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The Woman Who Wouldn't
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| List Price: | $19.95 |
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Product Description
The beloved actor and screenwriter’s second novel, set in 1903, stars a young concert violinist named Jeremy Webb, who one day goes from accomplished adagios with the Cleveland Orchestra to having a complete breakdown on stage. If he hadn’t poured a glass of water down the throat of a tuba, maybe he wouldn’t have been sent to a health resort in Badenweiler, Germany. But it’s in that serene place that Jeremy meets Clara Mulpas, whom he tries his hardest to seduce.
Clara is so beautiful that Jeremy finds it impossible to keep from trying to find a chink in her extraordinary reserve and elegance. He finds himself reflexively flirting to get a reaction—after all, a tease and a wink have always worked before, with women back home. But flirting probably isn’t the best way to appeal to a woman who was married to a dumb brute and doesn’t want to have anything more to do with men. Jeremy isn’t sure how to press his case—but he won’t give up.
Wilder’s prose is elegant, spare and affecting. But it’s his romantic’s eye for the intense emotions that animate a real love story that makes The Woman Who Wouldn’t an unforgettable book.
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #318289 in Books
- Published on: 2008-03-04
- Released on: 2008-03-04
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Binding: Hardcover
- 176 pages
Features
- ISBN13: 9780312375782
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
- Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Wilder's short second novel, following the similarly semifarcical My French Whore, takes a poignant and whimsically romantic poke at turn-of-the-last-century Europe's privileged gentry. When British concert violinist Jeremy Spencer Webb snaps, pouring water down a tuba and pounding the Steinway during a performance, he is sent to a health resort in the German Black Forest to recover. There, under the care of the orchestra director's brother, Dr. Karl Gross, Jeremy meets his idol, the consumptive Anton Chekhov, and an elusive cute Belgie named Clara Mulpas. His treatment, a regimen of rigorous walks, long baths, fine dining and the local white wine, is put to the test when he is asked to play with the string quartet that entertains the guests during dinner. The episode ends badly, but helps deepen his friendship with Chekhov. Jeremy also grows closer to Clara: struggling to restrain his normally flirtatious impulse so as not to scare her off, he gradually wins her over, with unexpected results. Wilder lovingly depicts the miraculous joy and inevitable loss that liberate true emotion in Jeremy and his music. (Mar.)
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Review
“This wistful love story…exudes the same sweetness that characterizes [Gene Wilder’s] screen persona.”—Boston Globe
“A supple, unpretentious writer.”—Palm Beach Post
“A poignant and whimsically romantic [story]…Wilder lovingly depicts…the miraculous joy and inevitable loss that liberate true emotion.”—Publishers Weekly
“A sweet, adult fable.”—Kirkus Reviews
About the Author
Gene Wilder has been acting since he was thirteen and writing for the screen since the early 1970s. His first book, about his own life, was Kiss Me Like A Stranger. His first novel, set in France in World War I, is My French Whore. He lives in Connecticut with his wife, Karen.
Customer Reviews
Sweet and wistful love story
This small and deceptively simple book by Gene Wilder will slowly pull you in and make you care about Jeremy and Clara until you can't put the book down, yet don't want to reach the end. You can hear Mr. Wilder's voice in this book and see him in your mind's eye as our hero, musician Jeremy. Given Mr Wilder's life experiences, Jeremy and Clara's romance is sweet, wistful and full of longing for how things could have been.
A short and sweet novel
This is a very imaginative, compelling, fun and yet serious book...I couldn't put it down. The characters were wonderful. Yes, Mr. Wilder, I would like more!
Lighthearted yet insightful
In 1903 Cleveland Orchestra concert violinist Jeremy Spencer Webb has a nervous breakdown on stage during a performance. The British expatriate tears apart the first violinist's music sheets, pours water down a tuba and punches the piano like a maniac before sitting on the stage crying. The men in white took him away in a strait jacket to a nearby neuropsychiatric hospital. When he began speaking three or four weeks later, he was sent to a health resort in Badenweiler, Germany in the Black Forest to recover paid fully by the Orchestra; the same place he was told that Chekhov was there battling consumption.
Dr. Karl Gross, brother to the Cleveland Orchestra's artistic director Otto Gross, takes charge of Jeremy's recovery. There the patient meets Chekhov and "cute Belgie" Clara Mulpas whom he tries to seduce but she proves to be THE WOMAN WHO WOULDN'T. His treatment consists of walks, special soaks, and fine dining with wine. When Dr. Gross decides Jeremy is ready, he asks him to perform with the string quartet entertaining the clinic's guests. Although that ends in failure, Jeremy and Anton become friends and he begins to win Clara's heart.
As with MY FRENCH WHORE, Gene Wilder takes a fun look at lampooning the excesses of the aristocracy who still controls the upper crust in spite of changing economics and soon lifestyle when WWI occurs. Thus readers obtain a sweet satirical glimpse of the elite through life in the Badenweiler health resort; pampering being the cure of all ills. Lighthearted yet insightful, fans will appreciate Gene Wilder's amusing yet deep THE WOMAN WHO WOULDN'T.
Harriet Klausner
