Is This What Other Women Feel Too?

by June Akers Seese

Kate McGhee, the main character, is a product of her era. Coming of age, prior to feminism and the sexual revolution, Kate struggles with the issues of her identity, sexuality, and her place in the world as a woman. The story begins in 1954 as Kate, college student and literature major, explores her burgeoning sexuality as the mistress to a much older and married bookseller. When he dies, Kate is sent into an emotional tailspin. She changes her major, her career choice, her residence, and overall lifestyle. In an attempt to deal with the chaos of her ever-changing life, she seeks the help of Dr. Koltonow, a psychiatrist. As Dr. Koltonow delves deeper into her past, Kate is forced to reflect on issues far greater than her current dilemma.

June Akers Seese's second novel is about books and the people who read them: it's about a rare-book dealer and his mistress, set in that era when words like "mistress" were still used, and recalling the years when Lenny Bruce, Edith Piaf, and Freud might share the same paragraph in an after-hours night spot. Seese writes movingly, tightly, without recourse to adjectives, from the gut and to the gut.

Genres: Literature

160 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1991

About the author

June Akers Seese, the instructor of Callanwolde’s Memoir courses, is a novelist who has also taught “Women and Fiction”, “The Fictional Process”, and “Style and Politics in the work of Pearl Cleage and Grace Paley” in the Callanwolde writing program. Recipient of a 2001 Yaddo Writer’s Fellowship, Ms. Seese is the author of two novels, Is This What Other Women Feel Too? and What Waiting Really Means. She has also written a collection of short fiction, James Mason and the Walk-In Closet, which includes two novellas and nine short stories; all published by Dalkey Archive Press. Her most recently released books, Some Things Are Better Left to Saxophones, A Nurse can Go Anywhere and Collected Short Stories, and Whose Coffee is It? are available at Barnes and Noble and Amazon.com. Her latest collection of short fiction, Three Lots and a Tarpaper Shack: The Detroit Stories, is forthcoming in 2014.

Reviews

[Kyrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this a lot

[Maya Berardi · Rating 3 out of 5]

yup!

[Beverly Benfield · Rating 4 out of 5]

Felt like an Ohio winter