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מפגש גודבאר
Theresa was a quietly satisfied young teacher by day. But when the sun went down, her life was an endless, faceless whirl of bars and beds and men she'd never seen before and wouldn't see again. If she couldn't find love, she took chances on men who were better than no men at all. And learned, with each new night and each new nightmare, that finding her man was only the beginning.
239 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1975
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3792 people want to read
About the author
Judith Rossner
23 books69 followersJudith Perelman Rossner was an American novelist, best known for her 1975 novel Looking for Mr. Goodbar, which was inspired by the murder of Roseann Quinn and examined the underside of the seventies sexual liberation movement. Though Looking for Mr. Goodbar remained Rossner's best known and best selling work, she continued to write. Her most successful post-Goodbar novel was 1983's August, about the relationship between a troubled young woman and her psychoanalyst who has emotional troubles of her own.
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May 18, 2016
”To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.” Ecclesiastes 3:1
Professor Martin Engle broke off his four year affair with his student Theresa Dunn by quoting Ecclesiastes to her. Like a lion circling a herd of gazelles probing for the weakest member he had decided she was the right one to sustain his ego. She was just coming out of her ugly duckling stage and emerging from the shadows cast by the wings of her swan like sister. She is self conscious of her body. A polio incident as a child left her with a slight sway which men will later think is sexy. She has a scar running down her back from a surgery to repair damage done to her spine by the disease. She had to be in the hospital for over a year strapped into a series of casts and back braces to insure she could continue to walk.
She was tailor made for Martin Engle.
When he hires her as his “writing assistant” the only writing was the scribbling on the wall. He notices the slight bobble in her walk and asks her about it which exposures all her insecurities wiping away in a matter of seconds her new vision of herself.
”I’m not attempting to seduce you.” he said. “I am attempting to comfort you because I see that I’ve hurt you.”
An excuse to touch her more like it. She gave him a reply that must have made his heart sing knowing that he’d sunk his teeth into his prey.
”But I’d rather be seduced then comforted.”
Another kink to their “relationship” is that his work space is next to the office where his wife works as a pediatrician. When theymake love have sex it is on a daybed right against the wall separating the two rooms. The recklessness of potentially being caught had to heighten his enjoyment.
The fact that Theresa would rather be seduced than comforted also shows her need to be normal. Being seen as a sexual being gets her further away from the image of that little girl in the hospital bed.
Martin was an adult that didn’t have to be a parent. It is all part of the seduction package that makes him more charming to these young girls.
”One of the reasons she loved him was that she’d understood since she first heard him talk that all those sly or hostile or outrageous thoughts that had cropped up in her mind for years and remained unsaid because they would shock or upset or alienate the people she knew would be perfectly alright with him.”
Martin’s charm does have more than a few cracks in the veneer.
”Theresa has asked him after sex why he was angry with her, he’d said he always disliked women after fucking them. She’d blanched because she had never thought of what they did as just fucking.”
To a mature self-confident woman a statement like that would have insured Martin an ass kicking to the curb, but then Martin doesn’t like women capable of doing that. He likes girls. He is truly a monster. A man, a succubus, who steals away their innocence and then trades them for another hatchling. They each have a season it seems.
The reason I’ve spent so much of this review writing about Theresa’s first relationship is that I believe this is THE turning moment in her life. The cavalier way that Martin has sex with her advances her well beyond her years. As part of the seduction he made her feel special and encouraged her to be a writer, but then in an act of betrayal that dismisses his kind words he showed her that he valued her most for the pleasure she could give him. The very pleasure that he could then hate her for because, after all, it isn’t his fault that he is this way.
Martin Engle did not bash her with the lamp that ended her life, but the lingering results of his actions did put her in that bed with that stranger.
This book is loosely based on the actual case of Roseann Quinn, a Catholic school teacher who picked up men in New York bars. Unfortunately this reckless behavior resulted in her murder on New Year’s day in 1973. The seemingly nice girl in the wrong place meeting a nightmare. When Theresa starts picking up men in bars she sometimes reveals to them that she is a school teacher. This is shocking to the men. They didn’t expect to meet a school teacher in a bar and certainly didn’t expect to meet one that wanted to have sex with them.
Diane Keaton plays Theresa Dunn in the movie based on the book.
Theresa starts to panic when she meets James Morrisey. James isn’t interested in taking advantage of her sexually. It doesn’t mean that he doesn’t find her attractive. Things would be simpler for Theresa if he was the kind of guy who wanted a quick tumble in the hay. He is a romantic. He is successful. He screams mortgage, six kids, and a white picket fence. (These are bad things, another leftover twist from her time with Martin.) She treats James like crap as if she is trying to save herself from the responsibilities and expectations that being involved with a guy like James entails.
”Aha Theresa, “ He said. “You’re so cruel to me. Why?” Because you like me too much, was what came into her head. But of course that was ridiculous. It wasn’t that simple.
Yes it is.
The rose tinted glasses rest lightly on James’s face. He has spun a vision of Theresa out of fine gold and white lace that she does not want to be. How stupid can he be to love a woman like her? Unfortunately she can’t even like herself enough to allow someone to love her. Theresa’s final pick-up at the Mr. Goodbar is, in my mind, a last desperate attempt to escape the encircling sensibility of a life with James.
It works.
This book is famous for it’s sex scenes. They are so deftly woven into the plot that the sensationalism of them is somewhat offset by the psychological elements that Judith Rossner explores in the process. This book has been called a feminist book which I wonder if that would even be a part of the discussion if Judith Rossner had been Jeffrey Rossner? There are breadcrumbs…”Why is it,” she asked, “that if you ask a woman how she is, the first thing she tells you is about her husband or boyfriend?”...but I never found the loaf. The book was too commercially successful to ever be looked on as literature, but if Rossner was still alive and giving a lecture on writing I’d be there...with bells on...a fresh notebook before me, and a finely honed pencil in my hand.
If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.com
I also have a Facebook blogger page at:https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten
Professor Martin Engle broke off his four year affair with his student Theresa Dunn by quoting Ecclesiastes to her. Like a lion circling a herd of gazelles probing for the weakest member he had decided she was the right one to sustain his ego. She was just coming out of her ugly duckling stage and emerging from the shadows cast by the wings of her swan like sister. She is self conscious of her body. A polio incident as a child left her with a slight sway which men will later think is sexy. She has a scar running down her back from a surgery to repair damage done to her spine by the disease. She had to be in the hospital for over a year strapped into a series of casts and back braces to insure she could continue to walk.
She was tailor made for Martin Engle.
When he hires her as his “writing assistant” the only writing was the scribbling on the wall. He notices the slight bobble in her walk and asks her about it which exposures all her insecurities wiping away in a matter of seconds her new vision of herself.
”I’m not attempting to seduce you.” he said. “I am attempting to comfort you because I see that I’ve hurt you.”
An excuse to touch her more like it. She gave him a reply that must have made his heart sing knowing that he’d sunk his teeth into his prey.
”But I’d rather be seduced then comforted.”
Another kink to their “relationship” is that his work space is next to the office where his wife works as a pediatrician. When they
The fact that Theresa would rather be seduced than comforted also shows her need to be normal. Being seen as a sexual being gets her further away from the image of that little girl in the hospital bed.
Martin was an adult that didn’t have to be a parent. It is all part of the seduction package that makes him more charming to these young girls.
”One of the reasons she loved him was that she’d understood since she first heard him talk that all those sly or hostile or outrageous thoughts that had cropped up in her mind for years and remained unsaid because they would shock or upset or alienate the people she knew would be perfectly alright with him.”
Martin’s charm does have more than a few cracks in the veneer.
”Theresa has asked him after sex why he was angry with her, he’d said he always disliked women after fucking them. She’d blanched because she had never thought of what they did as just fucking.”
To a mature self-confident woman a statement like that would have insured Martin an ass kicking to the curb, but then Martin doesn’t like women capable of doing that. He likes girls. He is truly a monster. A man, a succubus, who steals away their innocence and then trades them for another hatchling. They each have a season it seems.
The reason I’ve spent so much of this review writing about Theresa’s first relationship is that I believe this is THE turning moment in her life. The cavalier way that Martin has sex with her advances her well beyond her years. As part of the seduction he made her feel special and encouraged her to be a writer, but then in an act of betrayal that dismisses his kind words he showed her that he valued her most for the pleasure she could give him. The very pleasure that he could then hate her for because, after all, it isn’t his fault that he is this way.
Martin Engle did not bash her with the lamp that ended her life, but the lingering results of his actions did put her in that bed with that stranger.
This book is loosely based on the actual case of Roseann Quinn, a Catholic school teacher who picked up men in New York bars. Unfortunately this reckless behavior resulted in her murder on New Year’s day in 1973. The seemingly nice girl in the wrong place meeting a nightmare. When Theresa starts picking up men in bars she sometimes reveals to them that she is a school teacher. This is shocking to the men. They didn’t expect to meet a school teacher in a bar and certainly didn’t expect to meet one that wanted to have sex with them.
Diane Keaton plays Theresa Dunn in the movie based on the book.
Theresa starts to panic when she meets James Morrisey. James isn’t interested in taking advantage of her sexually. It doesn’t mean that he doesn’t find her attractive. Things would be simpler for Theresa if he was the kind of guy who wanted a quick tumble in the hay. He is a romantic. He is successful. He screams mortgage, six kids, and a white picket fence. (These are bad things, another leftover twist from her time with Martin.) She treats James like crap as if she is trying to save herself from the responsibilities and expectations that being involved with a guy like James entails.
”Aha Theresa, “ He said. “You’re so cruel to me. Why?” Because you like me too much, was what came into her head. But of course that was ridiculous. It wasn’t that simple.
Yes it is.
The rose tinted glasses rest lightly on James’s face. He has spun a vision of Theresa out of fine gold and white lace that she does not want to be. How stupid can he be to love a woman like her? Unfortunately she can’t even like herself enough to allow someone to love her. Theresa’s final pick-up at the Mr. Goodbar is, in my mind, a last desperate attempt to escape the encircling sensibility of a life with James.
It works.
This book is famous for it’s sex scenes. They are so deftly woven into the plot that the sensationalism of them is somewhat offset by the psychological elements that Judith Rossner explores in the process. This book has been called a feminist book which I wonder if that would even be a part of the discussion if Judith Rossner had been Jeffrey Rossner? There are breadcrumbs…”Why is it,” she asked, “that if you ask a woman how she is, the first thing she tells you is about her husband or boyfriend?”...but I never found the loaf. The book was too commercially successful to ever be looked on as literature, but if Rossner was still alive and giving a lecture on writing I’d be there...with bells on...a fresh notebook before me, and a finely honed pencil in my hand.
If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.com
I also have a Facebook blogger page at:https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten
June 28, 2015
Aaaaaaaaaaagh.
::Shudder::
I'm a little conflicted. I'll be back.
______________________________________
Okay, I’m back.
Looking for Mr. Goodbar is a tough book to review. It gives away nothing to say it’s based on the real-life murder of Roseann Quinn, and this element makes it difficult to view the novel purely as a novel.
That’s unfortunate, because as a novel this book really, really works. It’s a bit dated, of course—that’s inevitable. But the language is simple and compelling, the characters are vivid, and the story is absorbing. I had trouble putting it down. What I particularly liked about it is that, while the female protagonist struggles mightily to resist the kind of life she feels is expected of her, she’s not some paragon of feminist virtue. She’s flawed, like all of us. That’s what I like to read about: flaws. Paragons of virtue are boring. And that ending! Even though I knew exactly what was coming, down to the dialogue (Rossner makes sure of that, in what I felt was a virtuoso touch), I was still on the edge of my seat and completely discombobulated, momentarily devastated, by the time I got to the last sentence. So would I recommend this novel? Yes, I would, absolutely.
But there was something about this book that nagged at me: its reviews. Even though I have a current edition of the book, the reviews on the cover are all contemporaneous to its release, and one of them, from People, particularly bothered me: “A vivid psychobiography of a young woman who has confused the lonely, uncommitted life of singles’ bars and one-night stands with real freedom and control of her destiny.”
On the one hand, yes, the book is about that. On the other hand, something about the judgmental tone of this quote didn’t sit well with me. Yes, this character tends to pick up men in bars. And yes (again, this is not a spoiler), the last man she picks up turns out to be unhinged and violent. But to me, focusing on her supposed “confusion” and “loneliness” (neither of which is unequivocal in the novel itself) kind of implies that being murdered is the logical end result of an “uncommitted” (read: promiscuous) life, and of course that’s not true. If Roseann Quinn had just picked up a different man that night, she’d be no less “uncommitted,” but she might still be alive today. Promiscuity is not a crime punishable by violent death.
However, a glance at the Goodreads reviews told me not everyone agrees with me about this. A number of reviewers seem to believe that being murdered is just sort of what ends up happening if you sleep with several different men. What’s more, in Judith Rossner’s obituary I found this 1990 Guardian quote: “Some of the raunchiest sex scenes ever written* lead to a despair that makes death almost inevitable, perhaps even sought.” And the Wikipedia entry for the book explains that it “became a bestseller, attracting interest because of its portrayal of the dangers of the new sexual freedoms that women were exploring.”
All of this made me a little crazy. Sex doesn’t cause a woman to be stabbed to death. Another person picking up a knife and stabbing her to death, that’s what causes a woman to be stabbed to death. How anyone could get anything else from this book is beyond me. But then I started wondering about Judith Rossner’s own motives for writing this. Why ask: “Why does this woman sleep with these various people?” rather than “Why did this guy stab someone he just had sex with?”
I turned to Rossner’s obituary again and read this quote she gave to The Washington Post: “It’s astonishing what some women will put up with just to have a warm body—some of the brightest women I know are obsessed with that search. It’s very sad.”
All right then. I understand that. And that brings me back around to what this book is really about: a complicated, troubled woman, and an exploration of what made her that way and how it plays out in her life. Even if it doesn’t send you into the kind of rabbit hole it sent me into, don’t be surprised if it haunts you.
*Uh, “some of the raunchiest sex scenes ever written”? Only if you’ve never read a book before.
::Shudder::
I'm a little conflicted. I'll be back.
______________________________________
Okay, I’m back.
Looking for Mr. Goodbar is a tough book to review. It gives away nothing to say it’s based on the real-life murder of Roseann Quinn, and this element makes it difficult to view the novel purely as a novel.
That’s unfortunate, because as a novel this book really, really works. It’s a bit dated, of course—that’s inevitable. But the language is simple and compelling, the characters are vivid, and the story is absorbing. I had trouble putting it down. What I particularly liked about it is that, while the female protagonist struggles mightily to resist the kind of life she feels is expected of her, she’s not some paragon of feminist virtue. She’s flawed, like all of us. That’s what I like to read about: flaws. Paragons of virtue are boring. And that ending! Even though I knew exactly what was coming, down to the dialogue (Rossner makes sure of that, in what I felt was a virtuoso touch), I was still on the edge of my seat and completely discombobulated, momentarily devastated, by the time I got to the last sentence. So would I recommend this novel? Yes, I would, absolutely.
But there was something about this book that nagged at me: its reviews. Even though I have a current edition of the book, the reviews on the cover are all contemporaneous to its release, and one of them, from People, particularly bothered me: “A vivid psychobiography of a young woman who has confused the lonely, uncommitted life of singles’ bars and one-night stands with real freedom and control of her destiny.”
On the one hand, yes, the book is about that. On the other hand, something about the judgmental tone of this quote didn’t sit well with me. Yes, this character tends to pick up men in bars. And yes (again, this is not a spoiler), the last man she picks up turns out to be unhinged and violent. But to me, focusing on her supposed “confusion” and “loneliness” (neither of which is unequivocal in the novel itself) kind of implies that being murdered is the logical end result of an “uncommitted” (read: promiscuous) life, and of course that’s not true. If Roseann Quinn had just picked up a different man that night, she’d be no less “uncommitted,” but she might still be alive today. Promiscuity is not a crime punishable by violent death.
However, a glance at the Goodreads reviews told me not everyone agrees with me about this. A number of reviewers seem to believe that being murdered is just sort of what ends up happening if you sleep with several different men. What’s more, in Judith Rossner’s obituary I found this 1990 Guardian quote: “Some of the raunchiest sex scenes ever written* lead to a despair that makes death almost inevitable, perhaps even sought.” And the Wikipedia entry for the book explains that it “became a bestseller, attracting interest because of its portrayal of the dangers of the new sexual freedoms that women were exploring.”
All of this made me a little crazy. Sex doesn’t cause a woman to be stabbed to death. Another person picking up a knife and stabbing her to death, that’s what causes a woman to be stabbed to death. How anyone could get anything else from this book is beyond me. But then I started wondering about Judith Rossner’s own motives for writing this. Why ask: “Why does this woman sleep with these various people?” rather than “Why did this guy stab someone he just had sex with?”
I turned to Rossner’s obituary again and read this quote she gave to The Washington Post: “It’s astonishing what some women will put up with just to have a warm body—some of the brightest women I know are obsessed with that search. It’s very sad.”
All right then. I understand that. And that brings me back around to what this book is really about: a complicated, troubled woman, and an exploration of what made her that way and how it plays out in her life. Even if it doesn’t send you into the kind of rabbit hole it sent me into, don’t be surprised if it haunts you.
*Uh, “some of the raunchiest sex scenes ever written”? Only if you’ve never read a book before.
November 22, 2024
I read this book around 1976, and soon after saw the Diane Keaton film. I love morality tales and this was one of them. The film I hated. It didn't capture Rossner's perspective.
She herself despised it. Yes, it is pure Hollywood. Read the book first - or if you've already seen the film, you'd be well advised to read it now!
It's the straight goods.
Nineteen Seventy-six was a lonely year for me. Singles bars nearly effaced my humanity.
But as a lifelong buoyant Aspie, thankfully, it didn't COMPLETELY happen...
***
Mozart, though, woulda just chuckled at all this - but plong BEFORE our own full humanity disappeared, two or three centuries ago. But back then, was good good, and evil evil? Perhaps, to many.
Now, without much humanity, evil is now just plain awful.
Mozart almost saw that too when he woke up and got real, later on.
And me? I would just melt down. Nature does that, by sheer grace. Here comes your nineteenth nervous breakdown! For grace is total conviction.
Mick Jagger knew how to drive girls over the edge when he wrote that, I guess… Small things amuse small minds.
And me? My umpteenth nervous breakdown came that summer. With an aftershock when the meds kicked in! Thanks to God, I never found Ms Goodbar in the bars… nor did I want to, getting slowly better. And seeing more.
But I did find my Miss Goodbar closer to home the next year, because that year, 1977, fully released (serendipitously) from my modecate, I met an Angel.
And married her four years later.
Our Golden Anniversary will be held in 2031!
***
My wife and I will have a quiet celebration that year, though, I think, all things being equal.
(My wife's maiden name isn't Goodbar, btw.
It's Good-Heart.
As I said, she's my angel.)
And as Gemma was to Dante, she lightens my heavy load - on this, our ugly and arduous road to Heaven - for:
If you’ve found a good-hearted loving soulmate, you've got ALL that already -
And Heaven too.
She herself despised it. Yes, it is pure Hollywood. Read the book first - or if you've already seen the film, you'd be well advised to read it now!
It's the straight goods.
Nineteen Seventy-six was a lonely year for me. Singles bars nearly effaced my humanity.
But as a lifelong buoyant Aspie, thankfully, it didn't COMPLETELY happen...
***
Mozart, though, woulda just chuckled at all this - but plong BEFORE our own full humanity disappeared, two or three centuries ago. But back then, was good good, and evil evil? Perhaps, to many.
Now, without much humanity, evil is now just plain awful.
Mozart almost saw that too when he woke up and got real, later on.
And me? I would just melt down. Nature does that, by sheer grace. Here comes your nineteenth nervous breakdown! For grace is total conviction.
Mick Jagger knew how to drive girls over the edge when he wrote that, I guess… Small things amuse small minds.
And me? My umpteenth nervous breakdown came that summer. With an aftershock when the meds kicked in! Thanks to God, I never found Ms Goodbar in the bars… nor did I want to, getting slowly better. And seeing more.
But I did find my Miss Goodbar closer to home the next year, because that year, 1977, fully released (serendipitously) from my modecate, I met an Angel.
And married her four years later.
Our Golden Anniversary will be held in 2031!
***
My wife and I will have a quiet celebration that year, though, I think, all things being equal.
(My wife's maiden name isn't Goodbar, btw.
It's Good-Heart.
As I said, she's my angel.)
And as Gemma was to Dante, she lightens my heavy load - on this, our ugly and arduous road to Heaven - for:
If you’ve found a good-hearted loving soulmate, you've got ALL that already -
And Heaven too.
November 15, 2022
“Sexually he was like a dose of anesthetic, he made her go dead all over, but he was so nice!”
― Judith Rossner, Looking for Mr. Goodbar
I saw my review of this riveting book Was so short. I don’t think I did the book justice.
I am not going to do a plot review of looking for Mr. Goodbar. This is partially because many people already know the story and Also because it’s late and I’m tired.
I was reminded of this book recently because I read My dark Vanessa and I was reminded strongly of this book.
This is one of the most tragic stories I have ever read. It so reminds me of MDV but I think it is even more disturbing.
I reread this every so often. I have seen other reviews that say this book never really got the credit it deserved and I agree.
And man oh man did this book cause a controversy when it came out! The World was sure different then.
Goodbar Was Considered taboo and I will not deny it is very emotionally upsetting.
I think anybody who has read and enjoyed My dark Vanessa might have an interest in reading this book if they have not done so.
It is odd that this book did not keep me away from bars. Although I do not frequent bars very much now, in my younger days I did. I don’t think I really understood the depth of this novel until I was much older.
I want to stress that the book is very different from Vanessa in several aspects but what is prevalent and similar is the student teacher relationship. It shaped who Vanessa was and in this book it will shape Theresa in much the same way.
This might be considered a spoiler but not really because we find out in the first few pages.
You know from the beginning that Theresa is not long for this world. It is in the opening scene. So it is difficult at least for me it was as I got attached to her character.
It is funny that this book was so controversial back then..I mean look at what is out in print today. It is so surreal.
I did not care for the movie version, which seemed to go on forever but loved the book.
― Judith Rossner, Looking for Mr. Goodbar
I saw my review of this riveting book Was so short. I don’t think I did the book justice.
I am not going to do a plot review of looking for Mr. Goodbar. This is partially because many people already know the story and Also because it’s late and I’m tired.
I was reminded of this book recently because I read My dark Vanessa and I was reminded strongly of this book.
This is one of the most tragic stories I have ever read. It so reminds me of MDV but I think it is even more disturbing.
I reread this every so often. I have seen other reviews that say this book never really got the credit it deserved and I agree.
And man oh man did this book cause a controversy when it came out! The World was sure different then.
Goodbar Was Considered taboo and I will not deny it is very emotionally upsetting.
I think anybody who has read and enjoyed My dark Vanessa might have an interest in reading this book if they have not done so.
It is odd that this book did not keep me away from bars. Although I do not frequent bars very much now, in my younger days I did. I don’t think I really understood the depth of this novel until I was much older.
I want to stress that the book is very different from Vanessa in several aspects but what is prevalent and similar is the student teacher relationship. It shaped who Vanessa was and in this book it will shape Theresa in much the same way.
This might be considered a spoiler but not really because we find out in the first few pages.
You know from the beginning that Theresa is not long for this world. It is in the opening scene. So it is difficult at least for me it was as I got attached to her character.
It is funny that this book was so controversial back then..I mean look at what is out in print today. It is so surreal.
I did not care for the movie version, which seemed to go on forever but loved the book.
August 10, 2024
Finally, I have read this story. I once saw this movie when I still was a young adult and it always left an impression on me. Years the movie had followed me, when I discovered there was a book. Theresa a young female who I believe was damaged by her past and went on destructive behaviour. At the beginning it was hard to get in and to understand her, but at the end I did understand her. A good book and great story.
May 3, 2023
A friend gave me a copy. "You should read this," he said. I opened and didn't shut it once until I was done.
This is the best depiction I've read of the impact disability can have on sexuality.
Having had similar surgery to the protagonist, I can tell you, the scars run deep.
This is the best depiction I've read of the impact disability can have on sexuality.
Having had similar surgery to the protagonist, I can tell you, the scars run deep.
November 13, 2016
This book was written in 1975 so it's a bit dated but it holds up really well. It's based on a true story and I believe at one time there was a movie or a made for tv series about it so I knew the gist of the story but had never read the book.
Theresa Dunn is a beloved school teacher who loves her job but want no children of her own. She is very anti-marriage and not really capable of having relationships. She has a TON of personal baggage. To blow off steam she goes to bars and picks up men. Usually these are one night stands but occasionally they last a few months. Then one of her friends introduces her to James. James is a "goody-goody" and he falls madly in love with Theresa.
As Theresa's life starts to spin out of control she meets the wrong man on the wrong night at the wrong bar.
This is a harrowing story of a woman desperately trying to find herself in a time when everything was changing for women. Theresa is a deeply flawed character that I really didn't like but absolutely could relate to. I didn't like her not because of her sleeping around but because of the way she treated James and to some extent her family.
I really liked this book (I couldn't put it down) but I had one huge issue which actually isn't really the books problem. If you read the reviews that came out at the time the book was published there is a lot of victim blaming going on and I hate that!!
Theresa Dunn is a beloved school teacher who loves her job but want no children of her own. She is very anti-marriage and not really capable of having relationships. She has a TON of personal baggage. To blow off steam she goes to bars and picks up men. Usually these are one night stands but occasionally they last a few months. Then one of her friends introduces her to James. James is a "goody-goody" and he falls madly in love with Theresa.
As Theresa's life starts to spin out of control she meets the wrong man on the wrong night at the wrong bar.
This is a harrowing story of a woman desperately trying to find herself in a time when everything was changing for women. Theresa is a deeply flawed character that I really didn't like but absolutely could relate to. I didn't like her not because of her sleeping around but because of the way she treated James and to some extent her family.
I really liked this book (I couldn't put it down) but I had one huge issue which actually isn't really the books problem. If you read the reviews that came out at the time the book was published there is a lot of victim blaming going on and I hate that!!
December 14, 2020
5 Stars
August 11, 2016
What I remember most about this book is how much it made me blush, and made my ears turn beet red. This would have been no issue, except for the fact that I spent the week reading it on my commute to work on a busy train. Each day that week I took for granted that my fellow commuters hadn't either (a)read the book or (b) watched the 70s film starring Diane Keaton. Ugh! Boy was I wrong. On one of the last days that week, after I'd nearly missed my stop with the last 23 pages hanging in the balance, a lady turned to me and said smilingly: "Mmhmmm, that's a good one. Read it in college." And then she had the audacity to wink at me! The nerve!
April 2, 2016
This isn't a review. It's personal history, and a reflection on memory
A couple days ago I finished reading Jean Rhys' Good Morning Midnight. As I read the last few pages I had vague flashbacks to this book.
Luckily those flashbacks did not dovetail with Rhys' ending.
But I couldn't think of the name of this novel. Nor could I remember when exactly the flashbacks dated to. There was a visual among them, I was standing in our basement (where all our books were for several years). I was holding a book in my hand.
After finishing Good Morning I wasted at least an hour trying to come up with the name of the mystery book. Explored lists of popular fiction for every year from about 1978 to almost 2000. Nothing. (Certainly would have found it had I gone back to 1975, sort of the end of the free-love hippie era.)
Oh well.
Then yesterday as I walked, thinking about Rhys' book again, brought back the flashbacks, or maybe just the memory of having them the previous evening. And suddenly, there it was in my mind. Four words:
Looking
For
Mister
Goodbar
How many neurons are involved in bringing together four specific words, in a certain order, with other uncomfortable feelings and memories, with a visual component - the whole package almost certainly not present to my consciousness since all those connecting synapses were charged together - oh, probably at least thirty years ago?
And why then, as I walked? Why not the night before, when I was so desperately desiring their appearance?
Reflecting now on these memories, I can't imagine how I came to have the book. Also I rather doubt that I actually read the book, though I could have. About the only thing I'm sure about is that I did read the last few pages, and found them so disturbing that I decided I didn't want the book around any more. That's pretty much where it all ends. I suppose I slipped it into the trash.
There's a good review of the book here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... In it, I learned that Goodbar was based on an actual murder that occurred in New York, of a teacher who was adventuring into the unstable world of casual sex with strangers. She found what she was looking for - until that last time, when she found what she wasn't looking for.
December 3, 2018
The true story this novel is based upon is a sad tale and details can easily be found on the internet.
The story details the awakening of a young woman raised in a repressed home. As a child, Terry, the main character, was ill as a child and the illness, prolonged with a missed health diagnosis, heavily impacts her later life. As an adult, Terry flees to the city and soon follows a journey of city life exploration and her own sexual awakening. At first, she leads a more innocent lifestyle, which soon grows more complex and dark with increased exposure to the different men she encounters along the way.
First published in 1975, back then, the content most likely was quite provocative. While the novel is well written and excels for its time period, the content is no longer as shocking or surprising with our own changed culture.
Unfortunately, for this reader, the novel did not resonate because the main character was not perceived as sympathetic. Through the novel, it seemed Terry treated those that cared the most about her with indifference, and even with cruelty, than those that cared less for her (though, the main point of this may have been because she felt unworthy).
The story details the awakening of a young woman raised in a repressed home. As a child, Terry, the main character, was ill as a child and the illness, prolonged with a missed health diagnosis, heavily impacts her later life. As an adult, Terry flees to the city and soon follows a journey of city life exploration and her own sexual awakening. At first, she leads a more innocent lifestyle, which soon grows more complex and dark with increased exposure to the different men she encounters along the way.
First published in 1975, back then, the content most likely was quite provocative. While the novel is well written and excels for its time period, the content is no longer as shocking or surprising with our own changed culture.
Unfortunately, for this reader, the novel did not resonate because the main character was not perceived as sympathetic. Through the novel, it seemed Terry treated those that cared the most about her with indifference, and even with cruelty, than those that cared less for her (though, the main point of this may have been because she felt unworthy).
August 8, 2019
Reread in 2019, almost one year later: This book hasn't lost its grip on me, the writing style is magnificent in that it actually makes you slip into Theresa's shoes and understanding her so well despite her quite...obscure ways of living. Whoring around in bars is not exactly one of my favourite past-time activities, and yet I felt I could connect with Theresa so much. After all, self-sabotaging is something probably many of us are prone to, and often unwilling to admit even to ourselves. Theresa's sabotaging of potential loving relationships because she doesn't think she deserves anyone or anything remotely good (steeming from a deeper sense of self-hate) is something that hit closer to home than I myself would like to admit, and is probably the reason why I simply feel this book so incredibly much. A truly special read, by now already one of my all-time favourites books - even though I have to say that admitting to this when showing the blurb to people does make feel very self-conscious and embarrassed, being able to read their minds without them having to say so: "Why does Kathi - innocent Kathi - love reading about a woman sleeping around with strangers?" The answer is: because there's so much else to this book. An incredibly profound psychological case study that stays with you for a long time.
____________________________
Oh god, this book took me totally by surprise! I had expected nothing, absolutely nothing from it. I wasn't even excited when I started it and relieved that it wasn't going to be too long of a read. But wow! I appreciate the characterization of the protagonist so much, it's unlike everything I've read before. I could emphasize more with Theresa than many people and even I myself would expect, her being the total opposite of me and yet...her thoughts and feelings felt so familiar and I think that's the case for many women actually (not that we are proud to admit it). I wouldn't classify this one as a thriller. You immediately know what happens and who did it. But it's one of the best character-driven stories I've ever read, blunt and harsh in Theresa's portrayal - and yet so incredibly honest. The inner workings of one's mind aren't always so pretty as media wants us to think. And I appreciate how it makes us think next time we end up reading a news story about a murdered woman, who seemingly was at her own fault, "because she was asking for it, hanging out in bars and sleeping with random strangers". There's always a story behind everyone's story.
PS: Not a big fan of the very long and detailed description of the sex-scenes, but I feel they're an important part of this book in describing Theresa's mental relationship with men and herself.
PS2: Maybe surprisingly, I wouldn't really recommend this book to anyone, mainly because I'm certain it won't be a 5-star-read for most people. I don't even have a rational reason for giving it the highest score, other than that I connected with the story so much, while also being completely shocked and even disgusted by it.
____________________________
Oh god, this book took me totally by surprise! I had expected nothing, absolutely nothing from it. I wasn't even excited when I started it and relieved that it wasn't going to be too long of a read. But wow! I appreciate the characterization of the protagonist so much, it's unlike everything I've read before. I could emphasize more with Theresa than many people and even I myself would expect, her being the total opposite of me and yet...her thoughts and feelings felt so familiar and I think that's the case for many women actually (not that we are proud to admit it). I wouldn't classify this one as a thriller. You immediately know what happens and who did it. But it's one of the best character-driven stories I've ever read, blunt and harsh in Theresa's portrayal - and yet so incredibly honest. The inner workings of one's mind aren't always so pretty as media wants us to think. And I appreciate how it makes us think next time we end up reading a news story about a murdered woman, who seemingly was at her own fault, "because she was asking for it, hanging out in bars and sleeping with random strangers". There's always a story behind everyone's story.
PS: Not a big fan of the very long and detailed description of the sex-scenes, but I feel they're an important part of this book in describing Theresa's mental relationship with men and herself.
PS2: Maybe surprisingly, I wouldn't really recommend this book to anyone, mainly because I'm certain it won't be a 5-star-read for most people. I don't even have a rational reason for giving it the highest score, other than that I connected with the story so much, while also being completely shocked and even disgusted by it.
January 13, 2009
I wish I could find a few reviews of this book from when it was originally published. I am sure that by not living through the women's lib movement & the sexual revolution, I am missing something from this book.
However, as a person who grew up in the 80's, this book dooesn't strike me as a "precautionary tale." Rather, I really, really dislike Theresa Dunn. This is a woman who rarely speaks up for herself & always lets others make her decisions for her. Then, she becomes upset when her experiences don't live up to her expectations. Well....duh! Again, perhaps if I had lived during the period this novel takes place, I would have a better appreciation and understanding for Theresa's reluctance to assert her opinions and feelings. Theresa is dissatisfied with everyone in her life and she is incapable of forming a true friendship with either a man or a woman.
Clearly, Theresa is a hot mess. Rossner does a good job of offering an explaination through Theresa's early childhood sickness, her family role and her twisted relationship with Martin Engle. Nonetheless, I just can't bring myself to like her. Don't get me wrong ~ I am rooting for her throughout the book and hoping she will change her ways. But I don't think she would have, even if she wasn't murdered.
However, as a person who grew up in the 80's, this book dooesn't strike me as a "precautionary tale." Rather, I really, really dislike Theresa Dunn. This is a woman who rarely speaks up for herself & always lets others make her decisions for her. Then, she becomes upset when her experiences don't live up to her expectations. Well....duh! Again, perhaps if I had lived during the period this novel takes place, I would have a better appreciation and understanding for Theresa's reluctance to assert her opinions and feelings. Theresa is dissatisfied with everyone in her life and she is incapable of forming a true friendship with either a man or a woman.
Clearly, Theresa is a hot mess. Rossner does a good job of offering an explaination through Theresa's early childhood sickness, her family role and her twisted relationship with Martin Engle. Nonetheless, I just can't bring myself to like her. Don't get me wrong ~ I am rooting for her throughout the book and hoping she will change her ways. But I don't think she would have, even if she wasn't murdered.
May 26, 2009
"Talking was so much more complicated than making love...fucking, she should call it, since it was hard to see how anything she did with him could be about love. To talk with people you had to ignore the way you felt and speak from the front of your face...or else go through the effort of distilling those feelings into something that made some kind of sense, was acceptable in some way. That was what words did, really, make some kind of order out of the dark jumble of feelings and perceptions and nightmares inside you. And there was no way to do that in this situation. No way to explain in an orderly fashion how, without being drunk, stoned or out of her mind, she was having the most incredible sexual pleasure of her life with someone who at best amused her, and at worst frightened her half to death."
(page 167, "Looking for Mr. Goodbar")
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To say this is a cautionary tale about the seedy side of the singles bar scene in the '60s-'70s would be simplistic, on several levels. It's certainly not a book just about a seemingly "nice" schoolteacher by day who's a coldhearted one-night-stand fuck by night. It attempts to be the story of a life, and in that it's limited. I think I might have liked a few pages here and there about her working in her classroom with her kids, just to fill things out a little and lend balance. I think the famously disturbing Richard Brooks 1977 movie adaptation starring Diane Keaton attempted this, and in true Hollywood fashion turned the contrast into a bludgeon by making her a teacher of special ed students. At least they didn't outfit her in a nun's habit.
[Addendum: I have to make an insertion here after the fact. In truth, Brooks did appropriate, it seems, from this novel and from the actual case on which it was based. The real-life teacher DID work with special-ed kids. A book detailing the true case: "Closing Time: The True Story of the 'Goodbar' Murder" elaborates this. I plan to read this soon.)
------
some preliminary thoughts:
The book is ambivalent about the emergence of the free-sex era. Rossner clearly realizes and indicates that the era of repression was wrong and unnatural and yet one is disturbed by the bleakness of the noncommittal bed-hopping lifestyle as presented. The complicated portrait of her protagonist, Theresa, makes these feelings even more unsettling and harder to pinpoint. That things aren't clear-cut is to its credit. There's a lot to think about in this book. I'm enjoying the hell out of this. I'm giving it four stars for being a great read and an extra star for NOT being on all those lists of literary classics you SHOULD read. I'm learning to take those with a grain of salt; this has more feeling and reality and gravitas than shit like "One Hundred Years of Solitude."
FINAL THOUGHTS:
I kept finding choice passages I wanted to mark and highlight here, and so many thoughts - often conflicting - racing through my mind as I read this, but it was such a compelling read I didn't want to put it down and cut the flow. So, interestingly, I found myself playing mental ping pong about Theresa and about James. I hated the way she treated him, but then his sickeningly goody two-shoes manner and acceptance of her abuse made me pissed at him. I was feeling almost like her. In this way, I think Rossner gives her protagonist a bit of an out. That, and all the issues of deprivation as a child. I sometimes wonder if it's possible for a character to be "bad" just because she/he is, and not because of childhood traumas. But, in any case, Rossner did a fine job of crafting a believable character study. By the end, as I read this on the bus, I got chills throughout my body and had to wipe away tears. I know people saw me. Geez, I felt a little like wimpy James. This was a great read, an underrated, maligned book.
(page 167, "Looking for Mr. Goodbar")
-------
To say this is a cautionary tale about the seedy side of the singles bar scene in the '60s-'70s would be simplistic, on several levels. It's certainly not a book just about a seemingly "nice" schoolteacher by day who's a coldhearted one-night-stand fuck by night. It attempts to be the story of a life, and in that it's limited. I think I might have liked a few pages here and there about her working in her classroom with her kids, just to fill things out a little and lend balance. I think the famously disturbing Richard Brooks 1977 movie adaptation starring Diane Keaton attempted this, and in true Hollywood fashion turned the contrast into a bludgeon by making her a teacher of special ed students. At least they didn't outfit her in a nun's habit.
[Addendum: I have to make an insertion here after the fact. In truth, Brooks did appropriate, it seems, from this novel and from the actual case on which it was based. The real-life teacher DID work with special-ed kids. A book detailing the true case: "Closing Time: The True Story of the 'Goodbar' Murder" elaborates this. I plan to read this soon.)
------
some preliminary thoughts:
The book is ambivalent about the emergence of the free-sex era. Rossner clearly realizes and indicates that the era of repression was wrong and unnatural and yet one is disturbed by the bleakness of the noncommittal bed-hopping lifestyle as presented. The complicated portrait of her protagonist, Theresa, makes these feelings even more unsettling and harder to pinpoint. That things aren't clear-cut is to its credit. There's a lot to think about in this book. I'm enjoying the hell out of this. I'm giving it four stars for being a great read and an extra star for NOT being on all those lists of literary classics you SHOULD read. I'm learning to take those with a grain of salt; this has more feeling and reality and gravitas than shit like "One Hundred Years of Solitude."
FINAL THOUGHTS:
I kept finding choice passages I wanted to mark and highlight here, and so many thoughts - often conflicting - racing through my mind as I read this, but it was such a compelling read I didn't want to put it down and cut the flow. So, interestingly, I found myself playing mental ping pong about Theresa and about James. I hated the way she treated him, but then his sickeningly goody two-shoes manner and acceptance of her abuse made me pissed at him. I was feeling almost like her. In this way, I think Rossner gives her protagonist a bit of an out. That, and all the issues of deprivation as a child. I sometimes wonder if it's possible for a character to be "bad" just because she/he is, and not because of childhood traumas. But, in any case, Rossner did a fine job of crafting a believable character study. By the end, as I read this on the bus, I got chills throughout my body and had to wipe away tears. I know people saw me. Geez, I felt a little like wimpy James. This was a great read, an underrated, maligned book.
January 20, 2023
"Actually, when she thought about it at all, she didn’t really feel that she had a life, one life, that is, belonging to a person, Theresa Dunn. There was a Miss Dunn who taught a bunch of children who adored her and there was someone named Terry who whored around in bars when she couldn’t sleep at night. But the only thing those two people had in common was the body they inhabited. If one died, the other would never miss her- although she herself, Theresa, the person who thought and felt but had no life, would miss either one."
Looking for Mr. Goodbar was labeled one of the most taboo books when it was first released. The content that happened between these pages was things that not many people talked about openly. When I hear the word taboo my ears perk up like a dog hearing food being placed into its bowl. This was one that I have owned for a long time and I knew this book was one that was going to stop me from being in a funk.
I really enjoyed this book. The way the book started was interesting, you knew how it was going to end within the first couple of pages and I was eager to see how Theresa got to that point. It was a hard road traveled and this mind-blowing book doesn’t hold back from the ugly truth. I would have loved to been alive when this book first reached readers.
Looking for Mr. Goodbar was labeled one of the most taboo books when it was first released. The content that happened between these pages was things that not many people talked about openly. When I hear the word taboo my ears perk up like a dog hearing food being placed into its bowl. This was one that I have owned for a long time and I knew this book was one that was going to stop me from being in a funk.
I really enjoyed this book. The way the book started was interesting, you knew how it was going to end within the first couple of pages and I was eager to see how Theresa got to that point. It was a hard road traveled and this mind-blowing book doesn’t hold back from the ugly truth. I would have loved to been alive when this book first reached readers.
January 8, 2018
Wow!!! Enough said.
August 15, 2020
Σ'αυτό το βιβλίο βασίζεται η καλτ ταινία "Looking for Mr. Goodbar" του 1977 (ελληνικός τίτλος: "Αναζητώντας τον κύριο Γκούντμπαρ"), σε σκηνοθεσία Ρίτσαρντ Μπρουκς και με πρωταγωνιστές τους Ντάιαν Κίτον, Τιούσντεϊ Γουέλντ, Ρίτσαρντ Γκιρ και Τομ Μπέρεντζερ. Το βιβλίο το πέτυχα τυχαία σε παλαιοβιβλιοπωλείο, μιας και δεν ήξερα ότι είχε μεταφραστεί (μιλάμε για σκληρόδετη έκδοση της δεκαετίας του '70), και φυσικά το άρπαξα. Και είπα να το διαβάσω τώρα, αφού είχα κάμποσες βδομάδες να διαβάσω βιβλίο γραμμένο από γυναίκα συγγραφέα. Λοιπόν, καλό ήταν, με μια κάποια αίσθηση παρακμής στην όλη ατμόσφαιρα -που όσο να'ναι με γοήτευσε-, όμως από ένα σημείο και μετά θα έλεγα ότι με έχασε σαν αναγνώστη, γενικά σίγουρα δεν μπορώ να πω ότι με καθήλωσε ή με συνεπήρε μέχρι το τέλος. Ίσως να φταίει που η γενικότερη θεματολογία του βιβλίου δεν είναι ακριβώς μέσα στα αναγνωστικά μου γούστα, αλλά μάλλον φταίει που αντιπάθησα πλήρως την πρωταγωνίστρια και δεν κατανόησα ιδιαίτερα τον τρόπο σκέψης της, καθώς επίσης και τις πράξεις της. Πάντως έως ένα βαθμό μου άρεσε ο σχετικά ιδιαίτερος τρόπος γραφής (και η ατμόσφαιρα φυσικά), αν και δεν ξέρω κατά πόσο βοήθησε η μετάφραση. Σίγουρα κάποια στιγμή θα ήθελα να δω και την ταινία.
February 15, 2016
For a while I had a hard time picking up this book. The beginning was difficult for me to get through, but once the story got rolling it was pretty interesting. There was even some surprisingly lovely writing. Although the ending was quite abrupt, I suppose that's understandable given what happens.
October 24, 2017
One Stranger Too Many
Looking For Mr. Goodbar was a huge hit as both a novel and a movie, becoming part of the cultural signposts of the Seventies. The novel, which came first, was based loosely on a true story of a young woman in swinging Seventies Manhattan who took home one stranger too many from a pick- up bar and didn’t survive the night to tell about. It was a shocking story for mainstream literature, particularly the lurid sexual details. But it was more than just a shock value tale. It is a story told on more than level.
On one level, it is an intimate psychological portrait of a Desperate, lonely young woman, Theresa, beginning with her suffering from polio as a child and scoliosis or curvature of the spine, leading to a year of hospitalization as she became 12, and growing up feeling like an ugly duckling compared to her striking sister. As she enters college, she is seduced by and becomes the temporary mistress of one of her professors till she graduates and is cast aside in favor of the new girl.
Success escapes her even when she becomes a teacher as she spends her evenings in singles bars picking up guy after guy, with no one ever able to fill her emptiness. Her tragedy is not a secret and is telegraphed early on as she spins almost headlong out of control, calling in sick day after day to spend days in hotel rooms in her secret life with strangers. And, ultimately, becoming hard and harsh rather than soft and innocent.
On another level, the novel is not just about Theresa, but an indictment of a loose empty soulless life. It’s not just Theresa’s life that is painted but her older sister who has multiple boyfriends, open marriages, etc. This book was a hit because of the timing of its release and the harsh light it cast on where the sexual revolution had taken some, the excesses if you will.
Looking For Mr. Goodbar was a huge hit as both a novel and a movie, becoming part of the cultural signposts of the Seventies. The novel, which came first, was based loosely on a true story of a young woman in swinging Seventies Manhattan who took home one stranger too many from a pick- up bar and didn’t survive the night to tell about. It was a shocking story for mainstream literature, particularly the lurid sexual details. But it was more than just a shock value tale. It is a story told on more than level.
On one level, it is an intimate psychological portrait of a Desperate, lonely young woman, Theresa, beginning with her suffering from polio as a child and scoliosis or curvature of the spine, leading to a year of hospitalization as she became 12, and growing up feeling like an ugly duckling compared to her striking sister. As she enters college, she is seduced by and becomes the temporary mistress of one of her professors till she graduates and is cast aside in favor of the new girl.
Success escapes her even when she becomes a teacher as she spends her evenings in singles bars picking up guy after guy, with no one ever able to fill her emptiness. Her tragedy is not a secret and is telegraphed early on as she spins almost headlong out of control, calling in sick day after day to spend days in hotel rooms in her secret life with strangers. And, ultimately, becoming hard and harsh rather than soft and innocent.
On another level, the novel is not just about Theresa, but an indictment of a loose empty soulless life. It’s not just Theresa’s life that is painted but her older sister who has multiple boyfriends, open marriages, etc. This book was a hit because of the timing of its release and the harsh light it cast on where the sexual revolution had taken some, the excesses if you will.
August 17, 2015
I struggled with this character, quite a bit.
Yes, I saw signs of serious mental illness in Theresa Dunn. Yes, I think if she lived (not a spoiler, the book opens with that), she would have spent the rest of her life emotionally unstable and attracted to risk. There were subtle signs and actions of hers that indicated a lean towards a personality disorder.
Then there was the other side of it . . . Theresa is 26 years old. I would not want to be 26 again for all the money in the world. I related to A LOT of her thoughts and inner monologues. I could hear my 26 year old self saying many things she said. If she lived, would she have grown out of this? I can't say yes to that.
No idea if this would actually convince anyone to read this.
Yes, I saw signs of serious mental illness in Theresa Dunn. Yes, I think if she lived (not a spoiler, the book opens with that), she would have spent the rest of her life emotionally unstable and attracted to risk. There were subtle signs and actions of hers that indicated a lean towards a personality disorder.
Then there was the other side of it . . . Theresa is 26 years old. I would not want to be 26 again for all the money in the world. I related to A LOT of her thoughts and inner monologues. I could hear my 26 year old self saying many things she said. If she lived, would she have grown out of this? I can't say yes to that.
No idea if this would actually convince anyone to read this.
December 20, 2024
Just finished this 1970s book that I’ve wanted to experience for a very long time. I typically write my thoughts on books immediately following the read. But I’ve got to sit with this one for a time. Is it a 3 ⭐️ or a 5 ⭐️ read for me? How well has it aged? What would younger women think of it now vs the book’s release date? Hmmmm
October 29, 2022
It didn't really work for me. I was mostly able to like Theresa. I could understand how she had trouble committing to anybody and how she never could develop a self image as a full human being after her childhood health problems. But there was a lot of the book that was just not that well written. Tony and James were beyond cliched stereotypes. Theresa was so mean to James that it stretched credibility that he stuck with her as long as he did. And why couldn't she give James some lessons in good sex? The scenes when she smokes weed all felt false to me. And her transition from being a woman who had slept with a few guys to a man hunter on the prowl for sex partners in bars seemed to happen too quickly and not to be fully explained.
September 21, 2011
I first read this book when it was a paperback best-seller in 1976 and I was 21. It packed a real punch then, but this time it whacked me in an entirely different way. In a cultural and technological sense this book has become somewhat dated, but the big difference in my reaction has more to do with the water that has passed under my bridge in the meantime.
For readers who have not experienced the hopes and frustrations of the nightlife pick-up scene, it might seem that this is the story of an unfortunate encounter between two messed up people, which results in one’s death and the other’s prosecution for murder – as we learn at the outset of this book. That is how I recall experiencing this novel in my youth, plowing through it with a morbid fascination as to how developments led to that fateful event. (Nearing a bachelor’s degree in psychology, then, may have also lent to a clinical tendency to my reaction, seeing it as a good case study.)
After 35 years and some related personal experiences, I reread Looking for Mr. Goodbar with a profound appreciation for Rossner’s accute sense of a social phenomenon that seems just as, if not more, pervasive today in America’s urban culture. Single individuals suffering from loneliness and a sense of meaninglessness – even though surrounded by people and gainfully employed – and always aware that conveniently located are places where the like-minded gather, drinking for social lubrication and courage, and hoping that a chance encounter will fix things – that they’ll “get lucky”, an expression I heard for the first time not long after first reading this book.
The first couple pages of this book reveal the final fate for Theresa Dunn. This time, however, I got so caught up in empathizing with her inner struggles – the shoulds vs. coulds of her options – that I was actually surprised when it all suddenly became a moot issue.
For readers who have not experienced the hopes and frustrations of the nightlife pick-up scene, it might seem that this is the story of an unfortunate encounter between two messed up people, which results in one’s death and the other’s prosecution for murder – as we learn at the outset of this book. That is how I recall experiencing this novel in my youth, plowing through it with a morbid fascination as to how developments led to that fateful event. (Nearing a bachelor’s degree in psychology, then, may have also lent to a clinical tendency to my reaction, seeing it as a good case study.)
After 35 years and some related personal experiences, I reread Looking for Mr. Goodbar with a profound appreciation for Rossner’s accute sense of a social phenomenon that seems just as, if not more, pervasive today in America’s urban culture. Single individuals suffering from loneliness and a sense of meaninglessness – even though surrounded by people and gainfully employed – and always aware that conveniently located are places where the like-minded gather, drinking for social lubrication and courage, and hoping that a chance encounter will fix things – that they’ll “get lucky”, an expression I heard for the first time not long after first reading this book.
The first couple pages of this book reveal the final fate for Theresa Dunn. This time, however, I got so caught up in empathizing with her inner struggles – the shoulds vs. coulds of her options – that I was actually surprised when it all suddenly became a moot issue.
February 14, 2009
This is one of those books, like Valley of the Dolls or Peyton Place, that you know better but you just can not stop reading it. You can feel your brain softening and your eyes and personality growing dull and you feel like you're being naughty because most of the story is really quite simply just about sex.
Written in 1975, just a few years after the beginning of the sexual revolution, and chock full of women's lib ideology, schoolteacher Theresa Dunn is the woman out searching not for love but for pure, unadulterated sex. Mr. Goodbar is the bar she frequents most often. The story begins at the end, so right off the bad the reader knows exactly what is going to happen to Theresa, so in that sense it perhaps poses as a cautionary tale of what happens when "free love" goes wrong. Still, even with knowing Theresa's outcome it's impossible to turn away even in this day and age where we're all just a little more callused to the whole sex-in-literature thing. It's not that it's shocking in a VC Andrews sort of way (that shit is raw!), it's just a "Wow, I can't believe I'm still reading this!" kind of thing.
To illustrate just how addictive the story is, on more than one occasion I caught the person sitting next to me on the bus surreptitiously reading along with me. A couple even blushed when I looked at them.
Also, amusingly, on the back cover The Wall Street Journal was blurbed as saying, "Looking for Mr. Goodbar makes us care... because we know there are Theresa Dunns in our lives, in our office."
It made me think about my own office and wonder who the Theresa Dunn in my office is. And now I just feel dirty.
Written in 1975, just a few years after the beginning of the sexual revolution, and chock full of women's lib ideology, schoolteacher Theresa Dunn is the woman out searching not for love but for pure, unadulterated sex. Mr. Goodbar is the bar she frequents most often. The story begins at the end, so right off the bad the reader knows exactly what is going to happen to Theresa, so in that sense it perhaps poses as a cautionary tale of what happens when "free love" goes wrong. Still, even with knowing Theresa's outcome it's impossible to turn away even in this day and age where we're all just a little more callused to the whole sex-in-literature thing. It's not that it's shocking in a VC Andrews sort of way (that shit is raw!), it's just a "Wow, I can't believe I'm still reading this!" kind of thing.
To illustrate just how addictive the story is, on more than one occasion I caught the person sitting next to me on the bus surreptitiously reading along with me. A couple even blushed when I looked at them.
Also, amusingly, on the back cover The Wall Street Journal was blurbed as saying, "Looking for Mr. Goodbar makes us care... because we know there are Theresa Dunns in our lives, in our office."
It made me think about my own office and wonder who the Theresa Dunn in my office is. And now I just feel dirty.
January 26, 2023
A promiscuous young woman barhops, picks up a variety of random terrible men and beds them. Until one dude eventually murders her. (Which we already know is going to happen because it's revealed in the opening chapter who murders her and how.)
This could've been a good book but it wasn't. Theresa was a character ripe for sympathy (what with the history with her college professor, her dead brother, and her oblivious parents), but she somehow didn't elicit any. She was a dull, bratty bimbo. She met one decent guy and treated him like crap. By the time she starts to learn anything from her mistakes, she's dead the next day.
This book was apparently a big critical and commercial success in the 1970s. Maybe because of the sex scenes? (Which seem downright tame and unerotic by today's standards.) Maybe because an unmarried woman is seeking sex for own enjoyment and not procreation? Scandalous.
I like "old" classics like these, though, even if they don't age well, because of what they reveal about the culture norms of the time they were written. That's about all this book had going for it.
This could've been a good book but it wasn't. Theresa was a character ripe for sympathy (what with the history with her college professor, her dead brother, and her oblivious parents), but she somehow didn't elicit any. She was a dull, bratty bimbo. She met one decent guy and treated him like crap. By the time she starts to learn anything from her mistakes, she's dead the next day.
This book was apparently a big critical and commercial success in the 1970s. Maybe because of the sex scenes? (Which seem downright tame and unerotic by today's standards.) Maybe because an unmarried woman is seeking sex for own enjoyment and not procreation? Scandalous.
I like "old" classics like these, though, even if they don't age well, because of what they reveal about the culture norms of the time they were written. That's about all this book had going for it.
February 17, 2009
I saw the movie, starring Diane Keaton long ago and it stuck with me. The book was just as dark and dreary. Is it a 1970's statement about what happens to a reluctant feminist? Or is it simply the story of one confused woman. I think it can be read either way.
June 13, 2018
I’m haunted by this book. Good Lord! Jesus.
September 20, 2020
For this month's meeting the members of my book club were tasked with nominating books that were bestsellers the year we were born. This one, nominated by a member born in 1975, was chosen, which is the only reason that I read this book. Rossner was evidently intrigued by the notion that a schoolteacher would cruise bars at night looking for men to sleep with and took the true story of Roseann Quinn's murder as an opportunity to write a cautionary tale about how promiscuity is deadly or some such thing. I didn't enjoy it, both because of the premise (psychological wounds from childhood are the only explanation for why a women would regularly seek out casual sex, though it's bound to end in tragedy!) and because the main character, Theresa, was hard to relate to. Since Rossner felt the need to "explain" Theresa's interest in casual sex, she made her into a tragic figure, scarred (physically and mentally) from childhood, emotionally distant from her family, unable to maintain friendships, turned off by nice, old-fashioned men who use protection during sex, and inexplicably drawn to those men who treat her the worst. And, of course, this was written in the 70s, so there are plenty of cringeworthy slurs used for a range of people throughout the book.
The unfortunate thing is that Rossner is actually quite a good writer; the story was very readable, the dialogue sounded like real people, the plot was internally consistent, and the action was easy to follow. She just chose to use her talents to write a story making it seem like a real-life person was to blame for her own murder because she liked casual sex.
The unfortunate thing is that Rossner is actually quite a good writer; the story was very readable, the dialogue sounded like real people, the plot was internally consistent, and the action was easy to follow. She just chose to use her talents to write a story making it seem like a real-life person was to blame for her own murder because she liked casual sex.
April 19, 2012
Judith Rossner has impeccable literary credentials. [...] Looking for Mr. Goodbar is so good a read, so stunningly commercial as a novel, that it runs the risk of being consigned to artistic oblivion. That would be a mistake. The sureness of Judith Rossner's writing and her almost flawless sense of timing create a complex and chilling portrait of a woman's descent into hell that gives this book considerable literary merit.
http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/10/19...
This dismal tale is told in the context of the destructive and joyless hedonism of New York in the 1960’s and epitomized by the dialogue, which is studded with four-letter words. Rossner is ambivalent, however, about the extent to which blame should be placed on the sexually liberated schoolteacher or her brutal pickup. The author is more interested in portraying the particulars of a time and place and in raising questions than she is about providing answers.
http://www.enotes.com/looking-goodbar...
http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/10/19...
This dismal tale is told in the context of the destructive and joyless hedonism of New York in the 1960’s and epitomized by the dialogue, which is studded with four-letter words. Rossner is ambivalent, however, about the extent to which blame should be placed on the sexually liberated schoolteacher or her brutal pickup. The author is more interested in portraying the particulars of a time and place and in raising questions than she is about providing answers.
http://www.enotes.com/looking-goodbar...
June 16, 2019
“Are things really as simple as all that?”
I read this in my early 20s and saw the movie. Both left a huge impression on me at the time.
This story is an adaptation of the murder of Roseann Quinn. And, at the beginning of the book, there is the confession by Gary Cooper White, the murderer. This sets the stage of the book. Judith Rossner does an excellent job with this story.
Looking for Mr. Goodbar is for mature audiences, definitely. I forgot about all the explicit sexual encounters. However, there is much more than the encounters in this book. Theresa, the protagonist, gives us her background as a teacher, a daughter and sister.
The most interesting and revealing parts of this book were the conversations between Theresa and James, the man she meets through a friend. James is a good man; a person of character. So much came out about Theresa within these dialogues and her side thoughts.
I am glad I re-read this. Pretty sad story overall - especially when you know the ending from the beginning.
I read this in my early 20s and saw the movie. Both left a huge impression on me at the time.
This story is an adaptation of the murder of Roseann Quinn. And, at the beginning of the book, there is the confession by Gary Cooper White, the murderer. This sets the stage of the book. Judith Rossner does an excellent job with this story.
Looking for Mr. Goodbar is for mature audiences, definitely. I forgot about all the explicit sexual encounters. However, there is much more than the encounters in this book. Theresa, the protagonist, gives us her background as a teacher, a daughter and sister.
The most interesting and revealing parts of this book were the conversations between Theresa and James, the man she meets through a friend. James is a good man; a person of character. So much came out about Theresa within these dialogues and her side thoughts.
I am glad I re-read this. Pretty sad story overall - especially when you know the ending from the beginning.
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