Leave Me: My Review

Leave Me

About the Book:

Every woman who has ever fantasized about driving past her exit on the highway instead of going home to make dinner, and every woman who has ever dreamed of boarding a train to a place where no one needs constant attention--meet Maribeth Klein. A harried working mother who’s so busy taking care of her husband and twins, she doesn’t even realize she’s had a heart attack.


Surprised to discover that her recuperation seems to be an imposition on those who rely on her, Maribeth does the unthinkable: she packs a bag and leaves. But, as is often the case, once we get where we’re going we see our lives from a different perspective. Far from the demands of family and career and with the help of liberating new friendships, Maribeth is able to own up to secrets she has been keeping from herself and those she loves.

With bighearted characters--husbands, wives, friends, and lovers--who stumble and trip, grow and forgive, Leave Me is about facing the fears we’re all running from. Gayle Forman is a dazzling observer of human nature. She has written an irresistible novel that confronts the ambivalence of modern motherhood head on and asks, what happens when a grown woman runs away from home?

My Comments:

Lately I've had little desire to read anything the slightest bit serious; I've been living on romance novels too stupid to be reviewed here.  I just go through stages like that sometimes, though this one has lasted a while.   However, when perusing Overdrive from my library, Leave Me  caught my eye and I devoured it in just a few hours--that's another thing, lately my attention span has been limted so it is taking me forever to read what I could read in three or four hours if I'd just sit down and do it.  So, it was definitely an engaging book that kept me turning the pages.

One thing I like about romance novels is that everything wraps up neatly and we know they are going to live happily ever after.  Leave Me is more like a slice of real life.  At the end of the book, we know the direction Maribeth has chosen, but we don't know where the path will go--and isn't that the way real life is?  I mean even on our wedding day we know we won't live happily every after--there will be struggles and pain and problems. That's why we take vows "for better or for worse".  Still at the end of the book I wanted more.  Maribeth ran away from real life and most of the book covered the time she was away.  How did that time change her?  How did it change her family and friends?  

As noted earlier, this was a library book.  Grade:  B