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Five Women
Five stories from five unforgettable characters, brought to life by an author the Washington Post hailed as “contemporary…rewarding…masterful.” Five friends meet weekly at a restaurant called Yellowbird on New York’s Upper East Side, revealing the long-hidden secrets of their pasts and how each, in her fashion, has become a survivor beyond all expectations. The women are Gara, a divorced psychologist and cancer survivor; Felicity, a beautiful attorney married to a rich but controlling man; Kathryn, who is haunted by the brutality of her parents’ marriage; Eve, an unabashedly narcissistic actress; and Billie, a former rock star, now owner of Yellowbird. Told with Jaffe’s signature liveliness and uncanny understanding of female friendship, Five Women invites us to the table to hear stories both familiar and unthinkable, stories of struggle, heartbreak, survival and redemption. PRAISE FOR RONA JAFFE “Reading Rona Jaffe is like being presented with a Cartier you know exactly what you’re getting and it’s exactly what you want.”—Cosmopolitan “Vivid and trenchant…Wry and very readable…A minor genius.”—New York Times Book Review “Jaffe has not lost her wit, her keen eye for human frailties and her ear for the small but telling remark.”—Publishers Weekly
477 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1997
34 people are currently reading
222 people want to read
About the author
Rona Jaffe
22 books143 followersRona Jaffe established The Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Awards program in 1995. It is the only national literary awards program of its kind dedicated to supporting women writers exclusively. Since the program began, the Foundation has awarded more than $850,000 to a total of 92 women.
Ms. Jaffe was the author of sixteen books, including Class Reunion, Family Secrets, The Road Taken, and The Room-Mating Season (2003). Her 1958 best-selling first novel, The Best of Everything, was reissued by Penguin in 2005.
Ms. Jaffe was the author of sixteen books, including Class Reunion, Family Secrets, The Road Taken, and The Room-Mating Season (2003). Her 1958 best-selling first novel, The Best of Everything, was reissued by Penguin in 2005.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews
July 25, 2020
There were five women in this book who all had great life stories. Any one of them could have been a really great novel on its own. But all this book did was TELL us about these characters. Almost no action took place in the “present.” There was very little dialogue or actual interaction between characters. It was all just the author telling what had happened to these women in the past. Clearly she was trying to make a point about how dysfunctional families have huge long-term effects on children, but it could have been done so much better. “Show, don’t tell” is a pretty basic rule of writing, and it was not followed here AT ALL. I have read and enjoyed 2 of Jaffe’s other novels in the past, so this was a real disappointment. Especially when the stories were compelling and could have been so good in a different format!
September 2, 2013
To date I've only read two books by Rona Jaffe, Class Reunion and now, Five Women. WOW! What a phenomenal storyteller! I could not put this book down.
In a nutshell, it's the life stories of five women who, later in life, become friends. They have aa set date weekly for dinner/drinks at a local bar/restaurant in New York City that is owned by one of them. These five women are as different as night and day and yet, they have one thing in common, they are survivors of all that life has thrown their way!
Reading this book really made me appreciate the friends I have in my life who have and continue to keep me honest and living life to the fullest!
If you like well-written sagas with great characters, I highly recommend you check out Rona Jaffe's work.
In a nutshell, it's the life stories of five women who, later in life, become friends. They have aa set date weekly for dinner/drinks at a local bar/restaurant in New York City that is owned by one of them. These five women are as different as night and day and yet, they have one thing in common, they are survivors of all that life has thrown their way!
Reading this book really made me appreciate the friends I have in my life who have and continue to keep me honest and living life to the fullest!
If you like well-written sagas with great characters, I highly recommend you check out Rona Jaffe's work.
June 17, 2025
These five women have so much trauma Jesus Christ
June 15, 2022
Well written, with interesting characters, but way too much backstory and not enough in the present day.
March 20, 2025
Like a teeager's first attempt at fiction writing. SPOILERS: Excerpt from Five Women by Rona Jaffe.
‘As the years went by, it turned out they never went on family vacations either, because Rod said hotel rooms for six people were too expensive, he had to travel for business so he was glad to be home, and besides, wasn’t his house and tennis court just like summer camp? Kathryn was annoyed about the vacations because she had wanted to broaden the children’s horizons and have adventures herself. Except for being so cheap, Rod was a good and affectionate father to her kids, and they were devoted to him. She supposed it was better that her kids not be spoiled, that they could be just regular kids, even though they lived in such a nice house. The boys went to Little League, and joined the Scouts; the girls took ballet lessons at the Y.
When they were very young, Stephanie and Gaby, who had never really known their father and did not remember him, kept asking Rod to adopt them, but he wouldn’t. He said it wouldn’t be fair to the boys, who had a father. “It’s love, not legal things, that make a family,” Rod would say to the twins. “Don’t you think we’re a real family already?”
“Yes.”
“Well, then.” After a while they gave up.
More years went by. Everyone was getting along the way Kathryn had always hoped they would. People had told her how hard it would be to find a man when you had four kids, but she had done well, all things considered. Under Rod’s tutelage, Jim Daniel was turning out to be a promising tennis player, and they discussed the possibility of his following in Rod’s footsteps. Then, without any warning, a pointless, senseless tragedy struck.
Jim Daniel was fourteen and, as all children in the suburbs were, impatient to be old enough to drive a car. One afternoon he took Rod’s car out by himself, lost control of it, and crashed into a tree. Kathryn rushed to the hospital, and by the time Rod had been located that night she had already heard the devastating news: Jim Daniel’s right arm had had to be amputated below the elbow. She looked at her son, small for his age, and slim, with her red hair and pale skin, so vulnerable looking, and now with only one arm, and felt a combination of rage and grief. How could he have been so stupid? The fact that he had lost the arm he played tennis with so promisingly was of little consequence next to the realization that life from now on would be more difficult for him in so many ways.
After he lost his arm, Jim Daniel changed. Rod was still away on business a lot anyway, which Kathryn thought was probably for the best, because now for the first time he and Jim Daniel started getting on each other’s nerves. She didn’t know why, but try as she would to get them to make peace with each other it got worse all the time. By the time Jim Daniel was in high school there was hardly a day he and Rod didn’t get into some kind of argument which Jim Daniel always started. Jim Daniel had turned into an angry and moody teenager. Kathryn told him to accept his childish mistake, that it was past, to make the best of what life dealt him, and he looked at her with an expression she could not read at all. He seemed totally ungrateful for the loving home Rod had given him. She was glad the three younger kids were having an easier adolescence. They were still devoted to Rod.
Kathryn had much too much energy to stay at home indefinitely, so she decided to go back to work. Rod was so stingy she knew her added income would help with four growing children who needed things all the time. She remembered the decorating magazine she had been caught reading at boarding school and realized she had always liked home decoration, so she took some courses in decorating, and got a resale license, and then she got a job at a small firm called Charming Interiors. She was so cheerful and enjoyed her clients so much that they found it a pleasant experience too, and recommended her to their friends. It was like the old days when she gave her Tupperware parties, in a way, but now she was also decorating for men.
Her mother was happy in California. One day, out of the blue, she announced that she was going to marry again. His name was Arlo...”
‘As the years went by, it turned out they never went on family vacations either, because Rod said hotel rooms for six people were too expensive, he had to travel for business so he was glad to be home, and besides, wasn’t his house and tennis court just like summer camp? Kathryn was annoyed about the vacations because she had wanted to broaden the children’s horizons and have adventures herself. Except for being so cheap, Rod was a good and affectionate father to her kids, and they were devoted to him. She supposed it was better that her kids not be spoiled, that they could be just regular kids, even though they lived in such a nice house. The boys went to Little League, and joined the Scouts; the girls took ballet lessons at the Y.
When they were very young, Stephanie and Gaby, who had never really known their father and did not remember him, kept asking Rod to adopt them, but he wouldn’t. He said it wouldn’t be fair to the boys, who had a father. “It’s love, not legal things, that make a family,” Rod would say to the twins. “Don’t you think we’re a real family already?”
“Yes.”
“Well, then.” After a while they gave up.
More years went by. Everyone was getting along the way Kathryn had always hoped they would. People had told her how hard it would be to find a man when you had four kids, but she had done well, all things considered. Under Rod’s tutelage, Jim Daniel was turning out to be a promising tennis player, and they discussed the possibility of his following in Rod’s footsteps. Then, without any warning, a pointless, senseless tragedy struck.
Jim Daniel was fourteen and, as all children in the suburbs were, impatient to be old enough to drive a car. One afternoon he took Rod’s car out by himself, lost control of it, and crashed into a tree. Kathryn rushed to the hospital, and by the time Rod had been located that night she had already heard the devastating news: Jim Daniel’s right arm had had to be amputated below the elbow. She looked at her son, small for his age, and slim, with her red hair and pale skin, so vulnerable looking, and now with only one arm, and felt a combination of rage and grief. How could he have been so stupid? The fact that he had lost the arm he played tennis with so promisingly was of little consequence next to the realization that life from now on would be more difficult for him in so many ways.
After he lost his arm, Jim Daniel changed. Rod was still away on business a lot anyway, which Kathryn thought was probably for the best, because now for the first time he and Jim Daniel started getting on each other’s nerves. She didn’t know why, but try as she would to get them to make peace with each other it got worse all the time. By the time Jim Daniel was in high school there was hardly a day he and Rod didn’t get into some kind of argument which Jim Daniel always started. Jim Daniel had turned into an angry and moody teenager. Kathryn told him to accept his childish mistake, that it was past, to make the best of what life dealt him, and he looked at her with an expression she could not read at all. He seemed totally ungrateful for the loving home Rod had given him. She was glad the three younger kids were having an easier adolescence. They were still devoted to Rod.
Kathryn had much too much energy to stay at home indefinitely, so she decided to go back to work. Rod was so stingy she knew her added income would help with four growing children who needed things all the time. She remembered the decorating magazine she had been caught reading at boarding school and realized she had always liked home decoration, so she took some courses in decorating, and got a resale license, and then she got a job at a small firm called Charming Interiors. She was so cheerful and enjoyed her clients so much that they found it a pleasant experience too, and recommended her to their friends. It was like the old days when she gave her Tupperware parties, in a way, but now she was also decorating for men.
Her mother was happy in California. One day, out of the blue, she announced that she was going to marry again. His name was Arlo...”
September 24, 2017
Five women who have left behind damaging and unfulfilling childhood and adult relationships that have left them ready to move on with their lives. Although they do not know each other in the beginning, they meet at a local bar/restaurant, The Yellow Bird, which is owned by one of the women. They form a loose knit group and continue to meet at the Yellow Bird as each search for the direction their lives will take them next. It is a little bit of a struggle to keep each of the their stories straight in the beginning but things do sort themselves out in the end. You can't help but begin to root for each of them as they start their new journey.
June 16, 2020
This is an interesting story told from the perspective of five women. All five of the main characters are different yet the same. You get to explore their lives and how they got to where they all met.
Some parts of the story structure can make it difficult to understand at times. However each of the characters back stories are amazingly detailed and full. I feel each reader will probably have one of the five main characters they relate to the most.
Overall the book is wrapped up with a nice little bow. Good story, good characters, no loose ends!
Some parts of the story structure can make it difficult to understand at times. However each of the characters back stories are amazingly detailed and full. I feel each reader will probably have one of the five main characters they relate to the most.
Overall the book is wrapped up with a nice little bow. Good story, good characters, no loose ends!
August 31, 2023
This novel traces the life trajectories of five women with difficult pasts. Dysfunctional parent/child relationships are portrayed effectively enough to make me cringe, and sometimes want to cry. The friendships between the five women are mainly supportive, but not uncomplicated, partly thanks to one ill-behaved member of the group. Set in the mid-twentieth century through the 1990's.
June 6, 2025
Started and finished date - 01.06.25 to 03.06.25.
My rating - Three Stars.
I enjoyed is book but I didn't love it and I found it bit boring also I think people like three women by Lisa Taddeo or writing for their lives by Gillian E. Hanscombe may like is book. The cover of book was okay. The writing was hard to follow and it took some time get used it. The atmosphere was fine but bit bland and The paced of plot was too slow for liking. The characters was okay but they were bit dull and they need flash out bit more
My rating - Three Stars.
I enjoyed is book but I didn't love it and I found it bit boring also I think people like three women by Lisa Taddeo or writing for their lives by Gillian E. Hanscombe may like is book. The cover of book was okay. The writing was hard to follow and it took some time get used it. The atmosphere was fine but bit bland and The paced of plot was too slow for liking. The characters was okay but they were bit dull and they need flash out bit more
July 6, 2023
I have had this book on my to be read pile for so long that when they talked about AIDS I realized how old the book was!
It was a good fast read. Interesting how each woman became friends
After all this time I would look for a follow up.
It was a good fast read. Interesting how each woman became friends
After all this time I would look for a follow up.
February 5, 2024
This is the story of five women, their histories, the ebb and flow of their relationships with each other and with others outside this circle of friends. Intriguing and heartfelt tale that women everywhere will probably enjoy.
August 2, 2021
Rona Jaffe is my favorite comfort food. This is a marvelously dated summer beach read.
August 24, 2023
Classic Rona Jaffe. If you want to feel better about yourself... read her books. SATC style friendships, but man does she put these ladies through the grinder.. solid stories.
January 19, 2024
this book made me wish i had friends, it also made me realize that we all have traumatic backstories and we’re all just trying to push through it.
November 17, 2024
Beautiful, insightful writing. But I’m halfway through the book and there’s still nothing happening. I’m choosing to not finish this book.
August 13, 2025
An oldie but goodie. It’s held up over time. Past escapism revisited for me
May 13, 2020
Well, after 7 Rona Jaffe books, I've finally reached one that was a disappointment. I just didn't feel as much for the women of this book as I did for characters in the other 6 books I've read.
This is the story of five very different women in their 30's and 40's who meet up weekly at a New York City bar/restaurant, and dish about life, love, and their pasts. Of the five women, one was incredibly annoying, another was very annoying, two were just so-so, and the fifth, probably the most interesting of the bunch, we never really get to learn much about.
There's Eve...whom I hated...whose a struggling actress, a despicable mother and a questionable friend. She's so pushy and rude, and some of the things that come out of her mouth just make you cringe at how immature and inappropriate they are. There's Felicity...whom I wanted to smack...who's in a somewhat abusive marriage, and all she does is complain about how much she hates her husband, and wants to leave him, and how she can't live without her lover Jason. Her constant weakness and complaining got on my nerves real quick.
Then there's Gara, and Katherine...Gara's a psychologist whose husband of 20 years just left her for a younger woman, and she's struggling to pick up the pieces; and Katherine, who comes from a very bad childhood, and a few failed marriages, is determined to have fun in her later years, and make up for lost time. Both these women were ok...but not much more. And finally there's Billie...the owner of the Yellowbird (the place where the women meet). I liked her the best. She had a normal childhood, a short stint with fame and fortune, and then (after much drama) settled into her gig as owner of a NYC restaurant, and mom to her young son.
Overall, this was most definitely not my favorite Rona Jaffe book. I felt it went on about 100 pages too long, and the majority of the characters were just not likeable. I'm just really glad that this was not the first book of hers that I picked up. If your thinking about reading this, skip it...she has so many other great books out there...and I still look forward to all the ones I haven't read yet.
This is the story of five very different women in their 30's and 40's who meet up weekly at a New York City bar/restaurant, and dish about life, love, and their pasts. Of the five women, one was incredibly annoying, another was very annoying, two were just so-so, and the fifth, probably the most interesting of the bunch, we never really get to learn much about.
There's Eve...whom I hated...whose a struggling actress, a despicable mother and a questionable friend. She's so pushy and rude, and some of the things that come out of her mouth just make you cringe at how immature and inappropriate they are. There's Felicity...whom I wanted to smack...who's in a somewhat abusive marriage, and all she does is complain about how much she hates her husband, and wants to leave him, and how she can't live without her lover Jason. Her constant weakness and complaining got on my nerves real quick.
Then there's Gara, and Katherine...Gara's a psychologist whose husband of 20 years just left her for a younger woman, and she's struggling to pick up the pieces; and Katherine, who comes from a very bad childhood, and a few failed marriages, is determined to have fun in her later years, and make up for lost time. Both these women were ok...but not much more. And finally there's Billie...the owner of the Yellowbird (the place where the women meet). I liked her the best. She had a normal childhood, a short stint with fame and fortune, and then (after much drama) settled into her gig as owner of a NYC restaurant, and mom to her young son.
Overall, this was most definitely not my favorite Rona Jaffe book. I felt it went on about 100 pages too long, and the majority of the characters were just not likeable. I'm just really glad that this was not the first book of hers that I picked up. If your thinking about reading this, skip it...she has so many other great books out there...and I still look forward to all the ones I haven't read yet.
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July 7, 2008Five Women
Rona Jaffe
Fiction
466 pages
copyright: 1997
isbn: 1-55166-424-0
Once a week five women meet over dinner and drinks at the Yellowbird, their favorite Manhattan bar. To teh shared table they bring their troubled past, their hidden secrets. And through their friendship, each one will find a courageous new beginning.
Billie--the enigmatic owner of the Yellowbird and a single mother; her scar is a reminder of lost dreams and new foundhope
Gera--a successful psychologist, she lends her help to others but denies it to herself.
Felicity--the brilliant attorney, emotionally chained to one abusive man and obsessed with another.
Kathryn-the devil-may-care adventuress still running from a shattering act of violence.
Eve--the actress, a volcano of anger, whose blind ambition could ultimately destroy the group.
Rona Jaffe
Fiction
466 pages
copyright: 1997
isbn: 1-55166-424-0
Once a week five women meet over dinner and drinks at the Yellowbird, their favorite Manhattan bar. To teh shared table they bring their troubled past, their hidden secrets. And through their friendship, each one will find a courageous new beginning.
Billie--the enigmatic owner of the Yellowbird and a single mother; her scar is a reminder of lost dreams and new foundhope
Gera--a successful psychologist, she lends her help to others but denies it to herself.
Felicity--the brilliant attorney, emotionally chained to one abusive man and obsessed with another.
Kathryn-the devil-may-care adventuress still running from a shattering act of violence.
Eve--the actress, a volcano of anger, whose blind ambition could ultimately destroy the group.
August 19, 2012
Very quiet, suspenseful story about five very different women whose tragic childhoods segue into a brief friendship with each other. What I really enjoyed about this story is that the author used her characters to reveal varying degrees of the dysfunction in their families and how they're each affected by it as they try to cope with it in their adult lives.
Insightful, profound...this book runs the gamut of emotions. I'd read this again in a few years it's so good.
Perhaps I enjoyed the end the best as there is no happy, Hollywood ending as the women's firendship circle cracks and breaks apart. But, that's okay. It reminded me that people come in and out of our lives for various reasons, and it's okay if they leave and don't come back sometimes. Life still goes on.
Insightful, profound...this book runs the gamut of emotions. I'd read this again in a few years it's so good.
Perhaps I enjoyed the end the best as there is no happy, Hollywood ending as the women's firendship circle cracks and breaks apart. But, that's okay. It reminded me that people come in and out of our lives for various reasons, and it's okay if they leave and don't come back sometimes. Life still goes on.
February 9, 2012
In this book you meet five women and learn about their lives from childhood to their mid to late fifties. They did not grow up together but met as adults in NYC. If you are like me, you will come to like some of the characters a lot and some not so much. By the end of the book I was ready for it to be over. I guess that is why I gave it a 3 star rating. It wasn't a book that I wanted to go on with the characters. If you are in your fifties and want to compare your life with the five women in the book, pick up a copy at your library. It doesn't seem like a book that you would want to own and reread at intervals.
But then again, that is just my opinion.
But then again, that is just my opinion.
May 19, 2010
There are five women who come together weekly at a restaurant in New York City. You learn that each woman is damaged; a result of awful childhoods and failed relationships with men. It is not a new theme in novels. In other novels the women help each other overcome their pasts by caring for each other, helping each other to value their individuality. Their combined strength gives strength to each woman in the group. However, in this novel the women do not reach out to each other. It is not even clear why they continue to gather.
December 4, 2019
Cuando este libro llegó a mí, por la sinopsis esperaba un "sex and the city" y en efecto, me parece una interesante combinación entre sex and the city y "A little life". El libro avanza tragedia tras tragedia con cada una de las protagonistas. (Vamos que creo que los únicos felices ahí eran los abogados de divorcios).
Pero disfruté mucho del libro, de principio a fin y voy a extrañar a estas chicas.
Pero disfruté mucho del libro, de principio a fin y voy a extrañar a estas chicas.
June 9, 2008
I probably would have enjoyed this book more if I had read it 15 years fromnow as I would have been similar in age to the main characters and having the same experiences, possibly. Still a decent read
May 31, 2009
on Friday, April 16, 2004 I wrote on bookcrossing about this book:
Well I did enjoy reading this book. It is an easy read but nice to read about women my age or older.
This is a perfect book to take with you if you need to relax.
I am looking for more books by Rona jaffe.
Well I did enjoy reading this book. It is an easy read but nice to read about women my age or older.
This is a perfect book to take with you if you need to relax.
I am looking for more books by Rona jaffe.
October 26, 2014
This was given to me, by my good friend Beth. I read it quite some time ago, but I remember enjoying the story line and finding the characters real and relatable. It was fascinating reading about segments from each different life and how the women interacted alone and together. Enjoyable read.
November 27, 2015
Not the most comfortable reading, especially the explicit description of going through chemotherapy and having reconstructive surgery, but interesting nonetheless, seeing 5 different women's life experiences, what brought them to present, and what their hopes for the future are.
April 16, 2014
Loved it! I don't think I've ever met a Rona Jaffe book I didn't love. :-)
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August 9, 2011Props to Rona Jaffe. This wasn't super engrossing but a fun read. Like a "Sex and the City" for the 40s and divorced set.
December 19, 2011
I think I could have really liked this book, but there was WAY too much profanity.
July 24, 2012
Read this years ago. I love Rona Jaffe and have never been disappointed by any of her books.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews