What do you think?
Rate this book
Older Men
Elise must find a way out....
Daddy's little girl, Elise has been that all her life. Her father, Nate, has showered her with overwhelming love and lavish gifts. He's made her the focus of his life -- all at the expense of Elise's mather. Nate left his first wife and family behind for the challende of Elise's mother, but Elise soon became the object of his affection.
Now Elise must face the fact that her family is coming apart. One night her emotionally fragile mother, distraught and confused about her role in the family, has a nervous breakdown and is institutionalized by Nate. Nothing Elise says can change her father's mind about what he's done.
With the help of her older stepsister Kara and her stepbrother Tim, Elise begins to unravel the confusion that has enveloped her life. The choices and confrontations that Elise faces make her see that growing up is more complicated than she ever imagined....
Daddy's little girl, Elise has been that all her life. Her father, Nate, has showered her with overwhelming love and lavish gifts. He's made her the focus of his life -- all at the expense of Elise's mather. Nate left his first wife and family behind for the challende of Elise's mother, but Elise soon became the object of his affection.
Now Elise must face the fact that her family is coming apart. One night her emotionally fragile mother, distraught and confused about her role in the family, has a nervous breakdown and is institutionalized by Nate. Nothing Elise says can change her father's mind about what he's done.
With the help of her older stepsister Kara and her stepbrother Tim, Elise begins to unravel the confusion that has enveloped her life. The choices and confrontations that Elise faces make her see that growing up is more complicated than she ever imagined....
- GenresYoung Adult
228 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1987
40 people want to read
About the author
Norma Klein
69 books112 followersNorma Klein was born in New York City and graduated cum laude and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa from Barnard College with a degree in Russian. She later received her master's degree in Slavic languages from Columbia University.
Ms. Klein began publishing short stories while attending Barnard and since then she had written novels for readers of all ages. The author got her ideas from everyday life and advised would-be writers to do the same -- to write about their experiences or things they really care about.
Ms. Klein died in 1989.
Ms. Klein began publishing short stories while attending Barnard and since then she had written novels for readers of all ages. The author got her ideas from everyday life and advised would-be writers to do the same -- to write about their experiences or things they really care about.
Ms. Klein died in 1989.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
March 3, 2013
Elise's father loves little girls. Elise is the apple of her father's eye. He adores her. He takes her into Manhattan, buys her gifts, and dotes on her. His relationship with Elise is so important, it is exclusive of all others, including her mother. Her mother, already a delicate and quiet woman, has been relegated more and more into the shadows until her depression overwhelms her and her husband has her committed to a mental hospital.
When Elise graduates from high school, a few weeks later, she surprises everyone by deciding she'd rather spend the summer at her grandmother's apartment in New York City than stay with her father in Connecticut. In New York, she finds a job at a bookstore where she eventually meets Kara, her father's step-daughter from his first marriage. Elise has always heard how Kara was a lovely girl until she went to college and became "difficult," but the Kara she meets seems terrific. Yes, she is getting divorced from a much older man and she now acknowledges that was a bad case of a daddy complex, but she's moving on and no one understand Elise better. With Kara, and Kara's brother Tim, Elise starts to understand the feelings of ickiness she's been having around her father lately are normal and it's healthy for her to want to stand up for herself and be independent. She also understands that even if it means her father will turn against her, as he did with Kara, it's a price worth paying for keeping your self-esteem and being an adult.
Now Ms. Klein does a truly masterful job of making the relationship between Elise and her father just on the border of inappropriate. It's inappropriate how much he values his daughter over his wife, how he involves Elise in his marital difficulties, and how he wants Elise to stay a little girl forever, but you never get the feeling that he would abuse her. It's a fine line to straddle, but she does. And this is unique in Ms. Klein's world too, as most of her parents are pretty decent parents, is a little lax and self-involved; but Elise's father is a pretty terrible father, although he would say he's an excellent one. Yes, Elise has gotten everything she's ever wished for, but at what cost? Her mother is a simpering, sniveling waste who never stands up for herself until it is almost too late. She does redeem herself in the end.
This book's plot is more complicated, somewhat more dark, and Elise goes through more changes than any other of Ms. Klein's protagonists. I thought because Elise is a little younger (16) and the book is shorter, that it might be appropriate for younger teens, but I'm very glad I reread it as the content itself with her creepy father and depressed mother is very heavy, not to mention she does have sex. But as usual, Ms. Klein handles tricky and uncomfortable situations with aplomb and delicacy. Elise does learn to stand up for herself, but also to be true to herself. Her situation doesn't miraculous reverse itself overnight, and yes, some parts will not end well, but the important thing is that we and Elise realize Elise is strong enough to handle what difficulties may come her way. I think that usually is the key note in a young adult novel - all the plots may be different, but the commonality is learning who you are, and learning to stand up for yourself.
When Elise graduates from high school, a few weeks later, she surprises everyone by deciding she'd rather spend the summer at her grandmother's apartment in New York City than stay with her father in Connecticut. In New York, she finds a job at a bookstore where she eventually meets Kara, her father's step-daughter from his first marriage. Elise has always heard how Kara was a lovely girl until she went to college and became "difficult," but the Kara she meets seems terrific. Yes, she is getting divorced from a much older man and she now acknowledges that was a bad case of a daddy complex, but she's moving on and no one understand Elise better. With Kara, and Kara's brother Tim, Elise starts to understand the feelings of ickiness she's been having around her father lately are normal and it's healthy for her to want to stand up for herself and be independent. She also understands that even if it means her father will turn against her, as he did with Kara, it's a price worth paying for keeping your self-esteem and being an adult.
Now Ms. Klein does a truly masterful job of making the relationship between Elise and her father just on the border of inappropriate. It's inappropriate how much he values his daughter over his wife, how he involves Elise in his marital difficulties, and how he wants Elise to stay a little girl forever, but you never get the feeling that he would abuse her. It's a fine line to straddle, but she does. And this is unique in Ms. Klein's world too, as most of her parents are pretty decent parents, is a little lax and self-involved; but Elise's father is a pretty terrible father, although he would say he's an excellent one. Yes, Elise has gotten everything she's ever wished for, but at what cost? Her mother is a simpering, sniveling waste who never stands up for herself until it is almost too late. She does redeem herself in the end.
This book's plot is more complicated, somewhat more dark, and Elise goes through more changes than any other of Ms. Klein's protagonists. I thought because Elise is a little younger (16) and the book is shorter, that it might be appropriate for younger teens, but I'm very glad I reread it as the content itself with her creepy father and depressed mother is very heavy, not to mention she does have sex. But as usual, Ms. Klein handles tricky and uncomfortable situations with aplomb and delicacy. Elise does learn to stand up for herself, but also to be true to herself. Her situation doesn't miraculous reverse itself overnight, and yes, some parts will not end well, but the important thing is that we and Elise realize Elise is strong enough to handle what difficulties may come her way. I think that usually is the key note in a young adult novel - all the plots may be different, but the commonality is learning who you are, and learning to stand up for yourself.
October 6, 2021
I read this a long time ago and don’t go into it excepting to love it. I went in expecting to remember being a teenager. It sucked. And Elise feels detached from her own story. I think about the quote about the term “daddy issues” being an insult to women instead of to absent or dysfunctional fathers and I think this book does a good job of illustrating that. It’s a downer and not one I felt romantic for reading.
February 8, 2008
This came out when I was in college and not reading any YA books at all. It may have been the only YA book that I read during my college years (until I got to grad school and started back up with them). I read it for the comfort of reading a new book by one of my favorite authors.
November 5, 2025
The most recent in my mission to read all of Norma Klein. This one was published in 1987. A more apt title could have been "Daddies and Daughters" or something equally as gross.
The title is accurate in that most of the women (Elise, her mother, and her stepsister) all have been or become involved with much older men. The only one who doesn't, and the only one in a happy, appropriate relationship is Elise's grandmother. She is just fifty-five, prefers men her own age, and also relishes her independence and only sees her boyfriend every couple weeks.
Elise's father is also just fifty-five, and he was a married man when he met Elise's mother, who was only twenty to his thirty-nine. Elise is now sixteen and graduating high school. (She skipped a grade.) Her mother, June, is depressed and angry and anxious and has a moment of emotional overwhelm that is enough for her doctor-husband to persuade her to check into a mental hospital. She soon learns it's terrible and rather than helpful, really detrimental, yet she needs her husband to "take responsibility" for her in order to be released, and he will not. (If I were June's mother, I would be fighting for my daughter. I suppose everyone is powerless because June is married?)
The story focuses on Elise's relationship with her father and with her mother, with side characters Kara and Tim, Elise's stepsiblings from Daddy's first marriage, whom Elise never meets until halfway through the book. I continue to be gobsmacked by the kinds of conversations Klein's characters have. Kara, twenty-four and divorced from FF ("father figure") is sleeping with a married man, and Elise says, "You could steal him away from his wife" (124). As if that's a perfectly regular, nonproblematic thing to do. I mean, that's what *her* mother did, so.
Don't get me started on Daddy. It's the whole point of the novel, though. The power men have. The entitlement. The skill at gaslighting. Elise is "enraged" by her father so many times as she becomes aware of these things. Yet, you would never know she is angry at all. She never expresses it. Amazing and maddening. Interestingly, although the story highlights the unequal power dynamic, it also shows just how easily Daddy is manipulated by Kara when she chooses to do so because she knows how to play his need to be adored.
As for Elise's older man, I cheered when he decided to be the adult and not have sex with her for "a multitude of reasons" (They just met, she's underage, and they don't have protection). He even chides her for thinking that she won't get pregnant if it's her first time. Reason prevails! Hooray. Then the next time they meet, all those reasons go out the window. Sigh. That was really disappointing. Wouldn't it be great if people realized that it doesn't have to be nothing or sex? Wouldn't it be great if he cared about her enjoyment?
This is the first Klein novel that I felt could have used some editing/rewriting. Or maybe I was just missing subtleties. It's meant for teens, though, so... Elise specifically says that her family doesn't hug much, nor do they talk about sex. But both her parents hug her a lot. Is that meant to be a recent shift because of the events in the story? Elise also mentions that her father always said her mother didn't like sex (but they never talk about sex). These contradictions bothered me. Ah well.
In the end, the women do make their own choices, finally. What a doozy.
Klein also writes that grandma's boyfriend worked for a government agency during Carter's presidency, but when Reagan took office, the agency was eliminated. Sound familiar?
The title is accurate in that most of the women (Elise, her mother, and her stepsister) all have been or become involved with much older men. The only one who doesn't, and the only one in a happy, appropriate relationship is Elise's grandmother. She is just fifty-five, prefers men her own age, and also relishes her independence and only sees her boyfriend every couple weeks.
Elise's father is also just fifty-five, and he was a married man when he met Elise's mother, who was only twenty to his thirty-nine. Elise is now sixteen and graduating high school. (She skipped a grade.) Her mother, June, is depressed and angry and anxious and has a moment of emotional overwhelm that is enough for her doctor-husband to persuade her to check into a mental hospital. She soon learns it's terrible and rather than helpful, really detrimental, yet she needs her husband to "take responsibility" for her in order to be released, and he will not. (If I were June's mother, I would be fighting for my daughter. I suppose everyone is powerless because June is married?)
The story focuses on Elise's relationship with her father and with her mother, with side characters Kara and Tim, Elise's stepsiblings from Daddy's first marriage, whom Elise never meets until halfway through the book. I continue to be gobsmacked by the kinds of conversations Klein's characters have. Kara, twenty-four and divorced from FF ("father figure") is sleeping with a married man, and Elise says, "You could steal him away from his wife" (124). As if that's a perfectly regular, nonproblematic thing to do. I mean, that's what *her* mother did, so.
Don't get me started on Daddy. It's the whole point of the novel, though. The power men have. The entitlement. The skill at gaslighting. Elise is "enraged" by her father so many times as she becomes aware of these things. Yet, you would never know she is angry at all. She never expresses it. Amazing and maddening. Interestingly, although the story highlights the unequal power dynamic, it also shows just how easily Daddy is manipulated by Kara when she chooses to do so because she knows how to play his need to be adored.
As for Elise's older man, I cheered when he decided to be the adult and not have sex with her for "a multitude of reasons" (They just met, she's underage, and they don't have protection). He even chides her for thinking that she won't get pregnant if it's her first time. Reason prevails! Hooray. Then the next time they meet, all those reasons go out the window. Sigh. That was really disappointing. Wouldn't it be great if people realized that it doesn't have to be nothing or sex? Wouldn't it be great if he cared about her enjoyment?
This is the first Klein novel that I felt could have used some editing/rewriting. Or maybe I was just missing subtleties. It's meant for teens, though, so... Elise specifically says that her family doesn't hug much, nor do they talk about sex. But both her parents hug her a lot. Is that meant to be a recent shift because of the events in the story? Elise also mentions that her father always said her mother didn't like sex (but they never talk about sex). These contradictions bothered me. Ah well.
In the end, the women do make their own choices, finally. What a doozy.
Klein also writes that grandma's boyfriend worked for a government agency during Carter's presidency, but when Reagan took office, the agency was eliminated. Sound familiar?
October 30, 2024
I think I read this when I was about 13?
I remembered some scenes so vividly; I would never have said I liked it. I should have gone by the stickers on the YA paperbacks...this one would definitely have had a neon green dot (which meant you were supposed to be in eleventh grade, at least).
I still felt distress while rereading. What color sticker is for being 46?
I remembered some scenes so vividly; I would never have said I liked it. I should have gone by the stickers on the YA paperbacks...this one would definitely have had a neon green dot (which meant you were supposed to be in eleventh grade, at least).
I still felt distress while rereading. What color sticker is for being 46?
January 12, 2020
Holy cats, that father was a evil, dumpster fire of a human being. This guy was an actual child predator and the text never called him out as such, which I found deeply disturbing.
January 17, 2021
UPDATE 17/1/2021: Second time reading this in almost two years and I got so much more out of it! I love the commentary on misogyny and feminism, mental health and injustices. I love the contrasting dynamics between Elise and her father, mother, Kara, and Tim. I'd forgotten how this ended and it warms my heart now. This is such a beautiful, raw, underrated book. I adore it. A favourite for sure.
ORIGINAL REVIEW:
I finished this in one day. And while I'd usually complain that the whole "older men" concept came late in the book, and Elise's encounters with Tim were very brief, it all seemed to slot into place.
This was an interesting and fresh read, I liked the different personalities and events, I like the contrast between Elise's parents and how everything wraps up somewhat nicely at the end.
I didn't expect this, nor do I really want it to be, too much of an erotic or risky novel, but I do wish there was a bit more of Elise and Tim we could've seen.
Although this book was written in the 80's, I feel like it's still relevant today and deserves so much more attention. The brutal and realistic views on family life and having a mentally ill family member, especially in the way Elise's mother was concerned. I feel like if someone was going through a similar thing they'd really be able to identify with this book.
Part of me wants to give this book 5 stars, but my instinct says 4. A great read altogether.
ORIGINAL REVIEW:
I finished this in one day. And while I'd usually complain that the whole "older men" concept came late in the book, and Elise's encounters with Tim were very brief, it all seemed to slot into place.
This was an interesting and fresh read, I liked the different personalities and events, I like the contrast between Elise's parents and how everything wraps up somewhat nicely at the end.
I didn't expect this, nor do I really want it to be, too much of an erotic or risky novel, but I do wish there was a bit more of Elise and Tim we could've seen.
Although this book was written in the 80's, I feel like it's still relevant today and deserves so much more attention. The brutal and realistic views on family life and having a mentally ill family member, especially in the way Elise's mother was concerned. I feel like if someone was going through a similar thing they'd really be able to identify with this book.
Part of me wants to give this book 5 stars, but my instinct says 4. A great read altogether.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews