Saturday Night Widows

The Adventures of Six Friends Remaking Their Lives

By: Becky Aikman

Narrated by: Ann Marie Lee

Six marriages, six heartbreaks, one shared beginning.

In her 40s - a widow, too young, too modern to accept the role - Becky Aikman struggled to make sense of her place in an altered world. In this transcendent and infectiously wise memoir, she explores surprising new discoveries about how people experience grief and transcend loss and, following her own remarriage, forms a group with five other young widows to test these unconventional ideas. Together, these friends summon the humor, resilience, and striving spirit essential for anyone overcoming adversity.

Meet the Saturday Night Widows: ringleader Becky, an unsentimental journalist who lost her husband to cancer; Tara, a polished mother of two, whose husband died in the throes of alcoholism after she filed for divorce; Denise, a widow of just five months, now struggling to get by; Marcia, a hard-driving corporate lawyer; Dawn, an alluring self-made entrepreneur whose husband was killed in a sporting accident, leaving two small children behind; and Lesley, a housewife who returned home one day to find that her husband had committed suicide.

The women meet once a month, and over the course of a year, they strike out on ever more far-flung adventures, learning to live past the worst thing they thought could happen. They share emotional peaks and valleys - dating, parenting, moving, finding meaningful work, and reinventing themselves - while turning traditional thinking about loss and recovery upside down. Through it all runs the story of Aikman's own journey through grief and her love affair with a man who tempts her to marry again. In a transporting story of what friends can achieve when they hold each other up, Saturday Night Widows is a rare book that will make you laugh, think, and remind yourself that despite the utter unpredictability and occasional tragedy of life, it is also precious, fragile, and often more joyous than we recognize.

©2013 Becky Aikman (P)2013 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"Engaging and entertaining but not maudlin, Aikman shows a side of life that many readers probably don't think about. A compassionate narrative about how one group of friends helped each other thrive after the deaths of their spouses."( Kirkus Reviews)

"Can six disparate women who’ve just suffered unimaginable and premature loss find wit, irony, strength, and growth with each other? Becky Aikman's Saturday Night Widows proves it in a laugh-inducing, page-turning way. It's like The Help. Female bonding - a subject we thought we knew - gets a delicious, heartwarming overhaul, and you, the reader, didn't see it coming. Lucky you!(Sheila Weller, author of the New York Times best seller Girls Like Us)

"It’s the spirit of a book that makes you love it. And the spirit here, Becky Aikman’s spirit, is tough, honest, funny, smart, and generous to the world - all the equipment one needs when dealing with grief. One would not wish to qualify for the widows’ club, but reading about it is heartening."(Roger Rosenblatt, author of Kayak Morning and Making Toast)

I enjoyed the author's style of writing.

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes. It was uplifting.

What did you like best about this story?

The style of the author a writing. It showed hope after one experiences a tragedy.

What aspect of Ann Marie Lee’s performance would you have changed?

None

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Life after widowhood

Interesting account of becoming a new widow

Overall the story was different and held my interest. I felt it should have been better edited--too many repetitions and recaps. However, the author did use interesting metaphors and thought she was a good writer, It was a good look into what a woman's life would be like after losing their spouse. There are six very different woman whose stories get shared. Nothing like seeing what it is like to walk in someone else's shoes and to open our eyes to what will eventually happen to anyone who is married.

A perfect gift if you know a widow!

Where does Saturday Night Widows rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Right up there with the top 5.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Saturday Night Widows?

The trip to the lingerie store...such a tiny slice of real life.

What does Ann Marie Lee bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

I am so glad I listened to the book. With voice, you absorb it in a different way, and Ann Marie's talent lets you create such a visual image of the characters and their activities. These women became my friends and I joined them on their journey.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I'm a widow of 3 years, and as I listened, over and over I recalled my own journey of widowhood. Often through my progress I wished I had other women I could have bonded with for support and encouragement and wanted to do what Becky had done, but I was bogged down with trying to keep 2 businesses solvent during the worst economic collaspe in history. I would have joined in a heartbeat if someone like Becky could have contacted me. I did look for grief groups but found only one cancer group and it was focused to families with children, so I relied on my friends and family. Oh yes, I had tears and laughter, over so many incidents within the story. This is such a reassurance of what is normal as you go through the strange and confusing and exhausting process of grieving. Part of the magic in this was that the women were all so different, yet that common thread of grief, lifted them up out of sorrow and gave each of them the courage to rebuild their lives. Every chapter is reality. Until you get there, you just don't know. This will give the newly widowed a lifeline of hope. The been widowed a while group, the assurance they are on track, and perhaps it will inspire more women to start similar groups. According to demographics its a growing society.

Any additional comments?

I would highly recommend this as a gift to any widow. You can be sure they will get comfort, courage, and laughter from the story. Thank you Becky for sharing your story!

Entertaining & healing

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes!

Any additional comments?

As a young widow myself, I was able to relate to all of this book while finding healing in knowing I am not alone. Every character felt like my best friend by the end of the book.

Terrible

What disappointed you about Saturday Night Widows?

It was promising at the beginning, but I lost interest I mean ;I could not have cared *less* about these women by the third chapter. The writing and narration was mawkish and overwrought, fraught with ham fisted analogies between art and self growth. She bored me silly describing what each woman wore from shoes to earings;and her insights into each woman were cliched and superficial making it difficult to relate to the self awareness they developed.
"We would have memories, we would one day say to each other 'Remember Marcia and the day she defied gravity with the Hula Hoop at the Spa Weekend?" Am I supposed to care about that? Perhaps I would have, had I known more about Marcia than her boots and haircut.Having lost my husband, I don't think this would inspire or comfort your average grieving widow. How many of us could afford to take several trips across the world within a year, and stay at spas and five star hotels?

Has Saturday Night Widows turned you off from other books in this genre?

No. As a rule I like memoirs, unfortunately, being through something terrible does not by itself make you an interesting writer. Give me Mary Karr!

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Ann Marie Lee?

Someone with a grittier more earthy voice. Her lilt added to the overall mawkish feel of the story.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Disappointment

Trite and Boring

What would have made Saturday Night Widows better?

I made it through half of the book but it was so bad I gave it up. The book dragged and never really said much. Very superficial and not something I would recommend to anyone looking for insight and meaning. I became a widow in my 40's and although not a writer, I could have written a book more interesting than this one.

What could Becky Aikman have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

More indepth writing about feelings and perhaps some real revalations.

How could the performance have been better?

Voice was irratating, perhaps because I was so dissapointed in the book.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Dissappointment

Any additional comments?

Would not recommend.