Waiting to Exhale

Rating:
Summary: Women Looking for Love....
Review: Waiting to Exhale by Terry McMillan

After having read HOW STELLA GOT HER GROOVE BACK two years ago, I've been looking forward to reading another Terry McMillan novel. WAITING TO EXHALE is about four thirty-something African-American women who have one problem: MEN.

Savannah is an executive who is trying to find Mr. Right. She always seems to think she's found Mr. Right, always on the verge of finding the man of her dreams, but she always finds out in the end that the guy is just another jerk.

Gloria is a very overweight but stylish woman who owns a hair salon in Phoenix. It's THE place for black persons to get their hair and nails done, and Gloria has done pretty well for herself and her young son. The man in her past is her son's father, a man she never married, but it seems that deep down she wants more from him than just a friendship.

Bernadine WAS married to a highly successful businessman, until he decides to take off with his young white bookkeeper and leave Bernadine with the house, the expensive car, and the kids.

And Robin is this highly intelligent woman that keeps attracting losers. Unfortunately for Robin, she has no idea they're losers. She seems to be totally blind to that fact.

There's a lot of humor and fun in WAITING TO EXHALE. As each woman deals with her own man problems, their friendships keep each either from going insane. I loved watching Bernadine as she set fire to her husband's BMW. I crossed my fingers each time Savannah met yet another eligible bachelor. I prayed that Gloria would find someone to share her life with. And I wanted to smack Robin around a bit, every time she went back to her loser boyfriend Russell.

I enjoyed this book a lot and had a good time with it. What I enjoyed about it the most were the characters: Terry McMillan writes characters that are so vivid in my mind that they jump off the page and become real. Even her most shy and most insecure characters seem to have such depth to them. I feel that she's got a gift that not all writers seem to share, and that is to make the reader want to know her characters, and if not that, at least we have a good idea what her characters are all about.

Rating:
Summary: Powerful and Magical
Review: Several years before "chick lit" became fashionable, "Waiting to Exhale" was published. While the four main characters are African American, the book transcends all racial, ethnic and national boundaries. All four women share one problem universal to the entire female gender: men.

Savannah is a PR executive who is moving from Denver to Phoenix to be near her best friend Bernadine. Bernadine has just been told by her wealthy husband that he is leaving her for a white woman. Gloria is the owner of an upscale hair salon for black women in Phoenix and the single mother of a teenage son. Robin is a very smart woman at her job at an insurance company and an incredibly dumb woman with men.
The book narrates (two of the stories are told in the first person, two in the third) the dating trials and tribulations of these women. Any woman who has ever dated in her late 30's will recognize the cast of characters: the married men who "plan to leave their wives," the men who have no money and no credit, the commitment phobics, the men who discover they are gay...

I would recommend this book to fans of women's literature: both serious and lighter. If you're a guy, you should pick this book up with caution!

Rating:
Summary: something sad about this...
Review: I thought this was a fun read some years back..well-written..hence my first inclination to give it 2 stars, but taking another look..if a man ever wrote about his "repulsion" over sex with an overweight woman, the way Robin describes sex with Michael, we'd be taking to the streets in protest...there was such an unkindness to it..and this was a woman with a dear, overweight friend...I'm changing my mind..back to one star..too much shallow emphasis on looks, money, etc..it's not a race thing..it makes all women look bad. Well, maybe just these women..I'd like to think some of us are different.

Rating:
Summary: Waiting to Exhale, 10 years later.
Review: Funny, witty novel about four women in Phoenix: Savannah is the unmarried buppie in search of Mr. Right at age 36; Robin is the ditzy bimbo who can't shake her trifiling lover Russell; Gloria is the overweight owner of a hair salon who hopes to find true love, and Bernadine is the mother of two kids and is reeling from being dumped by her husband for a younger white woman. This novel has been often imitated, but never duplicated. Many authors have tried (and failed) to top Terry McMillan's insightful novel, and they all come up short. If you've seen the movie, then you need to do yourself justice by reading this novel which goes into far greater detail than the movie ever did. It will broaden your understanding of relationships, regardless of your race, gender, or sexual orientation. And contrary to conventional opinion, this is NOT a male-bashing novel but rather a bold statement that the Sisters out there are mad as hell and are not gonna take any more nonsense from the Brothers. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Waiting To Exhale
Review: The author Terry McMillan really let it all out when writing this book. This book was a book that I believe that every black woman can relate to. It was written with excellent taste, and the gospel truth about black men and women relationships. It was funny, it was sad, it was loving. I can actually relate to every page in this book. This book is excellent, excellent for entertainment, this book will have you talking for weeks. I read this book while riding the metro to work, and it had me laughing out so loud, people were wondering what was wrong with me. I highly recommend every woman of color to read this book. I like the book much better than the movie! Get this book, it's a book that you can not put down. I have actually read this book while having Sex!, my boyfriend was upset! It's very hard to put down, I'm telling you! GET IT! I brought the video and watch it constantly everynight!, My children come into my room, and look at the television, and see the same movie everynight, and say OH COME ON MOM NOT AGAIN! I advise you to go an get this book today, or order it on the internet, it worth every dollar. I can't wait for more of Terry's books to come out. So far, I have read all of girlfriend's books. Terry get the pencil out and start writing, I'm waiting.....friend in Bowie, Marylan

Rating:
Summary: interesting story about 4 very different women
Review: I liked reading this book about four African-American women in their 30s in the atypical urban space of Scottsdale, AZ. I found it interesting that Savannah, the character later portrayed by Whitney Houston in the 1996 movie, is an ardent Whitney Houston fan.

My favorite character is Gloria, overweight and mother to a teenager she had when she herself was a teen. Gloria is the most sympathetic one --- she has love for others who will gladly use her and love only themselves. She is the type of woman we both admire and pity, as her nice caring ways often leave her at the mercy of other's cruelty.

Robin proves rather vain -- I love when one character notes, at the gym, that Robin's breasts look like cantalope halves and don't move no matter what she does.

Every last one of them, even the strong Bernadette, have trouble with men but also some success. They just take it as it comes but still strive to make it better. They are not victims.

Rating:
Summary: A Great Book.......
Review: if you love lousy writing. Terry Mcmillan's books are a tribute to illiteracy and bad taste. I have no problem with the basic premise: 4 female friends trying to find as fulling a relationship with men as they have with each other. However I felt like I was watching a talk show rather than reading a novel. There's nothing wrong with using the vernacular of the day as part of the story (see Zora Neal Hurston's "Their Eyes Were Watching God") but McMillan displays an utter lack of writing and storytelling skills. Waiting to Exhale is to good writng like Jerry Springer is to good TV: it's simple-minded, moronic, and popular.

Rating:
Summary: Better than the film
Review: I had not expected much having seen the movie version but I was pleasantly surprised. Waiting to Exhale is wonderfully written with great characters. It has depth and is not a shallow romance. The characters are believable and likeable. It far surpasses the movie.

Rating:
Summary: INSULT YOUR INTELIGENCE
Review: MADE FOR LIGHT READING, MAYBE GrADE SCHOOL i hope not.IS this is what little girls dream about becomming? on one level in its designer cum innality THIS BOOK IS brilliant INDICTMENAT OF NUMB SELF ABSORBED,WANT MORE EVERYTHING EMPTY CONSUMERS, IN THE LAND OF YOU BECOME WHAT YOU HEAR, ONSLAUGHT OF DESIGNER SLOGANISM PIMPISM, WANTS WANTS ROMP THROUGH SUOBUORBAN BLAND.INDOCTORNATE AS OPRAHISMS womens wish fill fulling get it while the clock ticks age, gorfor it isms babes,WITH GUSTO ,just around the next aisle future.

Rating:
Summary: Waiting To Exhale
Review: Wow! Terry Mc Millan's storytelling is Awesome!
I couldn't put the book down!

This is a definite "must-read"!