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Black and Blue

by Anna Quindlen

ISBN: 0440226104
ISBN-13: 9780440226109
Format: Paperback

Summary

An abused wife named Frannie leaves home with her young son, and lives under a new identity in Florida, where she tries to make a comfortable life for the two of them. She is always in fear that her husband will find her, however, and ultimately he does, but Frannie is resilient, and survives to go on to a new life.

Customer Reviews

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Media Reviews

"...Quindlen now takes a talk-show staple-spousal abuse-and gives it a compelling immediacy in a refreshingly wise and truth-telling novel about life and marriage....A book to read and savor."

   -- Kirkus

"Sensitive, suspenseful and haunting....[An] astute, thought-provoking portrayal of one woman's battle to avoid becoming a statistic-or being viewed as one. Whether that battle is heroic or hugely misguided is a question that will linger with the reader long after the final chapter's close."    -- Autumn Stephens

   -- San Francisco Chronicle Book Review

"Battered wives, unfortunately, are a staple of daytime talk shows and made-for-television movies. To make Fran's mundane misery matter to us, Ms. Quindlen, paradoxically, must pull all the rabbits out of her writer's magic hat. As our narrator, Fran recounts her days in such richly textured language that we taste the peanut butter (no jelly) sandwiches she prepares for Robert; we smell, with despair, the moldy carpeting in her Florida apartment....Fran's precise, mesmerizing narrative makes readers understand her deep connection with [her abusive husband]. Her descriptions of Bobby's rages are truly scary...and yet her yearning to stay with him also makes frightening sense."    -- Maureen Corrigan

   -- New York Times

"I read 'Black and Blue' from beginning to end in one insomniac sitting."    -- Laura Green

   -- Salon

"[U]nfortunately the novel is nowhere near as convincing as the news reports all of us have seen on television. But it does keep the reader anxiously turning pages."    -- Maggie Paley

   -- New York Times Book Review

Bibliographic Details

Publisher: Bantam Books
Published date: 1999
Size: 4.25 x 6.75 inches
Weight: 0.4 pounds
Pages: 384

Publisher's Notes

From the author of "One True Thing" comes a stunning novel about a woman and her child on the run from the husband that loves her--and beats her. A heart-stopping story beautifully written with power, wisdom, and humor about the real lives of men and women, it is a remarkable work of fiction by the writer whom Alice Hoffman has called "a national treasure".

Other Editions

Hardcover - Random House Inc (1998) - from $1.00
Paperback Reissue - Bantam Books (1999) - from $1.00

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