The Lowdown on the Breakdown

Once again Jacquelyn Mitchard has captured and translated into words the essence of family relationships. This time, Ms. Mitchard takes her readers through the "breakdown" of a seemingly all together family. As the heroine, and she is a heroine, confronts spousal rejection and family dysfunctionality as well as learns to battle her worst fears, she discovers who she is and what she is capable of. She is sometimes ashamed and often angry but she is always determined. This powerful tale will encourage the discouraged and help us all to understand that life may not have fairy tale endings but it may offer surprising good endings after all.

Coming Apart in The Middle

Jacquelyn Mitchard has written a novel of love; lost, won, and regained. This novel is not her best, it is a trifle trite. However, the writing is superb, and the characters come alive as do the descriptions of the lives of these people.

Julieann has always had what she wanted. Love, money, educated parents and a loving husband and family. Until that is, the day Leo tells her he needs to have a sabbatical- a time away from her and his famly and his committments. She argues, she screams, nothing works- he leaves. And, they do not hear from him for months. For the past year, Julieann has had some difficulty moving, she falls easily and she has some loss of sensation in some of her fingers and toes. It is not until her best friend demands that she sees someone that she learns she has multiple sclerosis. MS and the loss of her husband, what else can go wrong, but with the help of her family and friends and her in-laws she moves on.

Julieann is an advice counselor with a column in a newspaper. On the bad dsys, her son, Gabe writes the column,and he does so well that her publisher is impressed with her new style. With the physical issues of MS, Julieann writes poems to mask her stress. These poems are well regarded and a publisher wants them for a book. All is looking up, isn't it?

Leo returns one day with her two chidlren who had gone looking for him. They were tired of supporting their mom while their dad did nothing. Well, he was doing something- living anther life with a woman and he had a small baby. Julieann was thrilled to see Leo until she learned that he was still enmeshed in his new life and was not thinking of her or his family.

Julieann and her children have good and bad days. Leo leaves and Julieann strikes up a relationship with a man she used to know from high school. But, who would want to date a woman with a terminal disease? What will happen to her children- how will they be supported- why does her daughter Cat stay out all night, and what is happening to Gabe and his learning disabilites.

A trifle trite, I said, You betcha'. You can guess what will happen after the first chapter. The writing saves it. Too bad the story is so commonplace. Recommended warily. prisrob

Manipulative

I just finished this book, enjoyed it for the most part while I was reading it, but felt like I was manipulated some of the time. The ending was very contrived and predictable and was a letdown after the first part of the book. Also, since Gabe and his sister were both "born in the same year", because Julieanne didn't realize you could get pregnant while breastfeeding--years later, Leo's girlfriend gets pregnant with a two-month-old baby because he didn't realize that it could happen while she's breastfeeding! We readers are supposed to forget that it happened once before with Leo? How could Leo forget??? I found the book disappointing; Caroline was a spoiled brat and a very unfeeling young lady. I did enjoy Gabe and his chapters in the book, however. I expected more from this author.