Marlena Joyce

The Maxine Chronicles: Sex and the Single Jew Marlena Joyce

Maxine Dorfman has it all-sagging jowls, chubby elbows, sexual batteries that need repair, and frustrating fantasies about Burt Lancaster and her dentist, Dr. Ronald Kertler. But, there are two things she does not have: the notorious, hooked Kleinkopf nose that runs in her family, and a faithful husband. Mel, her laid-off CPA husband dumps her for an older woman-a sixty-five-year-old woman. Maxine is left on ground zero in denial, depressed and addicted to macadamia nuts. Hope arrives in the form of Connie Piccini, her best friend who encourages a reluctant Maxine to sign up for Earth Trek, a weeklong fitness adventure in the Catskill Mountains. Three hikes, two hot romances, and one environmental crisis later, transform our heroine from a fearful, depressed victim into a self-empowered woman with passion, power and purpose.