Diary of a Mad Housewife

I recently saw this on my bookshelf and decided to read it again after a hiatus of many years. Well, time has not diminished the power of this book to engage the reader. Humorous and thought provoking, it allows the reader a glimpse into the mind of Bettina Balser, an upper middle class woman, living in Manhattan somewhere in the late nineteen sixties, who feels that she is losing her mind. Consequently, she begins to keep a diary, because she finds it cathartic. Through her diary, the reader sees a dawning awareness of self, a self that she has long repressed. Bettina married her husband Jonathan, when he was an idealistic up and coming Assistant District Attorney. When his political aspirations did not bear fruit, he left public service and became an insufferable, materialistic, social climbing corporate attorney. He is also a total control freak, planning every aspect of their lives and disparaging his wife at every opportunity. The sad thing is that he is totally unaware of what he is doing to his wife, so self-absorbed is he. They have two equally insufferable little girls, who seem to emulate their father at every turn. It is no wonder that Bettina feels that she is sinking into an abyss. It is as if she were a displaced person with no place to go, no place to run, no place to hide. Where has her self gone? The author takes the reader into the inner workings of Bettina's mind. The reader sees how she copes with her struggle to find the woman within the shell she has become. In its time, this book was viewed as being feminist in nature. What else would one call it, when the book is clearly about a woman's struggle with the hand that fate has dealt her simply by virtue of her gender? Although some of the references seem a little dated, such as the cost of certain things or the fact that everyone seemed to smoke cigarettes, it is simply reflective of its time and quite fitting. Full of humor, wit, and discreet social commentary, this is a book that has become a modern day classic.

This is the story of Bettina "Tina" Balser: her husband is convinced she's losing her mind and needs help, her daughters are growing older and surly, her affair with an arrogant, foul-mouthed playwright is hardly the redemptive experience she needs, so she starts to keep a diary, which she keeps hidden from everyone and records her feelings so that she can feel some sort of connection. Sue Kaufman's novel (which spawned a movie that, at this writing, is frustratingly unavailable on home video) written at the cusp of the emerging women's movement of the late sixties feels just as fresh and important to this contemporary reader as it must have when it was originally published. Despite the situation of Tina feeling trapped in her marriage and in her life, Kaufman does a nifty case of gender reversal in this book. For a change, it is the husband who "roosterpecks" his spouse mercilessly, is vain and materialistic, is a social climber of embarrassingly blatant proportions -- who wouldn't feel nuts with a husband like Jonathan Balser? By making Jonathan the way he is, Kaufman calls into question the entire concept of women and inborne madness. Are women really prone to hysteria, or are there also outside factors than can cause a woman to go mad? Also, what was once called madness can now be called "depression" but "Diary of a Depressed Housewife" doesn't have the same zing. Some people may shy away from this book if they hear it's a feminist novel, but that's assigning a very narrow definition to the term "feminist." I would agree with anybody who labels this a "feminist novel" and would wholeheartedly approve of it being put on any curriculum, whether women's studies or just a general survey course. It's a complementary work to novels such as "The Women's Room" and, more importantly, "The Yellow Wallpaper." I would also say that this book is the urban sister of Richard Yates' "Revolutionary Road" and a cousin of, yes, I'm saying it, "Valley of the Dolls." Like all these books, "Diary of a Mad Housewife" is funny, sad, always sharp, never didactic, and most of all, inspiring.

I first read this book, by the late Sue Kaufman, in the 70s, and from that moment, I loved it. I read it so many times that I had to buy another one because it fell apart, (the paperback).Then it was out of print, and now it's been re-printed and I'm so glad that it can be re-enjoyed by a whole lot more readers.The story of a bored housewife, whose husband suddenly gets much richer than they'd ever believed he could, but also gets more snobbish and silly than she could ever believe, strikes an answering chord in many women's minds.He starts to order all the family to do everything he wants, while people are laughing at him for his ridiculous attitude.Tina is so embarrassed and she turns to an affair with a completely unsuitable man.The humour and the descriptions of her life with her two daughters and this overbearing husband are very clever indeed, and I really recommend it. I wish I was reading it for the first time!!!!!!

I first read this book back in the mid-1980s, and I just loved it! It's funny, heartbreaking, insightful and, above all, entertaining. I may not be anybody's wife or mother, but as a woman living in a big city I feel I can still relate to Tina. How many times have I had to deal with overbearing snobs like her husband Jonathan, bratty kids (I'm an aunt to 8 nieces and nephews) like Sylvie and Liz, and heartless, unfeeling men like playwright George Prager. I highly recommend this novel, but it's too bad it's out of print. ENJOY!

This book is out of print, sadly, which is a crying shame. Story of an upper class woman with two snotty daughters, a weary loyal maid, and an insufferable social climbing lawyer husband, all living in Manhattan. The woman begins an affair with a possibly dangerous man, a famous author. The middle aged crazy emotions our heroine rollercoasts through are familiar stuff, but so well written. And the details of their lives, the wonderful descriptions of apartments and dinners and fashions, of a New York City that is sadly no more (late '60's, when it was affordable for people other than Donald Trump to live there) - just one of the best novels I've ever read. Funny/sad, often maddening, you might look at a real life example of this well-dressed, well -off woman and wonder (as someone states in the movie version, at a group therapy meeting at the end) - just what does this woman have to be unhappy about? You read about this woman's life, the material things, the parties, the life in the middle of the greatest city on earth, and you wonder why she is unhappy, just what the hell does she WANT? Well, she's not sure, but something isn't right in her life. The affair is bad, wrong, and inevitable and as necessary as air to breathe. So just what do women want? I'm not really sure. But here's an insight - "money does not buy happiness". If you ever run across this book, I recommend it highly, it was one of my favorites years ago and time has not diminished it at all.