How to be An Other Woman

Synopsis

1980s New York. Anything is possible. Meet a man in an expensive beige raincoat. Attend four movies, three concerts and two-and-a-half museums. Find a picture of his wife on his bedside table. When you were six you thought mistress meant to put your shoes on the wrong feet.

Our Review:

Terri Paddock - 6 September 2010

As a freelance journalist, I once interviewed the co-authors of a manual entitled A Guide to Surviving Life as a Mistress, two women who knew exceedingly well of what they wrote, having spent decades as the “bit on the side” to the men in their lives. They were clearly wearied by their experiences but pragmatic and very much focused on the art of survival in the face of an inconvenient, and occasionally tragic, love.

While the provocatively scholastic title – as well as its second-person narrative style and the fact that it was originally published as part of a 1985 book called Self Help - might lead you to believe How to Be an Other Woman is a similar beast, there’s nothing particularly instructive or insightful about it. Its twenty-something protagonist Charlene (“you”) is more beguiled by the initial glamour and clandestine thrill of her short-lived adulterous circumstances – and the fact that she fee...

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Latest User Review

Stephanie Bloch - 3 October 2010:

For heaven's sake! An extraordinarily dated, laugh-free piece of theatrical self- indulgence. Lorrie Moore's original short story is witty and concise. This is blurred and - despite the 80s soundtarck and the clever staging - tells us absolutley nothing we wouldn't have agthered from a cursory viewing of "Sex and the City". And the New York accents are atrocious. ...

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