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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 lovingly depicts the miraculous joy and inevitable loss that liberate true emotion in Jeremy and his music." - Publishers Weekly.
"It seems as if the tale is heading into Love Story territory, but the redemptive power of love proves stronger than that here. A sweet, adult fable." - Kirkus Reviews.
This information about The Woman Who Wouldn't was first featured
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Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Gene Wilder (born June 11, 1933 as Jerome Silberman) has been acting since he was thirteen and writing for the screen since the early 1970s. After a small role in Bonnie and Clyde pulled him away from a career onstage, he was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Supporting Actor for his role as Leo Bloom in The Producers, which led to Blazing Saddles and then to another Academy nomination, this time for writing Young Frankenstein. Wilder has appeared in twenty-five feature films and a number of stage productions.
His first book, about his own life, was Kiss Me Like A Stranger, and was followed by the novels My French Whore, The Woman Who Wouldn't and What Is This Thing Called Love?. Wilder lives in Connecticut with his wife, Karen.
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