crabbygirl reviewed Unwifeable by Mandy Stadtmiller
Review of 'Unwifeable' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
what a train wreck. it's the right title because this girl is a drugs, alcohol & sex addict. she goes to sex parties; she has at least 8 recorded threesomes in the book, she posts on craiglist looking for a F* buddy NOW (and gets a hundred replies), she has sex with strangers that turn into rape but could also have turned into murder. she documents every slut move in her on-line columns at the NY post and wonders why she is considered unwifeable
half way thru, after a phone call with her father that upsets her, he send her an email where he sees her – really sees her – by apologizing for continually hurting her by NOT reading her column and acknowledging her pain of being told she's loved, but not getting the validation of that love (by keeping up with her column) and she can only react …
what a train wreck. it's the right title because this girl is a drugs, alcohol & sex addict. she goes to sex parties; she has at least 8 recorded threesomes in the book, she posts on craiglist looking for a F* buddy NOW (and gets a hundred replies), she has sex with strangers that turn into rape but could also have turned into murder. she documents every slut move in her on-line columns at the NY post and wonders why she is considered unwifeable
half way thru, after a phone call with her father that upsets her, he send her an email where he sees her – really sees her – by apologizing for continually hurting her by NOT reading her column and acknowledging her pain of being told she's loved, but not getting the validation of that love (by keeping up with her column) and she can only react to the email like it was punch in the gut. instead of seeing how her dad has full empathy for her feelings (and really, can you FORCE someone keep reading their daughter's sexual exploits? if you want to live your own life, aren't the rest of the people in your life owed the same agency?)
she uses her relationships, romantic and family, as fodder for the public. she accepts the loving embrace of her family after almost self-destructing in the thirties and then rages at the same family when she returns to the toxic New York life, complete with the return of her personal-essays that push these innocence bystander / family into the new unwitting stars of her column. when her mother tries explain how hurtful it is by mentioning she might leave a negative comment on Facebook to see what it feels like - Mandy blocks her own mother on FB! (and then her sister too. she's all kinds of self righteous)
of course, the final chapter has to be about how she DID get married and how all this crap and trauma led to this one great thing and how she's a changed woman. hmm I think, let's check back in another 5 years.
(and yes you might wonder why I didn't rate it one star; suffice it to say that I'm newly aware that authors get their feelings hurt on this site and hope a middling rating will be uninteresting enough to NOT read the review. but if you do read this, sorry Mandy)