The Woman Who Wouldn't - by Gene Wilder (Paperback)

About the Book

With warm, tender stories and a spare, elegant writing style, Wilder is back with his second novella. In this new work, his subject is love--both unexpected and complicated.

Book Synopsis

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's prose is elegant, spare and affecting. But it's his romantic's eye for the intense emotions that animate a real love story that makes The Woman Who Wouldn't an unforgettable book.

Review Quotes

"This wistful love story...exudes the same sweetness that characterizes [Gene Wilder's] screen persona." --Boston Globe

"A supple, unpretentious writer." --Palm Beach Post

"A poignant and whimsically romantic [story]...Wilder lovingly depicts...the miraculous joy and inevitable loss that liberate true emotion." --Publishers Weekly

"A sweet, adult fable." --Kirkus Reviews

About the Author

Gene Wilder (1933-2016) began acting when 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, What Is This Thing Called Love? and Something to Remember You By.