LOVELAND review on The Rumpus:

With humor and brutal honesty, Loveland (Blackwater Press, 2024), Susan Ostrov’s memoir about romance, aging, and sex, shows us how she slowly—often painfully—shed the cultural norms of romantic love to find her own version of “happily ever after.” 

Read the full review here.

Readers’ Review: “It is a wonder how love, one of the oldest words in the human vocabulary, and marriage, one of the world’s oldest institutions, are still among the words least understood by many, and, to this day, their ways of working are a mystery most struggle to grasp. Unlike in the nineteenth and partly the twentieth century, women in the twenty-first century have liberty in marriage and their choices for love. Emotions are now more acknowledged and concepts like romance can be openly explored. Yet even with this, divorce rates are at an all-time high. In Loveland: A Memoir of Romance and Fiction, Susan Ostrov gives an account of her experiences in marriage, love, and romance during the mid-twentieth century from her first junior school crush, her first kiss, her marriage, to her romantic life after divorce and more. Get yourself a copy to discover more.

Susan Ostrov’s Loveland: A Memoir of Romance and Fiction is a must-read for both new and established couples. Ostrov took me into the complex world of marriage with a succinct style of writing, intriguing anecdotes, and lively experiences, depicting the emotions of a woman in a sentimental labyrinth. Driving a sharp edge of intellect into the discourse, Ostrov gives it a witty backdrop with an uncensored, dramatic, and hilarious tone. Ostrov’s account of her parents’ marriage is sad yet I could not stop laughing, especially because of Ostrov’s way of lacing the narrative with a tinge of sarcasm. I learned a great deal about the basics of a relationship and the role a partner’s background can play in determining its success. This book might bring men a step closer to understanding the wants and needs of women in a relationship, and perhaps give men a deeper insight into their emotional space.”

On the writing process

LOVELAND is a story filled with storytelling: my mother’s, my own, the books I read in childhood, the great literature of love I discovered in adolescence, and the myths of culture that become deep-seated beliefs.

My first chapter, “Childhood,” bores down to the roots from which the rest of my life in romance would grow, branch out, and eventually, burst forth. The love story of my parents, Betty and Al, set the cornerstone for my own love life. Meanwhile, my childhood reading stamped the look, demeanor, and character of the heroine I wanted to be. From there, I divided each stage of my love life from childhood to older woman as separate chapters (Dating, Marriage, Passion, and so on), since our ideas of love often evolve as we grow.

My inspiration has always been female authors who make you think about women’s lives, especially nineteenth-century novelists like Jane Austen, the Brontes, and George Eliot. In the modern era, memoirists like Joan Didion, Jeanette Winterson, and Annie Ernaux have influenced this book in particular. Annie Ernaux is especially dear to me because she’s never afraid to say what she feels in describing passion, and doesn’t portray herself as either heroine or victim.

I did an interview about the book with The Indie View. You can read the full interview here.

Praise for LOVELAND: