Dorothy Weil

A Good Woman is fresh new addition to Weil’s literary output, confirming her versatility and ability to imagine the lives of characters beyond her own particular world. It is a serious literary novel about an eighty-five year old couple who are threatened by the husband's serious illness and a pair of hoodlums from their deteriorating neighborhood. The story was inspired by several cases reported in the local newspaper about older citizens who have been robbed and even killed.


The central character,Mary Lou Friedman,is a kind of twentieth-century Every Woman and her life almost spans the era. She is brought to life as a girl happily riding her horse on the farm on which she was born, a young bride coping with the mysteries of sex, a homemaker facing the hardships of the Depression, a bereaved mother, a mature woman coming to life sexually, and an older woman beset by neighborhood decay and family problems. Though the theme is serious, there is humor and warmth in the family scenes: Mary Lou is a spunky woman, a strong woman who tries to understand her contentious family, her frightening world, and the changes she must face. She is a nest builder, determined to keep her world from crumbling.

Driven to the edge by circumstances, in order to protect her home, she buys a gun, with tragic results that bring the novel to a surprising and wrenching conclusion.