Vanessa L. (VanessaL) reviewed on 8/18/2009 + 26 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 13

I have to admit being torn about this book. On the one hand, I was riveted by it. I read it on our family beach vacation and couldn't put it down. But it was the kind of fascination you have for a car wreck on the side of the road. You know it's tragic -- not to mention none of your business -- yet you can't help rubbernecking. I was also deeply disturbed by the author. Again, I'm torn. On the one hand, I admired her honesty and could certainly relate to certain aspects of her plight. On the other hand, I just couldn't relate to her lack of focus on her daughter in the aftermath of her husband's death. Her overarching concern seemed to be not going more than a week without sex. Within weeks of her husband's death, she was in bed with a handsome young family friend -- after telling him she felt that her husband was trying to come to her sexually and she had a strong feeling that her husband's spirit wanted to use him as a surrogate to have sex with her. Well of course! As she plowed through weekend-long dates with one man after another, dropping her daughter like excess baggage with just about anyone in town, my sympathy ran dry. Even when her friends gently hinted that it may be time to focus a bit on her grieving daughter, she still didn't pull herself together, not even to drag herself out of bed to make a school lunch for the child. Meanwhile, she had no problem finding the energy for masturbation and new lovers.

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