Love, Etc.

by Bel Kaufman

In the wake of a difficult divorce, a woman seeks solace by transforming her life-and her heartbreak-into fiction Jessica is divorced, but on the verge of a great romance. Isabel-the lead character in the novel that Jessica is writing-is married, but on the verge of a terrible divorce. While grappling with heartache, the two women, author and creation, plunge into the unpredictable currents of love, hate, despair, and recovery. Told through diary entries, letters, and Jessica's notes documenting her painful progress toward coping with her past, Love, Etc. is a powerful, unforgettable, and totally human novel about the heart's power to heal. This book features an illustrated biography of Bel Kaufman including photos from the author's personal collection. "Moving . . . genuine . . . a powerful story . . . Thank goodness for Bel Kaufman." -The Washington Post "Fascinating . . . a gem of a novel." -The Cleveland Press "Honest and searching . . ." -The New York Times "A big, messy, good-natured circling around the raw center of divorce . . . A quirky winner." -Kirkus Reviews "Kaufman is an excellent writer, witty and perceptive. [She] has captured the middle-aged adolescent in this novel as she did the teenager in her first." -Los Angeles Times "Honest and searching. . . . A raging torrent." -The New York Times Book Review "A book that grabs and holds." -New York Post "A virtuoso performance . . . an occasion for congratulation." -John Barkham, book critic "Many thanks for writing with so much honesty and emotion." -Alfred Kazin, author and literary critic "These pages are full of laughter, poetry, anguish, and human beings." -Marian Seldes, Tony Award-winning actress "A cornucopia, pouring out an extraordinary abundance of wit, warmth, suspense, insight, compassion, and other valuables." -Sheldon Harnick, lyricist for Fiddler on the Roof "It is a book that should be meaningful to anyone who has ever been married, divorced, separated or simply scared of losing someone." -The Dallas Morning News "Every nuance of human emotion is detailed like the brushstrokes in a fine landscape." -The Cincinnati Enquirer Bel Kaufman (b. 1911) is a bestselling writer, dedicated teacher, and lecturer best known for her novel Up the Down Staircase (1965), a classic portrayal of life in the New York public school system. Kaufman was born in Berlin, the daughter of Russian parents and granddaughter of celebrated Yiddish writer Sholom Aleichem. Her family moved to Odessa when she was three, and Russian is her native language. The family also lived in Moscow before immigrating to New York City when Kaufman was twelve. There, she graduated magna cum laude from Hunter College and with high honors from Columbia University. Kaufman then worked as a high school teacher in the city for three decades. The success of Up the Down Staircase launched her second career as a sought-after speaker for events around the country. Kaufman is also the author of Love, Etc. (1979), a powerful, haunting, and poignant novel rendering life as fiction. Kaufman continues to live and work in New York.

Genres: Fiction

448 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1979

About the author

Bel Kaufman (b. 1911) was a bestselling writer, dedicated teacher, and lecturer best known for her novel Up the Down Staircase (1965), a classic portrayal of life in the New York public school system. Kaufman was born in Berlin, the daughter of Russian parents and granddaughter of celebrated Yiddish writer Sholom Aleichem. Her family moved to Odessa when she was three, and Russian is her native language. The family also lived in Moscow before immigrating to New York City when Kaufman was twelve. There, she graduated magna cum laude from Hunter College and with high honors from Columbia University. Kaufman then worked as a high school teacher in the city for three decades. The success of Up the Down Staircase launched her second career as a sought-after speaker for events around the country. Kaufman is also the author of Love, Etc. (1979), a powerful, haunting, and poignant novel rendering life as fiction.

Reviews

[Ruth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bel Kaufman's book Up The Down Staircase was one of my formative reading experiences. I couldn't believe she had another novel that I'd never read. Love, Etc. wasn't terrible, but it was much too structurally complex for the subject matter. Two divorced writers correspond about their lives. One of them is dating an emotionally abusive con artist while she tries to write a novel that fictionalizes her own traumatic divorce. I don't know--maybe some of the problem is trying to understand something written in a particular milieu that's in that hidden time period of my own childhood? New York in the 1960s and 1970s seems like it must have been the most sexually conservative and most weirdly libertine environment.

I'll tell you what. It makes you want to write Bel Kaufman a letter, because her letters are wonderful. As weird and uncomfortable as this book was to read, I wish I had a correspondent like her, with the little snippets of sardonic rhyme and the lovely joking. Oh wait, I do have people like that. I think I need to go write them email.

[Clara Prizont · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a brilliant book. I was in between 3 & 4 stars.

Like most long books, it's too long. There was a long boring part that could have been omitted. Another count against the book was Bel Kaufman's style. It was riveting in Up the Down Staircase and disjointed here.

What I enjoyed....it was brilliant. The author uses literary devices cleverly and throughout the various narratives in the book is telling the story of her life. The first page made me re-fall in love with Kaufman (I met her in previous book) and that love kept me reading through. I thought it was clever how she separated her identity into three personas--protagonist, protagonist's fictional creation, and protagonist's correspondent & friend.