Dorothy Weil

A Good Woman is the story of Mary Lou Friedman, a spunky eighty-five year old whose life slides into chaos when she is threatened by local hoodlums and her husband becomes terminally ill. As Mary Lou fights for her family and home, she revisits her past as a wild farm girl, a naive young bride, an inexperienced mother, and a mature woman discovering her sexuality. Throughout she copes with the changing expectations and challenges faced by women of the twentieth century, the final hurdle being old age in a world where people live long but receive little respect. Ultimately Mary Lou is stripped of everything she depends on. Vowing to defend her home, she acquires a gun, with tragic results.

Weil says,"The novel was inspired by the number of stories in the press about attacks on older people, but I have tried, not just to arouse compassion for the elderly, but to dramatize for a young audience the challenges their grandparents and parents faced, some of which they will experience also, while much of their lives may be new and different.

"Tender, touching and terrifying—A Good Woman is not a novel about 'seniors.' It is about humans."—Stephen Birmingham, social historian and author of many best-selling novels.

"A masterful story. . . Dorothy Weil has amazing insight into child development, family relationships, harbored emotional hurts, misunderstandings, and personality differences among siblings."--Richard R. Blake, Reader Views

"Ever wonder: 'How could that have happened?' when the evening news has a story of some terrible event carried out by an ordinary person, somebody who could live down the street from you, a perfectly nice person never given to mayhem?" Jane Durrell, City Beat