Sima misses her youth and the happy start of her marriage. Timna, a young, attractive Israeli woman works helps Sima sell underwear, corsets, robes and more re-invigorating Sima's unsatisfying life. Working with Timna becomes a much needed focussed adventure for Sima. She absorbs Timna's beauty, her stories and follows her after work!

Timna is both: a representation of Sima's missed opportunities, and the daughter she never had.
Timna helps Sima gain clarity about her marriage and learn how to proactively move forward.

Strongly good read!

I wish Sima's ability to fit a bra was available to all women. I've had my fair share of uncomfortable bras (even after a fitting.) But, Sima was such a whiner! At least at the end of the story, she realized that Lev wasn't the slug she thought he was. She was fortunate that he stayed with her considering her disrespectful treatment of him.

For Lev, the arrival of Timna was a blessing. For Sima and Lev, her departure was when they were able to see each other again through love's eyes. ( )

I liked this although it too had a happier ending than I felt the story warranted. But I liked that the author wasn't afraid to depict sadness, loneliness and waste. ( )

I have a bit of a love/like with this book. At first, this is what I said about the book:

I feel like a mid-Victorian prude! I started reading Sima's Undergarments for Women and found the relationship between the two women more than a little creepy. It's not quite mother/daughter, not out-and-out lesbianism, but something a little more covert. I had to put it down and post the question: Should I read this? Have any of you read it, and can you shed any light?

A friend of mine read the book and told me that I was all wrong on it, and that I should get past this odd beginning (she agreed that it was written with a creepy vibe at first) and get to the nitty gritty of the relationship between the older and younger women.

I read on, and she was correct. Once I got past the initial reaction, I saw a terribly lonely, guilty and overbearing woman. I was so sorry for the way she handled her inability to have children, how it affected her marriage and her relationship with the younger Timna. She eventually pushed them away despite the fact that she needed them both. And the relationship that Timna and Lev forged with one another on the shared foundation of Sima was interesting. I also loved the Jewish element to the story. While I am not Jewish, I can imagine that this is exactly what many families of the faith are like.

I found this to be a very real, heart-wrenching story of loss, regret, and almost-too-late second chances. The characters are real, the friendships are real and the neighborhood is real. Recommended. ( )

For This I Waited Over SIX (6) Months?

Honestly, I have no idea what this book is suppose to be about, I don't see the point, I didn't care about or even like the characters....

Sima: an older N.Y. Jewish woman selling quality undergarments out of the basement of her home to observant women. Married without children and about to get a comeuppance (thank-you Connie for retaliation....urging Sima to call *Timna's mother about Timna's alleged pregnancy... shit you just don't do that).

Connie: Sima's best friend, now divorced (thank-you Sima for telling Connie in front of her husband that you sold her husband's secretary sexy lingerie) and on the verge of dating again.

Lev: Sima's husband, a retired vice-principal, closed out of his marriage by Sima's secret past discretion.

*Timna (a Variety of African Grey Parrot) JUST JOKING! Timna: a young Israeli woman who has left her home & boyfriend behind, who now works for Sima as a seamstress & selling undergarments... who just might be pregnant.

So the story cuts in & out of these people's lives, back & forth between the past, the present... but all felt forced and shallow. All chopped up, nothing concrete to really let the reader get to know the characters, no warmth, no compassion......

Meh! ( )