Six marriages, six heartbreaks, one shared beginning. In her forties – 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. Look for Becky's new book, Off The Cliff: How the Making of Thelma & Louise Drove Hollywood to the Edge.
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"Saturday Night Widows by Becky Aikman is one of the most powerful, touching books I have read in a long, long, while! I wasn't sure if this book would really resonate with me as I am not a widow and haven't experience profound loss recently. I couldn't be more wrong. The main message that I got out of this book was the powerful effect and results that can happen when women truly support other women. I find this book to be unique in the world of memoirs, sharing six life stories instead of just one. It is also a very personal account of six women, widowed at a younger than usual age, searching for their new place in the world. Becky Aikman, the author of Saturday Night Widows, is a professional journalist, which is apparent through the consistently high quality writing throughout the book. While not my normal style of book, it is one that I highly recommend...I couldn't put it down!"
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Ricki (5 out of 5 stars)