Aside from the silly name, I actually quite liked Cathleen Schine’s novel The Three Weissmans of Westport. Once I stopped trying to compare it to Jane Austin’s Sense and Sensibility, I realized I was enjoying it as a clever, insightful and well written novel in it’s own right.

A 75 year old divorcee (who refers to herself as a widow) and her 2 grown daughters, all without men, share a run down cottage in Westport together, in their newly reduced circumstances. What ensues is sometimes funny, sometimes heartbreaking. Yet at other times, I found it to be not entirely believable and I was disappointed by some loose ties at the end.

All in all, the writing was better than most, and I found myself staying up late to find out what would happen next. Not a bad choice for a summer read.