Juska, Jane: A Round-Heeled Woman: My late-life adventures in sex and romance

This memoir is about what happened after Juska placed this ad in the "New York Review of Books:"

"Before I turn 67- next March- I would like to have a lot of sex with a man I like. If you want to talk first, Trollope works for me."

To my surprise and disappointment, only about half the book is actually about Juska's encounters with the men who respond to the ad. The rest is a more standard memoir about her childhood and life up to that point, which has some fascinating incidents but isn't what I most wanted to read about. I can see why her earlier love life was relevant, but she could have gotten in all the really important parts of her past in one quarter the amount of space she took to write about them. After recounting some hair-raisingly bad dates early on, including one in which a man decides to demonstrate his sense of humor by pretending to leap out of the window of the Zuni Cafe, Juska embarks upon a seemingly endless series of digressions into the past, leaving me reading with one eye peeking forward to see when she'd get back to the present again.

Juska has a strong narrative voice, literate, witty, and matter-of-factly sexy. I kept wanting to take her out for coffee and tell her, "You go, girl!" Though I wish her book was more focused, I did enjoy it and was glad to see that she did end up getting to have lots of sex with men she liked-- even if she got burned a fair amount along the way.

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Why coffee_and_ink is cool

Your collected book notes and reviews are a work of art. If they were published, I’d blurb the galley “In the tradition of Michael Dirda’s Readings.” And then I’d keep them on my shelf and read them and re-read them. You can write in all sorts of styles— hilariously snarky or lush as Tanith Lee, casually erudite or poetic— and yet they’re all in your voice, recognizable to those who know it. You were one of my favorite people to read on rec.arts.sf.written, and now you’re one of my favorites here.

You’re smart and witty and one of the few people I know who may read more than I do. And you’re also generous and considerate and careful not to bruise other people’s feelings. You’ve loaned me cab fare, crash space, and a jacket; given me technical support, sympathy, and anime; and introduced me to Angel, Laura Kinsale, and Jennifer Crusie. Your place in Heaven is assured.

I had a great time hanging out with you in New York, and I’ve missed you since I came back. You are my Sekrit Twin, and I think that’s cool even if no one else does.

Why coffee_and_ink is cool

Your collected book notes and reviews are a work of art. If they were published, I’d blurb the galley “In the tradition of Michael Dirda’s Readings.” And then I’d keep them on my shelf and read them and re-read them. You can write in all sorts of styles— hilariously snarky or lush as Tanith Lee, casually erudite or poetic— and yet they’re all in your voice, recognizable to those who know it. You were one of my favorite people to read on rec.arts.sf.written, and now you’re one of my favorites here.

You’re smart and witty and one of the few people I know who may read more than I do. And you’re also generous and considerate and careful not to bruise other people’s feelings. You’ve loaned me cab fare, crash space, and a jacket; given me technical support, sympathy, and anime; and introduced me to Angel, Laura Kinsale, and Jennifer Crusie. Your place in Heaven is assured.

I had a great time hanging out with you in New York, and I’ve missed you since I came back. You are my Sekrit Twin, and I think that’s cool even if no one else does.