LOOKING FOR MR GOODBAR (Washington Square Press.)

Rating:
Summary: FORMIDABLE
Review: A haunted, troubled discourse loaded with loveless sex and episodes of violence, and saturated with tangibility and keenness.

Rating:
Summary: A truly compelling story
Review: I read this book in my third year of undergraduate study in English. This book challenges the paragdigms of the 50s and 60s and also serves as a coming of age story. Theresa is a very complex character whose actions are sometimes laudable but most always easily understood by the reader, and sometimes by Theresa herself. This book impacted me greatly because I identify with the protagonist. I am anxious to read it again and determine how it will affect me at yet another stage in my life. I highly recommend this book, but I especially encourage young women to read it. It is beautifully crafted and Rossner has the ability to profoundly affect every reader with her vivid imagery and insight into human instinct.

Rating:
Summary: Back To the Future
Review: It's the 1970's and the world has lived through the sixties and exploded into a one big wild and careless party. The vestiges of responsibility and family begin to tear and no where is it better illustrated than in depicting the life of Theresa. Theresa is a lonely single girl, teaching underprivledged kids during the day and cruising the bar scene looking for love after dark. Living in the shadow of her seemingly fabulous sister, Theresa born the shame of spine curvature (eventually corrected by surgery), the indifference of her parents, lack of friends, and the pain of empty love relationships. Theresa during the day, Terry is her night time persona who takes the young teacher to levels she never dreamed off as the story unfolds. Theresa is at odds with the good girl vs. bad girl images and yet is spurned by physical pleasure and the thought of a lasting and pleasurable relationship. The book's end is shocking and inevitable as Theresa looks for love in all the wrong places. A cautionary tale which rings true today, a copy should be given to every Washington intern.

Rating:
Summary: Caution on the road to love
Review: Judith Rossner's warning in her novel to take a flashlight when we visit the darkest corners of sexual experimentation is forever relevant. "Looking for Mr. Goodbar" (the title not a character but a pick-up bar) gives us a Catholic teacher of deaf children who, after dark, takes on a truly dark character and sets out on the bar scene looking for sex and, maybe if she's lucky, love. But the search for both is strewn with broken hearts, disappointments and dangers, as Theresa finds out too late. Rossner's main character comes across as a basically desperate human scarred by years of indifferent parents, a sister who was preferred in childhood over her and a low self-image caused by a curved spine (although later corrected by surgery). In seeking approval, validation, redemption and love, Theresa ventures forth into the darkness and risks of anonymous sex and, of course, not finding in the darkness what she seeks. The accomplishment of "Goodbar" is Rossner's uncanny ability to focus on and then bare the desperation that fuels any person's search for love or whatever it's called. All too often, the searchers who wander too far into the blackness meet the same final fate that Theresa does, and Rossner's descriptive talents of that fate spare no one. Hers is a cautionary tale that, if we must, don't go too far into the night without a light on in the brain. Without it, we may never get a second chance. The book was later turned into a theatrical film with Diane Keaton turning in a tremendous performance. Both the film and book warrant attention and respect of the dangers of the night.

Rating:
Summary: Looking For Theresa
Review: The story is a classic is all I can say, and deserves well known recognition for the real truth behind the story that many people can't see because of the excessive sex and swearing that goes on. Truthfully, this is at least one of the best and most intruiging stories I have ever read on all accounts. The dioluge isn't like that of so many other stories, where the characters don't talk like real people but like rich and artiqulate writers with a deadline to meet. Even the relationships and the issues they cover are completely realistic. These things aren't usually pulled off very well by a writer for numerous reasons. But probley my favorite part about Looking For Mr.Goodbar is Theresa *or Terry*. She's the ideal protaganist, really, because she has human faults and human issues, and she's not like the typical good girl hero we are supposed to love through and through. However, she's not particularly bad either. Instead she is caught in the middle going from side to side trying to make sense of where she really belongs.
But I must say that even the ending, which is very depressing and morbid, doesn't leave anything to be desired. In fact, I think it was the perfect and inevitable ending to one of the best books of yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

Rating:
Summary: Really, really good
Review: Theresa is a teacher by day, and a bar cruiser by night. It's the seventies, and everybody's doing it, and as often as they can. I first read Goodbar a few years ago and have read it a total of 5 times since. It's a haunting story, one that gets into your blood and won't let go of your concious thoughts for days after finishing it. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in reading about the inner turmoil women face when confronted with situations where their sexuality faces off with their morality. I would also like to point out that the film based on this book and of the same title confronts the issues of sexual independence with stark and vivid imagery. I would recommend reading the book, though, before seeing the film as the book delivers a real kick to the theoretical groin while the movie doesn't delve as deeply into the mind, the heart and motivation of its main character.

Rating:
Summary: A Penetrating Glance into the Psyche of a Fallen Woman
Review: Theresa is a teacher by day, and a bar cruiser by night. It's the seventies, and everybody's doing it, and as often as they can. I first read Goodbar a few years ago and have read it a total of 5 times since. It's a haunting story, one that gets into your blood and won't let go of your concious thoughts for days after finishing it. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in reading about the inner turmoil women face when confronted with situations where their sexuality faces off with their morality. I would also like to point out that the film based on this book and of the same title confronts the issues of sexual independence with stark and vivid imagery. I would recommend reading the book, though, before seeing the film as the book delivers a real kick to the theoretical groin while the movie doesn't delve as deeply into the mind, the heart and motivation of its main character.

Rating:
Summary: Compelling...
Review: This book was lent to me by a friend in March 2003 and I didn't get around to reading it until June 2003. I'm so glad I took time out to read this book. It was sad, compelling, smart, provacative and intriguing-all in one. I won't spoil the story for anyone but it's one of the top 50 books ever written.

Rating:
Summary: A More Seedy, Sexually Charged "In Cold Blood"
Review: This is definitely one of those novels that is like a car accident-- it's ugly, but you can't look away. Rossner's hypnotic writing style and pitch-perfect characterization will hook you from page one. What is perhaps most haunting about this work, however, is not being ushered into this dark, lonely way of life that Theresa Dunn leads but rather finding out just how many similarities you share with her. This book will definitely stay with you, which isn't the best feeling, frankly, but trust me, if you don't read it, you're missing out on a superb literary experience.

Rating:
Summary: A More Seedy, Sexually Charged "In Cold Blood"
Review: This is definitely one of those novels that is like a car accident-- it's ugly, but you can't look away. Rossner's hypnotic writing style and pitch-perfect characterization will hook you from page one. What is perhaps most haunting about this work, however, is not being ushered into this dark, lonely way of life that Theresa Dunn leads but rather finding out just how many similarities you share with her. This book will definitely stay with you, which isn't the best feeling, frankly, but trust me, if you don't read it, you're missing out on a superb literary experience.