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The Swap
Fifty-year-old used-car dealer Misha Edelman mourns for his wife, killed two years earlier in an automobile accident, while teen parents Maddy and Jed struggle with their new responsibility.
- GenresYoung AdultFiction
311 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 1983
About the author
Norma Klein
70 books112 followersNorma Klein was born in New York City and graduated cum laude and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa from Barnard College with a degree in Russian. She later received her master's degree in Slavic languages from Columbia University.
Ms. Klein began publishing short stories while attending Barnard and since then she had written novels for readers of all ages. The author got her ideas from everyday life and advised would-be writers to do the same -- to write about their experiences or things they really care about.
Ms. Klein died in 1989.
Ms. Klein began publishing short stories while attending Barnard and since then she had written novels for readers of all ages. The author got her ideas from everyday life and advised would-be writers to do the same -- to write about their experiences or things they really care about.
Ms. Klein died in 1989.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 31, 2026
Huh. I don't know what to think of this story. I shelved it as YA because Maddy and Jed are teen parents/newlyweds, but it does alternate their story with that of the 50-year-old widower used care salesman that Jed works for. Plus, it's 310 pages, with *tiny* font--probably 500 pages in today's formatting!
First, this was first published in 1983. I know it wasn't uncommon for kids to start kindergarten at four instead of five, but how is Maddy fifteen years old and done with her junior year? She gets married and has a baby at *fifteen* and her mother is the only person with a negative reaction. In fact, there's a sixteen-year-old high school graduate, Vonnie, who is also married even though she isn't pregnant! This sixteen-year-old and her seventeen-year-old husband are the witnesses for Maddy and Jed's wedding. I didn't know a fifteen-year-old could marry a seventeen-year-old without any adult witnesses/permission! These people are all children!
Then, everyone has affairs. Literally one half of every married couple in the story is sleeping with at least one person who isn't their spouse. There's Misha, the widower, who sleeps with his sister-in-law (his wife's twin), Ardis. I really like that Ardis is a computer programmer and no one understands what she does. She loves her husband, but sex isn't important to him, so she sleeps with lots of men, but she also doesn't tell her husband. Then she gets into an argument with Misha about how she does have a happy marriage. And she has valid reasons. But would it still be happy if her husband knew?
Jed starts sleeping with a college girl even before Maddy has the baby. Capri has no qualms about sleeping with a married man whose wife just had a baby.
Why doesn't anyone suggest Maddy go back to school? She is working in a hair salon and thinking about cosmetology school. Jed doesn't even know anyone who's been to college where he's from, so I guess it's the time and place where leaving school at sixteen is normal...
Side note that I found fun, as I watched in the 1990s when Lucky is grappling with his parents' past, General Hospital is featured quite a bit in the story, and it's right after Luke and Laura have gotten married. They even discuss whether Luke raped Laura, and some argue that it wasn't rape because she loved him. This is an acceptable argument. I wonder what Norma herself thought of this argument?
It's written in that candid 80s way where people say kind of shocking things but they also don't really ever talk to each other. Jed actually meets Capri's parents and lets them think he's a (unmarried) college student. At one point Capri's mother bumps into him and invites him to have lunch. She says, “Should I charge off and have the requisite midlife affair with whoever?” (205). What?! Why is this woman having this kind of conversation with her daughter's boyfriend? And it's so blase. I don't think most people think of "requisite midlife affairs." Is it supposed to be a well-off, Upstate New York thing?
Strange, uncomfortable story, but engrossing. That's Norma Klein for you.
First, this was first published in 1983. I know it wasn't uncommon for kids to start kindergarten at four instead of five, but how is Maddy fifteen years old and done with her junior year? She gets married and has a baby at *fifteen* and her mother is the only person with a negative reaction. In fact, there's a sixteen-year-old high school graduate, Vonnie, who is also married even though she isn't pregnant! This sixteen-year-old and her seventeen-year-old husband are the witnesses for Maddy and Jed's wedding. I didn't know a fifteen-year-old could marry a seventeen-year-old without any adult witnesses/permission! These people are all children!
Then, everyone has affairs. Literally one half of every married couple in the story is sleeping with at least one person who isn't their spouse. There's Misha, the widower, who sleeps with his sister-in-law (his wife's twin), Ardis. I really like that Ardis is a computer programmer and no one understands what she does. She loves her husband, but sex isn't important to him, so she sleeps with lots of men, but she also doesn't tell her husband. Then she gets into an argument with Misha about how she does have a happy marriage. And she has valid reasons. But would it still be happy if her husband knew?
Jed starts sleeping with a college girl even before Maddy has the baby. Capri has no qualms about sleeping with a married man whose wife just had a baby.
Why doesn't anyone suggest Maddy go back to school? She is working in a hair salon and thinking about cosmetology school. Jed doesn't even know anyone who's been to college where he's from, so I guess it's the time and place where leaving school at sixteen is normal...
Side note that I found fun, as I watched in the 1990s when Lucky is grappling with his parents' past, General Hospital is featured quite a bit in the story, and it's right after Luke and Laura have gotten married. They even discuss whether Luke raped Laura, and some argue that it wasn't rape because she loved him. This is an acceptable argument. I wonder what Norma herself thought of this argument?
It's written in that candid 80s way where people say kind of shocking things but they also don't really ever talk to each other. Jed actually meets Capri's parents and lets them think he's a (unmarried) college student. At one point Capri's mother bumps into him and invites him to have lunch. She says, “Should I charge off and have the requisite midlife affair with whoever?” (205). What?! Why is this woman having this kind of conversation with her daughter's boyfriend? And it's so blase. I don't think most people think of "requisite midlife affairs." Is it supposed to be a well-off, Upstate New York thing?
Strange, uncomfortable story, but engrossing. That's Norma Klein for you.
June 22, 2020
The book is “about the many possibilities of love” according to the inside cover, and that is probably the best description. Young love, married love, affairs, and widowers love. More sex than I expected, but overall a wonderful and charming story with a satisfying ending. Sometimes some of the characters were not lovable, but they were realistic. Hard to put down this book.
December 9, 2013
Read this book years ago. A real hanging off the edge of your seat page turner
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews