (224pp) ISBN 978-1-56170-119-3

For women who are just coming to grips with the idea that they will be heading through life without a partner, this book of advice touching on topics from the financial to the cosmic may be of some help. For the more self-possessed, advice on conquering loneliness (write letters; explore the rewards of ``journaling''; get a pet) or financial anxiety (clip coupons; buy used clothes, cars; attend bargain matinees; use libraries) will seem simplistic. Of greater merit, if still commonsensical, is the oft-repeated general advice not to deplete all one's energy looking for a mate and to consider innovative cohabitation arrangements that combine support and independence. Jenson and Keene write in a style that is undoubtedly meant to be soothing and upbeat but is in fact anodyne and inelegant in the extreme (``the need to move from the solely nuclear blood family paradigm that has long existed into a new way of thinking that encompasses different kinds of nonrelated-family experiences''). The authors have included many personal stories, but not all of them offer broader meaning (e.g., ``She realized that she had a choice. She could choose to feel depressed and miserable, or she could find a way to make the best of it. So, she decided to relax and read a good book. When it was time to eat, she made herself a sandwich from some sausage that was in the refrigerator. The experience turned out to be a very empowering one....''). (May)