Book Review - Three Women
Three Women, by Lisa Taddeo is a book written about 3 women and how SEX and DESIRE affected their lives. Ms. Taddeo spent eight years interviewing women who had been vulnerable in their lives, seeking to fulfill something missing. She finally settled on 3 women and told their stories about how sex and desire and the "wanting" would shape their lives in ways they could not have imagined.
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Summary:
Three Women tells the stories of Maggie, Lina, and Sloane. Three women with very different backgrounds and in different stages in life. Their lives and experiences with sex and desire and how they affected their lives is also very different.
Lisa Taddeo criss-crossed the USA multiple times over the course of 8 years, spending countless hours getting to know these women in order to tell their stories thoroughly and with integrity.
Through her writing, you will get to know these women and understand how they got into the life turning situations that you'll read about in this highly acclaimed book.
Meet high schooler Maggie from North Dakota, Lina, a housewife and mother in a passionless marriage in Indiana, and Sloane from the Northeast who is in love with her husband and wants to do anything to please him.
MAGGIE
Maggie's story begins in a court room, several years after she first met and began an inappropriate relationship with one of her teachers. She is being crossed examined by the teacher's attorney. This teacher has recently won "Teacher of the Year" in her hometown and the trial against him is not going well for her.
Maggie was a teenager in high school when her life took a turn. She had several good friends at school, but not a great home life. Her parents drank too much and she struggled with that. When she met the popular Mr. Knodel in English class during her Freshman year, at first, she doesn't understand the intrigue of her other friends and other girls in school. He was married with 2 children and really wasn't her "type".
Soon, however, Mr. Knodel seemed to take an interest in Maggie. When they spoke, he looked almost INTO her. He would ask about her life, at home, and at school. Maggie began to share bits about her parents and her struggles with their drinking. Before long, Maggie was staying after class and hanging out with her teacher. They had exchanged phone numbers and were calling and texting each other.
After the Christmas holiday of Maggie's sophomore year, Maggie and Mr. Knodel's relationship became physical. They began to "hook up" in his classroom and meet up and go for drives where they would kiss and be intimate in ways short of having intercourse. One weekend when Mr. Knoldel's wife was out of town, he invited Maggie over to his house. It was then that they first had sex. Maggie believed that Mr. Knodel planned to leave his wife and would be with her permanently one day.
When Mr. Knodel's wife saw a suggestive text from Maggie early one morning on his phone, the truth came out. Mr. Knodel broke it off with Maggie and she was CRUSHED! She struggled to get through the rest of her high school years and lost focus for her future.
As Maggie grew older and began to understand how she was manipulated by her teacher in high school, the announcement that he had won "Teacher of the Year" made her come to terms with the abuse and she finally confided in her mother. It was then that they decided to share her story with the authorities and Mr. Knobel was arrested.
Ultimately, Maggie's story would not be believed by many people in her town and Mr. Knobel would be acquitted. Maggie's mom obtains information after the trial that if certain evidence had been believed, Mr. Knobel may not have been acquitted. Maggie continues to struggle to find herself and to trust men and to determine her life's purpose.
LINA
Lina is married to Ed and has 2 kids. She loves her husband and her children, but after 10 years, her marriage (and daily life) lacks passion. She longs for some intimacy with her husband who seems perfectly content with the status quo. However, status quo for Ed has become a complete removal of any sort of connection and intimacy with his wife.
When Lina reconnects with an old boyfriend from high school, something inside of her wakes up. Aidan and Lina had a strong connection in high school until she was raped by several boys and she went through a difficult time and they broke up. Aidan is now married with kids of his own, but is happy to "chat on Facebook". Eventually, he would agree to see Lina and catch up on each other's lives.
Immediately, Lina feels the old high school feelings for Aidan and would convince herself that he feels the same. Unfortunately, the reality is that most of the communication between the two of them is initiated by Aidan. They begin a sexual affair. Their affair provides Lina exactly what she feels had been lacking in her marriage, but is really just sex for Aidan.
There are moments when Lina recognizes that Aidan can "take her or leave her" and she feels empowered to end things. But the second she hears from him or ends up seeing him, all of the feelings flood back in for Lina and she believes he may leave his wife and kids for her one day. She even ends up asking for a separation from Ed to try to figure out what will make her happy in life.
Lina is part of a women's group and when she discusses her passionless marriage and her re-kindling with Aidan, many of the women do not understand. Several feel that she is giving up everything - a husband who loves her and provides for their family. But, they don't realize that her childhood was difficult. Her mother was very harsh with her - controlling and never complimenting her and her father just didn't get involved. After the rape in high school, she devalued herself.
She may have "settled" with Ed, but she may not have the strength and self confidence to move on without the security of her husband and kids. In the end, the affair with Aidan came to a natural END. She was awakened in ways she felt she needed for a period of time, but Aidan was never going to leave his family for her.
SLOANE
Sloane and Richard have been married for many years. They met in the restaurant industry and now own a restaurant together. Richard is completely in love with Sloane and Sloane loves Richard deeply. But, they have a uniquely open marriage. They (well, Richard anyway) enjoy watching each other having sex with other partners.
Sloane doesn't exactly enjoy watching Richard with other women but she agrees to threesomes to please Richard. Their agreement is that they'll never be with other people without the other or without the other spouse's approval first. This lifestyle seems to suit them for many years, until...
Until, one day Sloane sees their longtime employee, Wes in a different light. Over the years, Sloane heard the whispers from other women in their restaurant about how hot Wes is, etc. Wes is also married and his wife used to work for Richard and Sloane. He was never considered as a partner in their threesomes until the one fateful day that Sloane "felt" something.
When Wes comes by their house one day to drop something off, Sloane calls Richard to ask permission to sleep with Wes. Permission granted, Sloane and Wes begin their affair. This lasts for a while and everything seems to be going smoothly until Wes's wife finds out. Sloane felt guilty about sleeping with Wes and asked him if he'd told his wife what was going on. Sloane believed that her lifestyle was well known and assumed his wife knew what was happening.
When Wes's wife confronted Sloane, everything ended. Sloane felt terrible about hurting her former employee and friend. Richard had lost something and was not interested in being intimate with Sloane. Life as Sloane had known it had been knocked off its axis. She basically had to learn a new way of navigating her life.
REVIEW:
I am honest with all of my reviews! I generally will not read a book unless I believe I will enjoy it. I just don't have that kind of extra time to read something I won't get something out of. With that being said, something prompted me to purchase "three women". Perhaps I was intrigued with the fact that it's based on real people. Or I was curious about the content after thoroughly enjoying the Fifty Shades of Gray trilogy. I truly don't recall.
I did not fall in love with this book as much as I thought I would, based on the reviews from renowned authors. I did start to read this book around the holidays so I didn't have the extra time I typically do when I started it, so a lot of time spanned between picking it up to read a chapter or 2 - that suggested to me that I "wasn't into it".
I really don't want anyone NOT to read this book because it didn't captivate me as I thought it would. I will also say that as I got to the final third of the book I was curious to finish the stories of the 3 women. The individual stories of each woman are so different and I can probably relate a little to Lina - in my young adult years. I could relate to her need to feel loved and desired. I felt sorry for Maggie and how the relationship with her teacher framed her life. I truly hope that she is able to move on and create a life she loves! I don't relate to Sloane's relationship, but that does not keep me from feeling bad about how things ended up. I believe she NEVER meant to hurt Wes's wife and that she is a "good" person.
Lisa Taddeo does a wonderful job of telling the stories of these women. It is evident that she spent hundreds of hours with each woman, getting to know them and understand them and she wrote their stories with respect. While it doesn't rate as one of my favorites, if the type of writing that this book is, appeals to others, definitely read it because the author does a wonderful job of making you feel like you know each woman - or someone like them.
Until my next review...
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