The Bitch is Back: Older, Wiser, and (Getting) Happier (William Morrow, 2016)
More than a decade after the New York Times bestselling anthology The Bitch in the House spoke up loud and clear for a generation of young woman, nine of the original contributors are back along with sixteen captivating new voices sharing their ruminations from an older, stronger, and wiser perspective about love, sex, work, family, independence, body-image, health, and aging: the critical flash points of women's lives today.
"Born out of anger," the essays in The Bitch in the House chronicled the face of womanhood at the beginning of a new millennium. Now those funny, smart, passionate contributors—today less bitter and resentful, and more confident, competent, and content—capture the spirit of postfeminism in this equally provocative, illuminating, and compelling companion anthology.
https://www.harpercollins.com/9780062389534/the-bitch-is-back/
Gone
(Atria/Simon & Schuster, 2012)
For fourteen years, Eve Adams, 42, has raised her two children and emotionally supported her husband Eric's once famous, now fading sculpting career. As Eric struggles to maintain inspiration even while sinking deeper into a creative slump, Eve's formerly part-time work suddenly takes off: she publishes a book on nutrition and has a growing roster of overweight clients she "coaches." One night, Eric leaves to drive the babysitter home and simply doesn't return. Stunned, hurt, close to broke, and a not a little pissed off, Eve must figure out what's going on--and how to keep her family, including her volatile teenage daughter, from unraveling.
Set in an arty Massachusetts town and amidst the economic and nutritional chaos currently plaguing American society, GONE is a compelling drama--told from both husband's and wife's points-of-view--of contemporary marriage, parenthood, sexual tension, depression, art, money, and passion. In this novel about change--about redefining, in middle age, your role as a parent, best friend, or spouse--Hanauer's characters must learn when to let something go, when to fight to hold on, and how and when to forgive each other...and themselves.
** Indie "Next List" nominee
** Chosen as one of four "Best Summer Reads" in Shape magazine (6/12)
** Chosen as a "Book We Love" in Ladies Home Journal (7/12)
"Beautiful, complicated, and often funny...."
--O-The Oprah Magazine (7/12)
"...the most beautifully crafted novel I have read in a while... Gone is a realistic love story for our age."
--The NJ Star Ledger
"Cathi Hanauer's GONE offers a compassionate, clear-eyed vision of what is gained and lost in a contemporary marriage when the wife and mother begins gaining power outside the home."
--Vanity Fair (7/12)
"An involving drama about the challenges of marriage and middle age."
--People (6/25/12)
"Cathi Hanauer has in several books explored the stresses and strains within modern marriage; in her new novel, GONE, she plangently and vividly depicts a relationship run off the tracks entirely-and then shows us why it might yet merit saving."
--Elle (lead review, 7/12)
"If you're looking for more than fluff and folly this summer, Hanauer's novel delivers. At its core, though, it remains a simple, beautifully told story about a marriage, love, and what remains when one partner has gone. The beauty of GONE is in Hanauer's adeptness at character development and richness of language. Layered and finely drawn, her characters, even the minor ones, jump off the page and have an important story to tell. The depiction of Eve's clients as they struggle with their health and wellness, along with accompanying discourse lambasting the diet and weight loss industry, transports this novel beyond a simple tale of marital woe."
--The Florida Times-Union
"Hanauer's treatment of Eve and Eric's-as well as their children's-predicaments rings true with emotional clarity, and her eye for detail and ear for conversational patterns lends credibility to this stark family drama."
--Publisher's Weekly (8/12)
"Summer's nearly over, but a good beach book can be read any time of year. This is one is far better than the stereotypical beach-y fluff, yet contains the elements that make such books so appealing: it's about love, marriage, raising children, succeeding at work and finding oneself at an age when such exploration is thought to be long past. What would you do if your spouse just took off one night: mourn, rejoice, go numb, get going? Eve's story will have you pondering this frightening, yet possibly liberating, turn of events."
--Hartford Public Library Blog
"Hanauer delivers a novel that is rich with relatable characters, realistic in its approach, and highly readable."
--Kirkus Reviews (6/12/12)
"This compelling read about marriage, identity, change, and adaptation nicely examines, from both the male and female lens, how marital expectations and roles may need some tweaking when life throws its curves. A smart, modern read that is relatable and engaging."
--Library Journal (6/15/12)
"...Hanauer's crisp examination of a troubled family keenly depicts the mercurial nature of contemporary marriage and parenthood."
--BookList (6/15/12)
Cathi Hanauer's new novel, GONE, picks up ten years down the road from THE BITCH IN THE HOUSE, her groundbreaking best-selling 2002 anthology of marital rage, domestic wrangling, and passion (or lack thereof). Hanauer evokes the painful rupture in Eric and Eve's marriage brilliantly, with compassion, insight, and suspense that does not let up until the final page. This is a gorgeous, wrenching book, a literary feat.
--Kate Christensen, Pen Faulkner Award-winning author of The Astral and The Great Man
Cathi Hanauer is a great chronicler of modern love and life, who has created, in the pages of GONE, the beautiful, intricate story of a beautiful, intricate marriage. This novel will resonate with anyone who has ever been married --which is to say, anyone who has ever struggled to reconcile love against ambivalence, loyalty against the lure of solitude, and domestic fidelity against the call of the open road. You will see yourself in these pages, and your heart will open wide.
--Elizabeth Gilbert, bestselling author of Eat Pray Love and Committed
Trust Cathi Hanauer to write such a touching, funny, smart book about the way families and marriage both gird and choke a life. The husband and wife here, a sensitive and spirited pair, each yearn for freedom as they still fully embrace the bonds that tether them to one another. It's that earthly paradox that Hanauer understands so deeply, and executes so beautifully in her latest, greatest novel--Gone is a full pleasure to read!
--Helen Schulman, New York Times bestselling author of This Beautiful Life.
"GONE is at once a vividly realistic portrait of marriage and motherhood, and a peek into the inner world of a singular character. Cathi Hanauer succeeds beautifully in creating a story that will make you care, and keep turning the pages to discover what will happen this family, all the while rooting for them."
--Dani Shapiro, author of Devotion and Black & White.
"GONE is about the big things--love and death and work and children--and it treats them all with freshness and acuity. Hanauer draws her characters with real generosity, and with insight about the pitfalls of contemporary life. It's a compelling, big-hearted book."
--Joshua Henkin, author of The World Without You and Matrimony
Sweet Ruin
(Atria Books, 2006)
Elayna Leopold, 35, lives with her young family in suburban New Jersey, working from home so that she can raise her daughter, Hazel, while her husband, Paul, puts in long hours as a corporate lawyer. Elayna is typical of women who spend their twenties chasing dreams in the city only to spend their thirties chasing children in the suburbs. And yet, no one knows better than she that life can change in an instant. Two years ago her infant son died, sending her into a depression from which she is just emerging, and Elayna finds herself suddenly—thrillingly—craving life's passions again. When she meets Kevin, a young artist with whom she spends more and more time during Paul's absences, Elayna discovers a version of herself she thought was gone forever. As she uncovers yearnings that could destroy everything she cherishes, a threat to Hazel emerges, making Elayna's choices and decisions that much more loaded and terrifying.
A dangerous novel of attachments and adultery, of marital crisis, sexual tension, and one woman's struggle to reconcile her needs and desires with her loves and obligations, Sweet Ruin raises heartrending questions about the challenges of everyday life.
Read the full review from People Magazine.
"Hanauer has a poet's eye for detail and a spot-on sense of the specifics of mothering in the suburbs....a compulsively readable story of [Elayna's] awakening"
--Elle (Read Full Review)
"Hazel is one of the best-written children in recent fiction...Hanauer skillfully handles the gray areas of emotional incest in all its weird permutations."
--USA Today
"Moral issues great and small laced with hot sex scenes...make Sweet Ruin a fine poolside choice for thinking moms."
--New York Newsday
"...a slow burn that bursts into a page-turner."
--Boston Magazine
"...sex, suburbia, kids and career are still themes mined by [Hanauer]...but this time she weaves a tale full of drama and tough decisions."
--InStyle
"The suburbs never seemed as sexy as they do in this suspenseful story...."
--BluePrint
"Provocative."
--Vanity Fair
"Excellent characterizations...[and] dialogue and the spot-on representation of the family dynamic make this book difficult to put down. One keeps waiting for something horrific to happen, but instead the story builds slowly and plausibly. What happens is subtle and ambiguous—as in real life."
--Publisher's Weekly, March 20, 2006
"Skillfully imagined, bittersweet portrait of marriage and sacrifice...Bravely tackl[es] the complexity of sexual life."
--Kirkus Reviews
"Given Hanauer's keen perceptions and delicate sensitivity, one cannot help but acutely feel the emotional and moral turmoil that engulf this winsome young wife and mother."
--Booklist
"As observant about family life as it is about love and sexual longing. I really didn't want it to end."
--Meg Wolitzer, author of The Position and The Wife
"Cathi Hanauer has perfectly captured the subtleties and nuances of contemporary, suburban motherhood...she has created a character so real, so flawed, so sympathetic, and so familiar...I kept hearing her voice in my head for days after I finished this book."
--Hope Edelman, author of Motherless Mothers
"Sweet Ruin is a juicy, delectable novel, with pitch-perfect dialogue and characters that leap to fascinating life; every scene unfolds with complexly intertwined sexual suspense and emotional resonance."
--Kate Christensen, author of The Epicure's Lament
"Cathi Hanauer's wise and generous new novel takes as its subject the loss of a child, the difficulties of marriage and the wages of adultery, but winds up being about nothing less than the miracle—and yes perils—of what it means to be truly alive. It's completely irresistable; be prepared to stay up late."
--Karen Karbo, author of Motherhood Made a Man out of Me
The Bitch in the House
(2002, William Morrow)
Women today have more choices than at any time in history, yet many smart, ambitious, contemporary women are finding themselves angry, dissatisfied, stressed out. Why are they dissatisfied? And what do they really want? These questions form the premise of this New York Times bestselling collection of searingly honest original essays, in which twenty-six women writers invite readers into their lives, minds, and bedrooms to talk about the choices they've made, what's working in today's post-feminist world of women, work, marriage and motherhood ...and what's still not.
Ranging in age from 24-67, single and childless or married with children or four times divorced, The Bitch in the House, published in thirteen countries, is the sound of the collective voice of successful women today—in all their anger, grace, and glory.
#10 New York Times Bestseller
New York Times Business Bestseller
#5 Book Sense Bestseller... and top ten bestseller lists in the Northwest, California, the Midwest, New England, the Southeast, the mid-Atlantic, and more.
Published in Turkey, Brazil, South Korea, Croatia, Bulgaria, Israel, Hungary, Holland, Russia, Australia, and more.
"Combining motherhood and marriage and a career is an intricate affair...This book of deeply personal essays contains...exceptional writing."
--San Francisco Chronicle
"The Bitch in the House changed everyone's mind about anthologies-both the publishers for doing them and writers for being in them."
--The New York Observer
"Amusing, ferocious, whiny, and wise."
--Elle
"Deserves a place on your nightstand."
--USA Today
"Any woman who has ever felt confused about personal choices she has had to make, or might have to make, should pick up this articulate and insightful collection of essays."
--Daily News (New York)
"This often-hilarious collection of new pieces by women is starkly revealing of their thoughts on the conflicts and stresses of womanhood today, the constant attempts to be all things to all people: professional, nurturing, accomplished, erotic. Here is unvarnished truth and more than a smidgen of anger about marriage, motherhood, solitude, and sex from such writers as Pam Houston, Ellen Gilchrist, Hope Edelman, Natalie Angier, and northwesterners Karen Karbo and Natalie Kusz."
--The Seattle Post-Intelligencer
"The great thing about The Bitch in the House...is knowing how many of us are out there."
--O, The Oprah Magazine
"A hot new collection of essays, all of them interesting...."
--The Atlantic Monthly
"The writing is superb: smart, sassy, and honest-oh, are they honest...in this must-read for every woman."
--Booklist
"Here are thoughtful, graceful writers...ruminating on choices they've made and lessons they've learned...For [these writers], speaking out is a labor of love, and all of us-men and women-would do well to listen."
--Boston magazine
"A rollicking, free-flowing, double-barreled think piece."
--Hartford Courant
"With a title like The Bitch in the House, you know that what lies ahead is no Stepford Wives' manual, no perpetually perky June Cleaver/Donna Reed guide to the married life...Snarls without apology."
--Pages magazine
"Stark, moving essays...Like a conversation over coffee."
--Pittsburgh Pulp
"Angry and engaging...Twenty-six mothers, lovers, and single women write candidly about what fuels their rage. The authors wrestle with the fundamental issues of modern female life (sex, stress, work, motherhood) and look honestly (and with a sense of humor) at why they feel so dissatisfied."
--IndieBride.com
Full Reviews and Articles:
"What, me angry?" by Sharyn Wizda Vane,
Austin American-Statesman, Sept 15, 2002
"Feminine Side: 26 Women Examine their Anger and Selves," by Greg Lalas,
Boston, Sept 2002
"They're Mad As Hell," by Kate Muir,
The Times Magazine (UK), March 8, 2003
"His and Her Books Tattle on Marriage,"
The New York Times (Sunday Styles), June 13, 2004
"A Gloom of One's Own," by Sandra Tsing Loh,
The Atlantic Monthly, October 2004
"Meet Attila the Honey," by Caroline Stacey,
The Independent Review (UK), March 14, 2003
"The Anthology Orgy," by Sheelah Kolhatkar,
The New York Observer, February 22, 2005
My Sister's Bones
(Delta Trade, 199)
Against a backdrop of malls and emerald-carpet lawns, Cassie Weinstein is slowly killing herself. And there seems to be nothing her younger sister Billie can do to stop her. In her first novel, Cathi Hanauer traces Billie's moving, sometimes-painful emergence from her sister's shadow and offers a sensitive handling of a devastating disease: anorexia.
Overwhelmed by her surgeon father's relentless pressure to raise her SAT scores and be a stand-out at school, Cassie literally tries to make herself disappear. Meanwhile, Billie finds solace in an unlikely friendship with Tiffany, a working-class transplant from Brooklyn, and a surprisingly tender relationship with the school's star athlete. With Cassie's life seemingly hanging in the balance, Billie musters the courage to confront her parents' denial—and try to save her sister's life.
In My Sister's Bones, Cathi Hanauer strips away the veneer of a "perfect" family to reveal the subtle cruelties and concessions of love, and creates a portrait of a remarkable young woman who must abandon the safety net of illusion as she reaches for adulthood.
"Hanauer has her finger precisely on the pulse of the rising generation, and she writes with a sensitivity and authority regarding teen experience that is unrivaled among her literary contemporaries."
--The Capital Times (Madison, Wisconsin)
"Uncommonly insightful...re-creates the roller-coaster joys and pains of adolescence."
--Time Out New York
"The struggles over control in Hanauer's neatly executed first novel go straight to the heart."
--Publisher's Weekly
"Painful and funny, frustrating and touching...Hanauer writes with honesty and warmth."
--The Charleston Post & Courier
"A poignant...lively and humorous novel, with characters so believable you expect them to rise up off the page."
--Elizabeth Berg, author of We Are All Welcome Here
"Riveting...A persuasive, well-rendered and rich first novel about family..."
--Kirkus Reviews
"A beautifully written first novel."
--Library Journal
"The characters are human, humorous and immensely likable in this tender, well-told...story."
--Detroit Free Press
"A delightful novel: warm, witty, and wonderfully compassionate."
--Vivian Gornick, author of Fierce Attachments
"A moving story of awakening sexuality and the shattering of innocence."
--Caldwell Progress (N.J.)