Sheila Levine Is Dead and Living in New York

I am so glad this book was re-released for my reading pleasure. A little different from my usual reads, but worth every minute. Sheila is a 30 something unmarried, unattractive, overweight Jewish woman living in NYC and hating every minute of it. A controlling mother, no real friends and alone in the city that never sleeps. Sheila's answer to her misery is to commit suicide. The entire book is her suicide note to all the people in her life that have caused her pain.Sheils gets all her affairs in order including her will, the Rabbi to read her eulogy, her cemetary plots, etc and wants to make sure that everyone knows that she died because she was not a married woman. This is a serious issue but has some LOL moments that will keep you reading until you finish the last page.

Liz Smith reported today (02/12/04) that "Sheila Levine" is being reissued for its 30th anniversary. So -- where is it? This is a great book, not only because it's a microcosm of what fueled the women's moment in the '70s, but because it shows that women like Bridget Jones and Charlotte from "Sex and the City" have a definite predecessor. It's also full of the kind of snappy, one-step-away-from-Borscht-Belt humor still found on Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm. And I will always treasure it for giving me the perfect reason for my lack of interest in lesbianism: "I have no desire to touch you in places I already own." Hee.

What a GREAT read for any woman who has or is currently playing the dating game. Sheila is the kind of woman we all would love to know. She's human to the core and oh so vunerable. I certainly believe we all can relate to Sheila and her life as she is trying to be herself and at the same time fit the mold that society has pre-ordained for single women of "that certain age". I first read this book in 1973, and just recently purchased another copy, as mine has been passed around and read by all my friends, and their friends,for the past 29 years. Sheila Levine will soon become your best girlfriend as you struggle with life's little adventures!!! LOVELY READ

This book is wonderful, and I hate to hear that it's out of print. There's a little bit of Sheila to be found in all us girls, even though some of us would never admit it. Laughs are everywhere in this book--Parent has a way with words that makes Sheila seem all too real.

Sheila, darling, I miss you. I see you're out of print, and,boy, what a shame. Such a sad thing to happen to such a nice Jewishgirl. You embodied (and a nice body, what do you mean fat) the angst of all women who don't resemble Barbie Doll. I watched your mother plotz, I listened to you kvetch, and I empathized with your ever-postponed plan to commit suicide because no man would propose (even though you demonstrated you could cook and clean and do things in bed that nice Jewish girls weren't supposed to do). Who could resist your opening paragraph? "A few years ago, on the East Side of Manhattan, not far from Bloomingdale's, a man set up a business where he sold diet shakes, delicious chocolate milk shakes having only seventy-seven calories. Well, I tell you, fat young girls came from near and far and lined up around the block at lunchtime. Only seventy-seven calories and such heaven! I was one of the ones that had two for lunch every day..."