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Friday, November 8, 1985
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
ity seem to favor one gender.
The men don't change. They are
all just as incapable of love, just
as absorbed with themselves,
just as needy of someone to
serve them as they were back in
Harvard.
"The men didn't change," ex-
plained Jaffe, "because they
didn't have to change. They had
everything. They thought it was
their due to have everything.
Ken (the Beverly Hills der-
matologist) felt he had been
forced to marry Emily, the poor
little thing, because he didn't
have his last fling in Europe. So
he thought he could have his
last fling for years and years
and years. In a sense, Ken
changed: He got worse. And
worse. And worse."
Asked whether a man such as
Ken would one day question
why he was a cocaine addict or
why he enjoyed being in the
same bed at the same time with
four nubile young things while
his marriage to his college
sweetheart disintegrated and his
kids were getting more and
more confused, Jaffa answered,
"No, there are people like that
who don't mind. But the women
who found another chance found
men who were terrific."
Luckily, for Jaffe, she hasn't
had to change too much over the
years. From her early teens on,
she knew what she wanted to
be. And she's been doing it —
writing books — since she left
college shortly before her 20th
birthday. There may even be
another "reunion" book some-
where down the road. Jaffe
hasn't decided yet. All she
knows, for now, is that she's on
the road, ha -wking her book
from town to town and watching
it scramble up the best seller
lists. After the Reunion, she
freely admits, was written
partly to wrestle with her own
fear of growing old and being
alone. A long time ago, she de-
cided to spurn her parents' pleas
to get married "so you'll have
companionship in your old age.
It was sort of like, 'Put up with
him for 50 years because when
you're both old, it won't matter
anyway.'
At the age of 53, Rona Jaffe is
not particularly old. But she
isn't exactly young, either. And,
for now, she doesn't have "a
companion" for the coming
years.
"But in my novels," she said,
"I try to write about things that
concern me. I figure them out
through my characters. In this
book, "I tried to see my char-
acters stand up on their hind
legs and fight the world and
really win and not be alone. The
book doesn't really end because
nothing ends. But I do know
now that if you don't have
somebody now, you can have
somebody tomorrow."
And that there are lots of con-
fused and lonely and frustrated
women out there who want an
ear to lean on — or, at least, a
book to skim through — in the
dark of the night when their
kids are sleeping and their hus-
bands are snoring and the laun-
Continued on next page
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