Product Description

“Before I turn 67, I would like to have a lot of sex with a man I like.” This inspired personal ad from Jane Juska drew tremendous response and swept the retired teacher into a whirlwind existence she barely recognized as her own. She relayed her fun and frank exploits in the bestseller A Round-Heeled Woman. Now Juska continues her astonishing story in this much anticipated new adventure.

Five years after that fateful ad, Juska has become a friend and confessor for women of all ages who confide in her their poignant, tragic, or blissful stories– unaccompanied women who are alone for now, but ever searching for intimacy. And in spite of Juska’s own success, “unaccompanied” is a description that applies to her as well. She’s still looking for a man to keep her company–not a husband, not even a partner, but simply the perfect lover, once described by Katharine Hepburn as one who “lives nearby and visits often.”

Unaccompanied Women embraces not only Juska’s continuing explorations of Eros (note to fans: her younger lover, Graham, is still on the scene) but also a blossoming literary career that catapults her from San Francisco to New York, London, and Paris. At book signings, earnest men place themselves purposely at the end of the line in order to engage her in private conversations, while women linger to confess their own erotic longings and their experiences with the good, the bad, and even the ugly. All the while, Juska is coping with the unnerving possibility of losing her home, a tiny cottage in Berkeley, California–and so her search broadens and intensifies, not just for love, friendship, and sex but also for enough money to keep a roof over her head.

Jane Juska shares all this richness of living in a poignant and humorous exploration of emotional terrain rarely discussed in our society. This wise and warmhearted book provides vivid evidence that the pursuit of pleasure and lasting relationships is not just for the young, but also for the young at heart.


From the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #615757 in Books
• Published on: 2007-07-31
• Released on: 2007-07-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

From Booklist
*Starred Review* At age 66, Juska, a divorced teacher, placed a personal ad in the New York Review of Books proclaiming her desire "to have a lot of sex with a man I like." Her best-selling debut, A Round-Heeled Woman (2003), vividly recounted the steamy--and not so steamy--adventures that resulted from her refusal to go gently into senior-citizen celibacy. Her droll follow-up begins five years (and many dates) later, with Juska still precariously single, an "unaccompanied" woman looking for companionship and, yes, lots of sessions between the sheets. While she becomes a confidante to countless women, Juska readily admits to a less-than-stellar romantic track record. She pines for loves past: Robert, whom she desperately loved but who never loved her back (worse still, he took up with her best friend), and Graham, half her age and now happily married (heavy sigh). Juska is compassionate and wise, with an irrepressible, wry wit. She regales the reader with tales of her book signings and the testosterone-laden attendees she dubs "Men at the End of the Line." In a secondary--but no less compelling--story line, she longs for a larger home to replace the Berkeley, California, cottage she's outgrown. Even the most jaded souls will find it to hard to resist this sexy septuagenarian whose lust for life surely makes her the pride of AARP. Allison Block
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author
Raised in rural Ohio, Jane Juska moved to California in 1955 and has lived there ever since. She has taught English for more than forty years–in high school, in college, and in prison. With the publication of her first book, A Round-Heeled Woman: My Late-Life Adventures in Sex and Romance, Juska became a spokesperson for the romantically active senior set, and she appears frequently before book groups and women’s groups. She has had to get an unlisted phone number.


From the Hardcover edition.

Customer Reviews

I see this a lot in California
First, I give JJ credit for having the guts to put herself out there. But I'm confused: she went after sex, so why is she continually whining about not finding love? Perhaps if she put the intention of "relationship" out there with the same zeal as her initial ad, then she'd attract one. And why NOT go online??? You know, I'd like to think that with age comes some wisdom, but even I, single and about 18 years younger, don't write drunken emails or sob continually about lost love and then claim my feminist credentials. It's a bit much to see that at 71. I kept wanting to tell her to Get a Life! Enjoy the travels! Make yourself happy!

The other whine I found unattractive is the "I'm poor, so buy me..." a diamond, a house, a free dinner. When a guy tells me he'd like to buy me a gift, the LAST thing that would ever occur to me is to suggest a HOUSE. But in materialistic California (and Berkeley qualifies, despite its granola reputation) there's so much money that envy is common--and so is this sense of entitlement. JJ appears to have lost her manners. All this whining that others need to provide "stuff" for her--we all make decisions about our lives and hers was to teach, then to retire, and then to write. If I were JJ I'd figure out how to leverage my modest "fame" into enough money to buy a place myself, if it's so important to her. Or I'd have used the proceeds from my original sale, added to them and then bought a small place. Take responsibility for yourself!!!

As far as the book goes, it is all over the place. It's really more like a collection of loosely connected essays. I might have enjoyed them more if they had some coherent point and if she wasn't continually whining about her lost "loves" and her financial condition. It got old. Was disappointed in the book.

She's a great writer...but there are problems
I am conflicted about Jane Juska. On the one hand, I really liked this book. Say what you will about the woman, she is no slouch in the writing department. I know she liked teaching, but by being a teacher and not a writer for her whole life, she has denied readers what would have been many great books, I'm sure. The title is misleading. "Adventures in Real Estate" the most so. She is not looking to buy a house, she's trying not to go homeless. People will scoff at that, thinking writers are millionaires, but they're not. There isn't really much sex, and a lot of times she goes off tangent, but you really don't mind since she's such a great writer (though she does construct some oddly grammatical sentences at times). She's honest, sometimes embarrasingly so, and she puts her heart and soul out there--no easy feat. That being said, she is probably one of the most pretentious writers you will ever read. She either thinks she's wonderful (everyone recognized me at Berkeley) or awful (I couldn't bear to put my photo online). Usually, though she thinks she's wonderful. She's her own worst enemy pining over a married younger man, when there are plenty of nice available men she could be with. She is also a little anti-arab, as one previous person mentioned, and she seems to put down other people do, in a very sly way that almost flies under the radar but not quite. Still, this is definitely worth reading because the woman has a way with words.

Go Jane Go.! You're on a Roll.
As a friend of Jane Juska's for several years and as someone who has read her two books, I want to report that I see her as a wonderful social critic. Her books are endorsements for having the strength to identify what is missing from your life and making changes--whatever your age and even if there is some risk.
Would I follow Jane's path or even want to have a relationship with a much, much younger man? No way. Can I learn from Jane's zest for life and insights into living in the moment without judgments of the flaws of others? You bet!

The fact that she writes with humor, wit and all-out honesty will make her a treasure for years to come.