What do you think?
Rate this book
Ανταύγειες πάθους
Ο θάνατος μιας φίλης θα τις φέρει, μετά από χρόνια, και πάλι κοντά. Και μέσα στο γνώριμο περιβάλλον του παλιού σπιτιού, εκεί που κάποτε αντάλλασσαν τα μικρά τους μυστικά και μοιράζονταν τις χαρές και τις λύπες τους, θα ξεδιπλώσουν και πάλι τις ζωές τους.
Η Τζόαν, η Ελέιν, η Κέιτ, η Νταϊάνα. Τέσσερις ώριμες γυναίκες, που έχουν περάσει τα σαράντα πέντε, μιλούν για την έξαλλη νιότη τους, για τα χρόνια του φεμινιστικού κινήματος και της αμφισβήτησης. Αναθυμούνται τους μεγάλους έρωτές τους, τους γάμους τους, τη γέννηση των παιδιών τους. Οι ανταύγειες του δυνατού πάθους του χτες και οι ανασφάλειες που γεννάει το αύριο, καθώς ομολογούνται, σκιαγραφούν, πέρα από τη ζωή των τεσσάρων αυτών γυναικών, το πορτραίτο μιας γενιάς και μιας εποχής.
«Σ' αυτό το βιβλίο η Barbara Raskin καταγράφει τους πόθους και τα αισθήματα μιας γενιάς. Ένα ορόσημο στο γυναικείο μυθιστόρημα...»
People
«Αστείο, διορατικό, τολμηρο και μελαγχολικό».
Washington Post
Η Τζόαν, η Ελέιν, η Κέιτ, η Νταϊάνα. Τέσσερις ώριμες γυναίκες, που έχουν περάσει τα σαράντα πέντε, μιλούν για την έξαλλη νιότη τους, για τα χρόνια του φεμινιστικού κινήματος και της αμφισβήτησης. Αναθυμούνται τους μεγάλους έρωτές τους, τους γάμους τους, τη γέννηση των παιδιών τους. Οι ανταύγειες του δυνατού πάθους του χτες και οι ανασφάλειες που γεννάει το αύριο, καθώς ομολογούνται, σκιαγραφούν, πέρα από τη ζωή των τεσσάρων αυτών γυναικών, το πορτραίτο μιας γενιάς και μιας εποχής.
«Σ' αυτό το βιβλίο η Barbara Raskin καταγράφει τους πόθους και τα αισθήματα μιας γενιάς. Ένα ορόσημο στο γυναικείο μυθιστόρημα...»
People
«Αστείο, διορατικό, τολμηρο και μελαγχολικό».
Washington Post
378 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1987
38 people are currently reading
130 people want to read
About the author
Barbara Raskin
10 books6 followersBarbara Raskin (1936–1999) was a Washington, DC–based journalist and author best known for her novel Hot Flashes. Capturing the feelings of the generation of women born during the Great Depression as they faced middle age, the novel spent five months on the New York Times bestseller list. Raskin wrote four other novels, Current Affairs, Loose Ends, Out of Order, and The National Anthem, as well as articles for numerous publications, including the Washington Post and the New York Times. She received a fiction award from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
September 1, 2016
This book was written nearly thirty years ago, and although today's modern women may not see reflections of themselves within its pages, they will surely appreciate and recognize the validity of the fully-developed and realistic characters they do find there. These women are DEBs, Depression Era Babies. They're well-read, well-educated activists who were involved in many social and political causes, but deep down, they suffer from feelings of inadequacy. Their pasts are littered with a long list of lovers, the abundant consumption of alcohol and drugs, and abortions of convenience. They married well, shared their child-raising years, and then watched their marriages disintegrate. They had it all... but it never seemed like enough, or exactly what they were looking for. And through it all, they always had each other.
Now one of them is dead, their center, the one person they all had in common, and the glue that held them together. This book tells what happens when these women gather together in their dead friend's home to mourn her death, and prepare for the funeral.
The ONLY thing I didn't like all that much: the frequent listing of book titles and authors. I mean, I GET that these women were literary, but I really didn't need to know the title and author of every book on every shelf of every bookcase within the story, let alone how they were arranged on the shelves. The first time wasn't too bad, but this happened multiple times. There were even references made to various books in the eulogy, for goodness sake! But, no biggie. It was simple enough to skim through those sections, but I'm not sure why the author included those details in the first place.
But bottom line? I loved this book. It's truly a literary triumph, full of universal truths about the wonder and agonies of being a woman, of being a feminist, and of being part of a close group of aging women friends. I'd give it four and a half stars.
Now one of them is dead, their center, the one person they all had in common, and the glue that held them together. This book tells what happens when these women gather together in their dead friend's home to mourn her death, and prepare for the funeral.
The ONLY thing I didn't like all that much: the frequent listing of book titles and authors. I mean, I GET that these women were literary, but I really didn't need to know the title and author of every book on every shelf of every bookcase within the story, let alone how they were arranged on the shelves. The first time wasn't too bad, but this happened multiple times. There were even references made to various books in the eulogy, for goodness sake! But, no biggie. It was simple enough to skim through those sections, but I'm not sure why the author included those details in the first place.
But bottom line? I loved this book. It's truly a literary triumph, full of universal truths about the wonder and agonies of being a woman, of being a feminist, and of being part of a close group of aging women friends. I'd give it four and a half stars.
July 30, 2016
“Hot flashes are rolls of unreasonable, unseasonable heat that create a rush—a flush that floods the face from neck to hairline. A hot flash is itchy, prickly and provocative—like a sudden spike of fever that produces a mean and cranky irritability.”
Raskin’s novel about a group of middle-aged women that come together to mourn and bury a dear friend was a New York Times best-seller many years ago, hailed as a “landmark women’s novel” at the time it was first released. I was invited to read and review it by Open Road Integrated Media and Net Galley. And on the one hand, I can see why it was considered ground-breaking in 1987, but on the other hand, some novels age more gracefully than others, and this one doesn’t. My three star rating applies to a niche audience of middle class Caucasian feminist women from the Boomer generation, but even for us, some of what is found here rings insensitive and tone deaf, because the world has moved on, but Rankin’s novel remains the same.
Suki has died, and her friends come to her home, because she has nobody else apart from her teenage son, David. Suki had a breakdown around the time Max divorced her; Ivy League educated Caucasian women raised in the US during the 1950s grew up with the societal expectation that their own talents were secondary to those of their husbands, and so they placed their own careers—Suki and all of her friends are writers—on a back burner in order to be good wives, mothers, and hostesses. The whining, entitled tone with which the book starts out, giving an overview of a life lived with Caribbean vacations, expensive wardrobes, endless tennis matches and fancy parties is going to set a lot of readers’ teeth on edge. It did mine, and I would not have finished reading it if I didn’t have an obligation to the publisher.
But underneath it all, there’s a second reality, and that’s what perhaps makes this book worth bringing back: these women, the ones that “kept our slave names” once they are divorced so that the ex-husband can marry a pretty, young trophy bride and set his first wife out to pasture, often find themselves with no job skills, their diplomas from Radcliffe and Yale obsolete after sitting in a drawer for thirty years or so, and so they find themselves with no income. Many of them had become isolated during their years of housewifery, staying inside the home to keep it tidy and welcoming whenever they were not driving a carpool of children or running household errands; there is something diminishing in telling an intelligent woman that the right thing to do is to iron sheets and shut up. So there is a Virginia Woolf-ish quality to some of this novel, and it is there that it finds some redemption.
That said, you need to brace yourself for the rest. These women consider themselves progressive if not radical, having prided themselves on their dedication to fighting the US war against Vietnam, and some dabbled momentarily, it seems, in the Civil Rights movement also. They have one African-American friend that appears after the 80% mark to become the token Black buddy, and she gets to deliver a few very wise lines before fading back into the distance. One of the Caucasian women makes a remark about Suki having been “colorblind”, and this made me want to punch a wall. But readers born later than 1970 should understand that white supremacy as an underlying assumption of daily wife was eerily prevalent in Caucasian households during the period when these women were young; at that time, pretending that all races were alike was well intentioned though frustratingly ignorant.
Another aspect of the text that seems hugely off kilter today but that was common to most progressive literature of the 1980s is that every single person in this supposedly forward-looking atmosphere is straight. Don’t even think about gender identity issues; back then there was still a hugely prevalent assumption that women loved only men and men loved only women, and everyone was comfortable with the sex organs with which they were born.
And so a formerly progressive book now sounds really off kilter in many, many places.
For those that have been deeply immersed in women’s literature from all eras, including the eras of Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Virginia Woolf, this book might be a worthwhile addition to your collection. But as general fiction, I cannot give it a solid recommendation.
This book will be released digitally August 9, 2016.
Raskin’s novel about a group of middle-aged women that come together to mourn and bury a dear friend was a New York Times best-seller many years ago, hailed as a “landmark women’s novel” at the time it was first released. I was invited to read and review it by Open Road Integrated Media and Net Galley. And on the one hand, I can see why it was considered ground-breaking in 1987, but on the other hand, some novels age more gracefully than others, and this one doesn’t. My three star rating applies to a niche audience of middle class Caucasian feminist women from the Boomer generation, but even for us, some of what is found here rings insensitive and tone deaf, because the world has moved on, but Rankin’s novel remains the same.
Suki has died, and her friends come to her home, because she has nobody else apart from her teenage son, David. Suki had a breakdown around the time Max divorced her; Ivy League educated Caucasian women raised in the US during the 1950s grew up with the societal expectation that their own talents were secondary to those of their husbands, and so they placed their own careers—Suki and all of her friends are writers—on a back burner in order to be good wives, mothers, and hostesses. The whining, entitled tone with which the book starts out, giving an overview of a life lived with Caribbean vacations, expensive wardrobes, endless tennis matches and fancy parties is going to set a lot of readers’ teeth on edge. It did mine, and I would not have finished reading it if I didn’t have an obligation to the publisher.
But underneath it all, there’s a second reality, and that’s what perhaps makes this book worth bringing back: these women, the ones that “kept our slave names” once they are divorced so that the ex-husband can marry a pretty, young trophy bride and set his first wife out to pasture, often find themselves with no job skills, their diplomas from Radcliffe and Yale obsolete after sitting in a drawer for thirty years or so, and so they find themselves with no income. Many of them had become isolated during their years of housewifery, staying inside the home to keep it tidy and welcoming whenever they were not driving a carpool of children or running household errands; there is something diminishing in telling an intelligent woman that the right thing to do is to iron sheets and shut up. So there is a Virginia Woolf-ish quality to some of this novel, and it is there that it finds some redemption.
That said, you need to brace yourself for the rest. These women consider themselves progressive if not radical, having prided themselves on their dedication to fighting the US war against Vietnam, and some dabbled momentarily, it seems, in the Civil Rights movement also. They have one African-American friend that appears after the 80% mark to become the token Black buddy, and she gets to deliver a few very wise lines before fading back into the distance. One of the Caucasian women makes a remark about Suki having been “colorblind”, and this made me want to punch a wall. But readers born later than 1970 should understand that white supremacy as an underlying assumption of daily wife was eerily prevalent in Caucasian households during the period when these women were young; at that time, pretending that all races were alike was well intentioned though frustratingly ignorant.
Another aspect of the text that seems hugely off kilter today but that was common to most progressive literature of the 1980s is that every single person in this supposedly forward-looking atmosphere is straight. Don’t even think about gender identity issues; back then there was still a hugely prevalent assumption that women loved only men and men loved only women, and everyone was comfortable with the sex organs with which they were born.
And so a formerly progressive book now sounds really off kilter in many, many places.
For those that have been deeply immersed in women’s literature from all eras, including the eras of Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Virginia Woolf, this book might be a worthwhile addition to your collection. But as general fiction, I cannot give it a solid recommendation.
This book will be released digitally August 9, 2016.
October 27, 2017
(Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me the chance to read this book in exchange for my thoughts.)
August 23, 2016
A literary novel, seeking to reveal the internal lives of a group of friends who grew up just after WWII, Barbara Raskin’s ‘Hot Flashes’ concentrates on menopausal feminist Jewish women in the USA. As such, it lacked some appeal for me. At the time of its initial publication, it was a NYT bestseller. But time hasn’t been so kind to this book as it has to other classic feminist novels. I think that’s due to its grounding in a group of women of privilege who appear to believe they are victims. These women have known no real poverty, none of the everyday challenges that characterise what most would generally understand as normal lives. It’s difficult for this reader to empathise with the whining of people who’ve lived comparatively easy lives.
This is also a very American book, a very Jewish book. Much of the detail was alien to me, a UK agnostic male, and I confess I skipped some passages out of sheer frustration.
Having said all that, the dense, clever and always apposite language of the book did engage me. The quality of the writing leaves many more modern works standing. And, yes, the emotional conflicts, the genuine sadness at the loss of a good friend, the angst of the generation all hit the mark. The sexual revolution brought about by readily available, cheap birth control in the hands of women, clearly had a profound effect on those raised in a paternalistic tradition steeped in ‘family’ values at the expense of personal liberty. But, for me, this novel lacked the universality of the themes present in Erica Jong’s Fear of Flying. It was too immersed in its own rather exclusive world.
No doubt this book will appeal to many of that generation, currently reaching the end of their lives. But I suspect it will not regain the general success it enjoyed at the time of its original release.
This book, first published in hardback in 1987, was released as an eBook this August (2016). I was offered a copy by the publisher who’d seen my review of ‘Fear of Flying’ and felt I might be interested.
This is also a very American book, a very Jewish book. Much of the detail was alien to me, a UK agnostic male, and I confess I skipped some passages out of sheer frustration.
Having said all that, the dense, clever and always apposite language of the book did engage me. The quality of the writing leaves many more modern works standing. And, yes, the emotional conflicts, the genuine sadness at the loss of a good friend, the angst of the generation all hit the mark. The sexual revolution brought about by readily available, cheap birth control in the hands of women, clearly had a profound effect on those raised in a paternalistic tradition steeped in ‘family’ values at the expense of personal liberty. But, for me, this novel lacked the universality of the themes present in Erica Jong’s Fear of Flying. It was too immersed in its own rather exclusive world.
No doubt this book will appeal to many of that generation, currently reaching the end of their lives. But I suspect it will not regain the general success it enjoyed at the time of its original release.
This book, first published in hardback in 1987, was released as an eBook this August (2016). I was offered a copy by the publisher who’d seen my review of ‘Fear of Flying’ and felt I might be interested.
June 29, 2016
I was reminiscing myself whilst reading the book as I felt I could empathize with the whole group of middle aged ladies! Hip and happening in the 1950s, they are now in the 1980s, and still quite happening!!! Not willing to give up and behave gracefully, they still would like to scandalize, to stir up the pot. Quite an interesting bunch. Varied interests, varying careers and still good to go.
Sukie's death has brought them together and since it was sudden (and unexpected) the four are trying to organize things including bringing in an ex-husband whom they all detest at the beginning (some of them still do at the end but some change), a very young boyfriend of Sukie's whom they did not know about and who comes out of the woodwork with a new novel of hers which he will not relinquish to the family and there is the father from far away who also turns up for the funeral. The funeral is the focus of the novel and everything builds up to it.
A story of friendship amongst women going on for decades and how important it is for everyone to have extended support from friends even if they are distant physically, just to know you have someone who would understand you.
I enjoyed the characters in this book and this is my second book in a week dealing with adult women who go back together as friends for decades. Am I seeing a trend here?
Sukie's death has brought them together and since it was sudden (and unexpected) the four are trying to organize things including bringing in an ex-husband whom they all detest at the beginning (some of them still do at the end but some change), a very young boyfriend of Sukie's whom they did not know about and who comes out of the woodwork with a new novel of hers which he will not relinquish to the family and there is the father from far away who also turns up for the funeral. The funeral is the focus of the novel and everything builds up to it.
A story of friendship amongst women going on for decades and how important it is for everyone to have extended support from friends even if they are distant physically, just to know you have someone who would understand you.
I enjoyed the characters in this book and this is my second book in a week dealing with adult women who go back together as friends for decades. Am I seeing a trend here?
May 15, 2023
If I was just a bit younger or from a wealthier background, I would have gotten even more enjoyment out of this book, but I enjoyed it plenty! The lovely way Raskin interwove the lives of all the various friends and their timelines was spellbinding. I usually find it difficult to keep characters apart when there are more than say four or so, but each one occupied a different space in my head and had unique reactions to the loss of loved ones, shaky shared confidences, and the relentless passage of time. Certainly this read made me appreciate what I have in marriage even more than I already do!
October 23, 2016
To anyone who has lost a good friend.....
I enjoyed this book ... it was well written and had well defined characters. If you have ever lost a long time friend you will be able to relate to the narrator of this novel.
I enjoyed this book ... it was well written and had well defined characters. If you have ever lost a long time friend you will be able to relate to the narrator of this novel.
March 27, 2007
What was I thinking?
June 16, 2012
Some great insights, some clever descriptions, but so very dated. It was like watching an episode of "Donahue".
Read
July 21, 2020This has been on my TBR shelf for many years. It seems to me I got it as a travelling companion for a book I had mooched, or maybe traded. I'm not sure what led me to acquire it. I am rather torn about this, as in many ways I find myself agreeing and identifying with much, and in other parts I feel it's so alien... Initially I was fairly charmed by the lists - and yes, I too have often carried an oversize handbag with everything in it to soothe, solve and allow me to escape over the border.... but I was not a depression baby and was fortunate to benefit from birth conception by the time I joined the world of free love. I do wonder how they managed....
At some point I could not stand the endless lists and seriously considered doing what I only very, very rarely do - ie not finishing the book. I was glad I did finish it as I found the end quite moving. I suppose I'll have to mull a bit on this review of a certain aspect of feminism. Yes we've come a long way, but this was still pretty early on the journey I think.
At some point I could not stand the endless lists and seriously considered doing what I only very, very rarely do - ie not finishing the book. I was glad I did finish it as I found the end quite moving. I suppose I'll have to mull a bit on this review of a certain aspect of feminism. Yes we've come a long way, but this was still pretty early on the journey I think.
December 8, 2020
Another book I found in local bookexchange; I rarely finish a book that I don't like I did this time, probably feeling like many of review I read after I finished it...I am sorry that this author died so young(well ten years older than when my own mother died). I ,was an adolescenn the 60's, a young woman in the 70's and 80's. This generation of women I first couldn't figure out! My mother was born in mid 20's; my dad's second wife in late 40's; ah the couple'es I babysat for ! Okay I grew up in "sophisticated"(100 doctors with many young interns!) in a population of 2000. OKAY I do seem to remember an inordinate number of couple switching and divorces....but come on! "Dated" is a kind description of this "sappy", " narcissitic " poorly written book. I was left wondering who were all the readers who kept this book on the NY Times best seller list??
August 3, 2025
I read (and re-read!) this book at around 14 and I remember it as being the most relatable book I’d ever read (which seems funny to me now that I’m in my 40s). I just looked it up to find the name of the author but when I saw how few reviews it has I decided to add it to my read list and leave this review. Without spoilers did anything important, there are things I still remember with odd clarity from this book 30 years later - like the inconvenient plant that everyone just adapted to, rather than moving it. Maybe if I read it now it wouldn’t be the same but I might see if my library has a copy :)
February 19, 2019
Book was just ok …. I was interested to read to see how the "views/lives/thoughts" of middle aged women changed from generation to generation. (My mom is in the age category described in the book). In some ways we differ … in most we do not. Reading this validated that girlfriends have always been important.
May 7, 2017
Another book I read in my 20's, that I loved. A bit maudlin, & more of an airplane read (not high culture), but it got the emotional lives of the characters, and I found myself swimming around in their thoughts.
August 23, 2017
Läst på svenska: En kvinna som Sukie
April 26, 2020
Not a great read....I finished it out of boredom but would not recommend as a book worth taking your time on.
August 13, 2016
It was loaned by a friend. I was a skeptic but the writing was good if a bit formulaic (sp). Couldn't figure the math on the age of these ladies. Born in 32? how could they be that hip and hide it so well? Math error?
March 20, 2015
Read when I was in my early 20's. No idea why I enjoyed it at the time (I certainly didn't have much in common with the characters!) but I did.
Might look it back up.. now that I'm middle aged myself ;)
Might look it back up.. now that I'm middle aged myself ;)
May 1, 2016
This is a female Big Chill. The best part of the book is the day of Sukie's funeral. However, that may have been due to the background and build up of the rest of the book. The way her diversity of friends came together to honor her shows true love, should I be that lucky.
May 9, 2008
Portrayal of four unforgettable women: Sukie, Joanne, Elaine, Diana.As the three friends gather for her funeral, they discover themselves again, and a Sukie they never knew.
March 13, 2014
DC's answer to Fear of Flying by the inimitable Barbara Raskin.
March 13, 2016
Funny, outrageous, sad, perceptive, moving and hopeful. I couldn't have said it better myself.
April 6, 2016
Wouldn't recommend it, although it generated a lot of discussion in book group.
October 20, 2017
I reread this book after more than 30 years, and it was really interesting.
March 26, 2012
Affirming book about women and friendships
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews