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A Memoir of Divorce
by Suzanne Finnamore
There are certain books that come to epitomize their painful subject matter, offering solace to those who share the same fate and pleasure to those who merely appreciate fine writing. What The Year of Magical Thinking did for grief, what Drinking: A Love Story did for alcoholism, now Split does for divorce. Prescriptive yet full of pragmatic advice, insight and black humor, Split is a finely wrought tourniquet for a broken union and its attendant trauma.
Suzanne Finnamore, author of the novel Otherwise Engaged, didn’t see it coming. Well, perhaps she saw something—for example, a cocktail napkin on which her husband, N, had scribbled a Cole Porter love song and someone else’s name—but she refused to acknowledge it. She was busy tending to their one-year-old son, then applying makeup, donning high heels, and mixing a martini to greet N with when he arrived home at night. Until the night N came home, told her she looked beautiful, changed his clothes, and announced that he was leaving.
In crystalline, riveting prose, Finnamore tells the story of her divorce, and her marriage, and how it all imploded and came back together, changed. At once quite funny, achingly sad, and unflinchingly fierce, Split will resonate with anyone who’s endured the end of a relationship.
"[A] sharp, cut-to-the-quick account ... Eschewing a divorce lawyer, Finnamore manages to come through with the help of her friends and conveys in this frank, winning memoir her supreme vulnerability and bravery." - Publishers Weekly.
"One memorable moment depicts Finnamore sharpening knives by her kitchen sink as she introduces the section on anger. Good reading; recommended for public libraries." - Library Journal.
"Split is brilliant, poignant and completely unique. Suzanne Finnamore has refined her caustic wit to the point where it is now an assault rifle perfectly aimed at both herself and marauding spouses throughout America. Her voice captivates even the most jaded lovers." - Augusten Burroughs, author of Running With Scissors.
"So Perfectly Right. I loved it, loved it, loved it. p.s. Loved it." - Haven Kimmel, author of A Girl Named Zippy .
This information about Split was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
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