A frank and visceral dual timeline shows the romance and failure of a woman’s marriage to a psychopath.
A woman discovers her husband is not whom she thought he was.
Waite met Marco at work; he was the new bar manager, and she was working as a waitress “to make the money that did not seem to be materializing from my acting and modeling careers.” They went out for drinks even though Waite had a long-distance relationship with another man. “He was sexy and mysterious and all of a sudden I wanted him more than I had wanted anything in my life,” she writes. Before long, they were a couple and moved in together; she agreed to help fund Marco’s lifetime dream of opening a restaurant; they got pregnant and married. Then their perfect life fell apart when Waite discovered Marco was cheating on her and had been for quite some time. Alternating between two time frames—before finding out about the affair and after—the author slowly unravels the complexity of lies and disillusions she suffered because of Marco. The tension, disbelief, and grief permeate the pages as Waite chronicles how she obsessively checked Marco’s email and Facebook accounts for proof of his infidelity. The author makes palpable her inability to cope with the enormity of her situation and the confusion and fear for what a divorce would mean for her newborn child. Her recounting of the events gives readers an up-close look at the psychological damage that occurs when one partner falls completely for another and ignores the gut instincts and warning signs that the relationship may not be what it seems. Those who have been in a manipulative partnership with a narcissistic or abusive person will find Waite’s honest retelling relevant and potent. Many will find they can use this as a guidebook of what to watch out for so they don’t make the same mistakes that the author did.
A frank and visceral dual timeline shows the romance and failure of a woman’s marriage to a psychopath.Pub Date: July 11, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-7352-1646-4
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Plume
Review Posted Online: April 29, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2017
BOOK REVIEW
This autobiography might almost be said to supply the roots to Wright's famous novel, Native Son.
It is a grim record, disturbing, the story of how — in one boy's life — the seeds of hate and distrust and race riots were planted. Wright was born to poverty and hardship in the deep south; his father deserted his mother, and circumstances and illness drove the little family from place to place, from degradation to degradation. And always, there was the thread of fear and hate and suspicion and discrimination — of white set against black — of black set against Jew — of intolerance. Driven to deceit, to dishonesty, ambition thwarted, motives impugned, Wright struggled against the tide, put by a tiny sum to move on, finally got to Chicago, and there — still against odds — pulled himself up, acquired some education through reading, allied himself with the Communists — only to be thrust out for non-conformity — and wrote continually. The whole tragedy of a race seems dramatized in this record; it is virtually unrelieved by any vestige of human tenderness, or humor; there are no bright spots. And yet it rings true. It is an unfinished story of a problem that has still to be met.
Perhaps this will force home unpalatable facts of a submerged minority, a problem far from being faced.
Pub Date: Feb. 28, 1945
ISBN: 0061130249
Page Count: 450
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1945
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular...
A neurosurgeon with a passion for literature tragically finds his perfect subject after his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer.
Writing isn’t brain surgery, but it’s rare when someone adept at the latter is also so accomplished at the former. Searching for meaning and purpose in his life, Kalanithi pursued a doctorate in literature and had felt certain that he wouldn’t enter the field of medicine, in which his father and other members of his family excelled. “But I couldn’t let go of the question,” he writes, after realizing that his goals “didn’t quite fit in an English department.” “Where did biology, morality, literature and philosophy intersect?” So he decided to set aside his doctoral dissertation and belatedly prepare for medical school, which “would allow me a chance to find answers that are not in books, to find a different sort of sublime, to forge relationships with the suffering, and to keep following the question of what makes human life meaningful, even in the face of death and decay.” The author’s empathy undoubtedly made him an exceptional doctor, and the precision of his prose—as well as the moral purpose underscoring it—suggests that he could have written a good book on any subject he chose. Part of what makes this book so essential is the fact that it was written under a death sentence following the diagnosis that upended his life, just as he was preparing to end his residency and attract offers at the top of his profession. Kalanithi learned he might have 10 years to live or perhaps five. Should he return to neurosurgery (he could and did), or should he write (he also did)? Should he and his wife have a baby? They did, eight months before he died, which was less than two years after the original diagnosis. “The fact of death is unsettling,” he understates. “Yet there is no other way to live.”
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular clarity.Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8129-8840-6
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
PERSPECTIVES
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