Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Jul 2010
352 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
Call her superficial, but Susie B. Anthony Rabinowitz Gersten assumed her marriage was great -- and why not? Jonah Gersten, M.D., a Park Avenue plastic surgeon, clearly adored her. He was handsome, successful, and a doting dad to their four-year-old triplets Dashiell, Evan, and Mason. But when Jonah is found in the Upper East Side apartment of second-rate 'escort' Dorinda Dillon, Susie is overwhelmed with questions left unanswered. It's bad enough to know your husband's been murdered, but even worse when you're universally pitied (and quietly mocked) because of the sleaze factor. None of it makes sense to Susie - not a sexual liaison with someone like Dorinda, not the 'better not to discuss it' response from Jonah's partners.
With help from her toughtalking, high-style Grandma Ethel who flies in from Miami, she takes on her snooty in-laws, her husband's partners, the NYPD, and the DA (is the person arrested for the homicide the actual perp, or just an easy mark for a prosecutor who hates the word 'unsolved'?), as she tries to prove that her wonderful life with Jonah was no lie. Susan Isaacs brilliantly turns the conventions of the mystery on end as Susie Gersten, suburban mom, floral designer, and fashion plate, searches not so much for answers to her husband's death as for answers to her own life.
"Starred Review. [A] fast and furious ride through wanton greed, fragile relationships, and love worth fighting for." - Publishers Weekly
"Isaacs’ latest Jewish-gal-in-distress adventure purrs along perfectly––sharply funny, all-knowing, and marvelously diverting." - Booklist
"For all of its serious aspects, there are good measures of wit and fun here." - Library Journal
"The mystery is barely there, but Isaacs' fans will enjoy another sharp-tongued romp through the New York privileged classes and their foibles." - Kirkus Reviews
This information about As Husbands Go was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Photo: Elizabeth Lippman
Susan Isaacs, novelist, essayist and screenwriter, was born in Brooklyn, educated at Queens College, and worked as a senior editor at Seventeen magazine. Her novels include Compromising Positions, Close Relations, Almost Paradise, Shining Through, Past Perfect, As Husbands Go, and Goldberg Variations.
A recipient of the Writers for Writers Award and the John Steinbeck Award, Isaacs serves as chairman of the board of Poets & Writers and is a past president of Mystery Writers of America. She is a member of The Creative Coalition, National Book Critics Circle, PEN, the International Association of Crime Writers, the American Society of Journalists and Authors, and the Adams Round Table. She sits on the boards of the Walt Whitman Birthplace Association, the Queens College Foundation, ...
... Full Biography
Link to Susan Isaacs's Website
Name Pronunciation
Susan Isaacs: i-zacks
Bright and Tender Dark by Joanna Pearson
A beautifully written, wire-taut debut novel about a murder on a college campus and its aftermath twenty years later.
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
