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3.66 AVERAGE
3.66 AVERAGE
This book was hard to read. Domestic violence often is a silent epidemic. I’m glad this author decided to tell this story.
Oddly enough this one reminded me of Stephen King's Rose Madder. Sort of the same plot line ...except there was no Minotaur or paintings that you could travel into or poisonous seeds or..well, you get it. It was the same but different.
Fran has been physically and mentally abused by her NYC cop husband for a long time we learn in the opening pages -- at the moment she takes her 10-year-old son and runs. Hence, with the exception of a few flashbacks to his brutality, Black and Blue is about a newly single, middle aged woman building a new life while in hiding from her assailant. We avoid much of the horror for a close-up look at the aftermath of the initial traumas, her fear, doubts, longings, loneliness, and attempts to look at life through the distorted lens created by her monster husband. Sometimes a little too sweet, but insightful. Quindlen helped me think about the many ways domestic violence hurts women without wanting to put the story down in disgust.
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
sad
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Racism, Abortion
dark
emotional
sad
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Abortion
Written in first person, Black and Blue by Anna Quindlen, is the story of a woman, who is a nurse, in an abusive marriage to a policeman. Fran is telling her story of abuse and finally getting the courage to take her son and flee the relationship. It is a graphic story. It makes you cringe, and just wonder how many women and children out there are going through this on a daily basis. It makes you feel angry that she put up with it for so long. It makes you feel sorry for a little boy who will probably grow up just like his dad because that is the behavior that he had modeled for him. It is a story that leaves you shaking your head.
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Book on CD narrated by Kimberly Schraf.
With the help of an advocate group, Frances Benedeto leaves her abusive husband, Bobby (a New York city detective), and takes her son to a new state with new names and new backstories. It’s not much different from entering the Witness Protection Service, in that she has to cut all ties with her family and friends in order to avoid being found out. Now she’s Beth Crenshaw, living in a small apartment, walking to work as a home healthcare aide, and trying her best to explain to her son why they have to do what they are doing to stay safe.
Okay, there’s a nugget of a good story here, and I started out completely engaged in the story. But as the book moved along I found that I couldn’t really believe in Fran/Beth. I get that women who are repeatedly abused and controlled by animals like Bobby lose what self-confidence they started with pretty quickly. That they become full of self-doubt and take on the blame for what has happened. That they become immobilized by fear and the certainty that they are all alone and no one will believe and/or help them. That they lose the ability to trust.
But Beth keeps saying she’s never going back and then doing things that will clearly make it easier for Bobby to find her. And when, after her new identity is compromised, she’s offered additional help and another relocation, she refuses … more than once. I was just so frustrated by her behavior. While I was interested enough in the book to keep reading/listening, I don’t think I’ll remember it for long.
On the positive side … Quindlen gives the reader a reasonably suspenseful story arc. She also gives us a new group of friends that will obviously help Beth and her son, Robert, move forward in a new life. And she resists the impulse to give us a happy ending. These kinds of cases rarely end happily, and Beth will face these issues for years to come. I applaud Quindlen for shedding some light on the issue.
Kimberly Schraf does a fine job of narrating the audiobook. She sets a good pace and gives the many characters sufficiently unique voices to help differentiate them. Her rendition of Bobby is oily and just gives me the shivers.
With the help of an advocate group, Frances Benedeto leaves her abusive husband, Bobby (a New York city detective), and takes her son to a new state with new names and new backstories. It’s not much different from entering the Witness Protection Service, in that she has to cut all ties with her family and friends in order to avoid being found out. Now she’s Beth Crenshaw, living in a small apartment, walking to work as a home healthcare aide, and trying her best to explain to her son why they have to do what they are doing to stay safe.
Okay, there’s a nugget of a good story here, and I started out completely engaged in the story. But as the book moved along I found that I couldn’t really believe in Fran/Beth. I get that women who are repeatedly abused and controlled by animals like Bobby lose what self-confidence they started with pretty quickly. That they become full of self-doubt and take on the blame for what has happened. That they become immobilized by fear and the certainty that they are all alone and no one will believe and/or help them. That they lose the ability to trust.
But Beth keeps saying she’s never going back and then doing things that will clearly make it easier for Bobby to find her. And when, after her new identity is compromised, she’s offered additional help and another relocation, she refuses … more than once. I was just so frustrated by her behavior. While I was interested enough in the book to keep reading/listening, I don’t think I’ll remember it for long.
On the positive side … Quindlen gives the reader a reasonably suspenseful story arc. She also gives us a new group of friends that will obviously help Beth and her son, Robert, move forward in a new life. And she resists the impulse to give us a happy ending. These kinds of cases rarely end happily, and Beth will face these issues for years to come. I applaud Quindlen for shedding some light on the issue.
Kimberly Schraf does a fine job of narrating the audiobook. She sets a good pace and gives the many characters sufficiently unique voices to help differentiate them. Her rendition of Bobby is oily and just gives me the shivers.
When I was a freshman in high school, I was on the speech team and my speech for the year was a portion of Anna Quindlen's commencement address at Mount Holyoke. I gave the driest and most pathetic version of this address imaginable. I also knew she was a writer but hadn't read any of Quindlen's books. I found this one on the side of the road recently and decided I should probably read one.
Pace-wise, this was great. I expected it to slog more because of the size of the book, but it kept moving and that was good. I think the ending was a little too quick to wrap everything up, though. But it's really hard to wrap things up nicely in a story about domestic abuse.
I'll probably read more Quindlen in the future.
Pace-wise, this was great. I expected it to slog more because of the size of the book, but it kept moving and that was good. I think the ending was a little too quick to wrap everything up, though. But it's really hard to wrap things up nicely in a story about domestic abuse.
I'll probably read more Quindlen in the future.