The Breakdown Lane Author:Jacquelyn Mitchard Where can a woman turn when her own life threatens to overwhelm her ability to keep her children safe? New York Times bestselling author Jacquelyn Mitchard takes the readers of her newest novel on a wry and moving journey of loss and healing. — Giving advice is what Julieanne does for a living -- every Sunday she doles it out to clueless people s... more »he doesn't know, in a column in her local Wisconsin paper. But when it comes to her personal life, Julie herself seems to have missed some clues. Having worked creatively to keep her twenty-year marriage to Leo fresh and exciting, she is completely caught off guard when he tells her he needs to go on a "sabbatical" from their life together, leaving Julie and their three children -- Gabe, Caroline, and Aury -- behind. But it soon becomes clear that his leave of absence is meant to be permanent. The succeeding months are filled with a confusion and sadness that shake the core of the entire family. Things take a turn for the worse when Julie is diagnosed with a serious illness and the children undertake a dangerous journey to find Leo -- before it's too late. As the known world sinks precariously from view, the clan must navigate its way through the shoals of love, guilt, and betrayal. Together, with the help of Leo's parents and Julie's best friend, Cathy, they work their way back to solid ground and a new definition of family.« less
I loved this book. The struggles of this books main character is one that is so touching, that I almost didn't list this book because I might want to read it again. I decided if I do, I will order it again on this site. Mitchard is a great author and this is one of her finer works in my opinion.
Reading this novel is like finding out what really happened at your neighbor's house when everything fell apart. The pages literally turned themselves. Mitchard has the ability to depict this family with candor, empathy and wit. When Julieanne's husband of 20 years decides to take a sabbatical from their marriage and 3 children, it soon becomes apparent that he's not coming back. Her sense of betrayal is complicated by her diagnosis of MS. While she is incapacitated, the children must fend for themselves with some help from her best friend. Julieanne is an accomplished Advice Columnist...but now it is her own family problems she somehow has to find the strength to solve.
"...I would take out his letters to me, our honeymoon scrapbook, and stare into the faces of those smug, slim, utterly sensual young people and think, Where was the clue? ... His pinch of arrogance? His touch of impatience? I was a dozen times more arrogant and impatient any day of the week, even back then. But I never, not ever, would have slipped through my wedding band and fled." p297
Julie's husband, Leo, unexpectedly leaves her alone and reeling, trying simultaneously to care for their three children and deal with a very scary health diagnosis. Told alternatively through the voice of Julie and that of her son, Gabe, Jacqueline Mitchard explores the families reaction to their difficult circumstances.
I picked up this novel because it was written by Jacquelyn Mitchard who wrote The Deep End of the Ocean. The Deep End of the Ocean is a terrific book. This book is so-so. It took quite a while to get into it and just as it seemed to be gathering steam, it came to a close. Even though Julie's situation in the novel should have invoked my sympathy, I found myself feeling a bit removed from everything that was happening in her life, and my empathy for the characters was disappointingly superficial. Mitchard is a talented writer, but she failed to endear me to her story this time around.
(There is a great poem on pg. 332 of this novel- the most redeeming part of this book, I think! Worth checking out.)
To bad she did not bother to research the issue of medication for MS more before she wrote a character who is allegedly impacted by her medications. (The none of the ABCR injectibles used to treat MS are monthly, as she has Julie claim.
"...I would take out his letters to me, our honeymoon scrapbook, and stare into the faces of those smug, slim, utterly sensual young people and think, Where was the clue? ... His pinch of arrogance? His touch of impatience? I was a dozen times more arrogant and impatient any day of the week, even back then. But I never, not ever, would have slipped through my wedding band and fled." p297
Julie's husband, Leo, unexpectedly leaves her alone and reeling, trying simultaneously to care for their three children and deal with a very scary health diagnosis. Told alternatively through the voice of Julie and that of her son, Gabe, Jacqueline Mitchard explores the families reaction to their difficult circumstances.
I picked up this novel because it was written by Jacquelyn Mitchard who wrote The Deep End of the Ocean. The Deep End of the Ocean is a terrific book. This book is so-so. It took quite a while to get into it and just as it seemed to be gathering steam, it came to a close. Even though Julie's situation in the novel should have invoked my sympathy, I found myself feeling a bit removed from everything that was happening in her life, and my empathy for the characters was disappointingly superficial. Mitchard is a talented writer, but she failed to endear me to her story this time around.
(There is a great poem on pg. 332 of this novel- the most redeeming part of this book, I think! Worth checking out.)
