Three decades after its original bestselling publication, Sheila Levine is Dead and Living in New York is still completely on target as the most achingly funny book-length suicide note ever written by an agonizingly single 30-year-old trying unsuccessfully to straddle two worlds: the one she's been programmed for from birth—marriage first, life later—and the illusive swinging singles scene of liberated New York City.

Meet Sheila Levine, she’s smart and funny, and her mother tells her she’s beautiful. . . . But her skirt’s always a bit wrinkled, she’s trying to lose 15—make that 25—pounds, she just turned 30 . . . and she’s still single. She tries to date and mate, she really does, but disappointment turns to desperation, and after a flash of insight, Sheila calmly decides to kill herself. So she starts to get her affairs in order and writes a suicide note to her loving parents to explain it all.