Waiting to Exhale

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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.

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Summary: Will definitely re-read it eventually
Review: I kept trying to decide which of the four women was my favorite -- which for me means I'm really getting involved! Another clue that I loved it -- I now do not want to see the movie because I don't want to be disappointed in how the characters are portrayed.

One problem I had, though... When the married woman's husband leaves her, it is for a white woman and I was put off by her and her friends' horror and disgust, i.e., a WHITE woman? WHITE! If I was reading a book about a white woman considering it salt in the wound that her husband left her for a black woman, I would assume the author was portraying the character as unsympathetic -- and I would see her as such.

But other than that, I loved the book. Great dialogue!

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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.

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Summary: Realistic Even If You Can't Relate To It
Review: I think that many women have at some point been in one of the four main characters shoes. We've all been dumped for another woman. We've all made stupid decisions in relationships and we've all put ourselves in a self-defeating relationship at one point in time. I'd love to meet the woman who was born perfect - born with all the right ideas about love and relationships. Sure, I wanted to tell Robin and Savannah to stop slutting around but it didn't make me angry or annoyed with the book. I noticed that many of the other reviews expressed that they became angry with the book because of the premiscuous behavior that some of the characters were involved in. Those of us who have been lucky enough to realize that sex does not equal love should applaud Terry McMillan for showing this to other women who are behaving like Savannah and Robin. Furthermore, for those of us who have been in Bernadine's shoes I was so glad to see that there was light at the end of the tunnel - that she rediscovered herself and she rediscovered love with the RIGHT man. A worthwhile read for ALL women. No matter what race or lifestyle we lead every one of us faces similar struggles.

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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.

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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!

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Summary: Resurrection
Review: They say that the phoenix rises from its own ashes and is reborn. With much of the action of this book taking place in Phoenix, Arizona, the four leading characters all experience a fall and rebirth.

Without giving away too much, Gloria comes closest to a literal death and rebirth because of her health problems. I love happy endings, and Gloria has one.

Bernadine's fall occurs very early in the story, when her husband abandons her for a younger woman. Her war is fought in the courts, the "bad guy" being her lying, sneaking husband who is trying to keep all his money away from Bernadine and the children.

Savannah and Robin are similar in that they both fall for great looking men, and give away too much of themselves too soon. Their resurrection is one of the spirit, when they learn to stand up for themselves and stop being doormats to handsome men.

All four of these main characters are black women in their late 30s, and the biggest complaint in their lives is that black men are selfish, deceitful, arrogant, etc. Fortunately, Gloria and Bernadine find out that it isn't always that way. There are some gems out there. As for Savannah and Robin, they learn to re-evaluate their priorities. With superficial values like a handsome face and a chiseled body, you are bound to end up in a superficial relationship.

This book is very easy to read. At first I misunderstood the author and disliked her characters because two of them were so annoyingly superficial, craving one pretty-boy or another, defining men in terms of looks only. But I'm glad I stuck with it, because I see that the author felt the same way as I do.

If you want to find a moral here, it is that a woman really shouldn't sell herself cheap. She doesn't need to lay down with every handsome guy she meets, the day she meets him.

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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.