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Oprah Book Club® Selection, April 1998:
"The first time my husband hit me I was nineteen years old," begins Fran Benedetto, the broken heroine of Anna Quindlen's Black and Blue. With one sweeping sentence, the door to an abused and tortured world is swung wide open and the psyche of a crushed and tattered self-image exposed. "Frannie, Frannie, Fran"--as Bobby Benedetto liked to call her before smashing her into kitchen appliances--was a young, energetic nursing student when she met her husband-to-be at a local Brooklyn bar. She was instantly captivated by his dark, brooding looks and magnetic personality, but her fascination soon solidified into a marital prison sentence of incessant abuse and the destruction of her own identity.

After an especially horrific beating and rape, Fran realizes that the next attack could be the last. Fearing her son would be left motherless and alone with Bobby, she escapes one morning with her child. Fran's salvation comes in the form of Patty Bancroft and Co., a relocation agency for abused women that touts better service than the witness protection program. Armed only with a phone number, a few hundred dollars, and the help of several anonymous volunteers, Fran begins a new life.

The agency relocates her to Florida, where she becomes Beth Crenshaw, a recently divorced home-care assistant from Delaware. Fran and her son adapt, meeting challenges with unexpected resilience and resolve until their past returns to haunt them.

Quindlen renders the intricacies of spousal abuse with eerie accuracy, taking the reader deep within the realm of dysfunctional human ties. However, her vivid descriptions of abuse, emotional disintegration, and acute loneliness at times numb the reader with their realism.

This is a fascinating, well-written book, but an intensely disturbing subject matter. I found it very hard to put down, the tension and suspense was rivitting.

The reader knows that eventually Bobby will find Fran/Beth and Robert. I found myself growing impatient with all the details and pages filling up the space until he does - in that respect, I felt the book would have been better had it been faster-paced, and a bit shorter.

I don't want to spoil the ending, so all I'll say is that I found it surprising and unsatisfying - I had trouble coming to terms with it, especially since I'm a sucker for happy endings. (A sequel would be nice to tie up the lose ends.) I also had trouble understanding Fran's continued lust and attraction towards Bobby after everything he did to her - it's like she never let go of wanting him even after she tried to move on. This made me wonder about her level of committment towards her second husband, and whether or not she fantasized about Bobby when intimate with him.

Still, though, it is a very good book! Very though-provoking, and one that stays with you long after you finish reading it. Highly recommended.

RELEASE NOTES:

sending to my good friend, smhamn in Ohio. Enjoy!

I'm excited!! I received lots of books from my friend!! This one looks good. Thanks!

Left in the small kitchen near the waiting room to the MICU.