Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Search - Smart Women

Smart Women
Smart Women
Author: Judy Blume
"Come back to the eighties in Boulder, Colorado. Soak in a hot tub. Concentrate on your career. Try to forget your divorce. Never mind that your teenage children find you hopeless. Try falling in love again... this time for real. Some things never change."
Info icon
ISBN-13: 9780739404720
ISBN-10: 0739404725
Publication Date: 1983
Rating:
  • Currently 3.4/5 Stars.
 15

3.4 stars, based on 15 ratings
Publisher: G. P. Putnam's Sons
Book Type: Hardcover
Other Versions: Paperback
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Top Member Book Reviews

btkehoe avatar reviewed Smart Women on + 22 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
Excellent read! Judy Blume knows how to capture the attention of her readers. The characters of Smart Women are smartly developed and their lives are interesting.
jasabangan avatar reviewed Smart Women on + 8 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
As a devout fan of Judy Blume's adolescent books, I was enthused to finally dive into one of her adult novels. Even now, Blume manages to surprise me by flinging the doors of reality wide open. Smart Women is a quick, eye-opening, and fun read. The characters are relatable, and the plot flows smoothly with just enough excitement. Also, the natural dialogue and the easy-to-follow changes in perspective added a refreshing quality to the novel.

I recommend this book to all young adults who have a close-minded outlook on the world (like myself ;P) and to the adults who know all too well.
SanJoseCa avatar reviewed Smart Women on + 328 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
This story is about two divorced women trying to reinvent their lives while their teenage daughters look on with horror......and humor! If you loved Judy Blumes books growing up, you will not be disappointed in this terrific book about women in crises!
reviewed Smart Women on + 4 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
Excellent, quick read regarding friendships, relationships, divorce and children.
reviewed Smart Women on + 380 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
Margo and B.B. are divorced mothers, libing in sun washed Colorado. They cope with it all, careers, loneliness, crises, new lovers, old lovers, their own and their childrens. Smart Women is tender and sexy, funny, sad and sweet, a stunning tour de force from the phenomenally successful Judy Blume.
Read All 47 Book Reviews of "Smart Women"

Please Log in to Rate these Book Reviews

Readnmachine avatar reviewed Smart Women on + 1474 more book reviews
It's just barely possible that people who bought Judy Blume's "Smart Women" might have a case if they sued for false advertising.

Because none of the women in this supposedly grown-up love story is particularly smart. There's BB, whose epic temper tantrum on receiving the news that her ex-husband is moving to Boulder to be closer to their pre-teen daughter sets up her response to virtually every bump in the road. BB is capricious, controlling, and bitchy. She inexplicably asks her acquaintance, Margo, to help find a suitable apartment for him. (Okay, there's an explanation -- Blume needs to set up the emotional triangle, and to do it quickly, because there's not much else going on up to that point except mother-daughter sniping.) And when Mr. Ex comes over one evening to find Margo soaking in her hot tub, he promptly drops trou and climbs in. At which point a truly Smart Woman would have called 911.

There's also Clare, whose mutual friendship with Margo and BB sort of sets things into motion. Clare has her own marital oddity -- a wealthy husband from whom she is not quite divorced ("when you have lots of money, it's complicated") and a daughter named Puffin. Seriously. Puffin. No wonder the kid makes a monumental, life-altering mistake -- but don't worry, it's dealt with in three pages and never really mentioned again. The not-quite-ex husband also proves useful, plugging up a minor plot hole near the end.

The whole thing is tedious and overwrought and can't decide whether it wants to be about the adults' let's-change-partners-and-dance antics or about the assorted teen and pre-teen children, trying to deal with the emotional fall-out of adults acting childishly and children trying to be adults too soon.
reviewed Smart Women on + 3 more book reviews
"Come back to the eighties in Boulder, Colorado. Soak in a hot tub. Concentrate on your career. Try to forget your divorce. Never mind that your teenage children find you hopeless. Try falling in love again...this time for real. Some things never change."

Great summer read!
reviewed Smart Women on + 59 more book reviews
What a fun read- long- and awesome book!
reviewed Smart Women on
A good story of love and the facts of divorce, children and relationships.
reviewed Smart Women on + 215 more book reviews
Once you get past the 1980's references, this is a wonderful book about relationships, mother-daughter struggles and becoming happy with yourself. A fabulous read. Ms. Blume at her best.
hollita34 avatar reviewed Smart Women on + 21 more book reviews
Easy read. Characters are fairly under-developed. Judy Blume is a great adolescent lit writer, but I am not sure she made a convincing transition to the adult lit world.
reviewed Smart Women on
I found this rather dull and boring ... rather like "peyton place" in print ...
reviewed Smart Women on + 317 more book reviews
An adult romance by Judy Blume. Good!
reviewed Smart Women on + 30 more book reviews
Ihave about 50 pages left to read and I started it yesterday very good book
reviewed Smart Women on + 16 more book reviews
A Judy Blume book for adults. The trials and tribulations of women friends.