Rating: 
Summary: An eye opener, hard to put down.
Review: Black and Blue by Anna Quindlen was a great book. I was hooked from the first sentance "The first time my husband hit me Iwas nineteen years old." Fran Benedetto tells about her disastourous marriage and running away from her abusive husband with her ten year old son. She and her son start a new life in Florida. They take on totally new identities, they have no connections with anyone in their past and have to re-build their lives from ground zero. As Fran begins to meet new people she begins to have more self-confidence and hope of a better life. Fran still lives in fear of her husband finding them and severly hurting her and her son, Robert, or even kidnapping Robert . Robert, a ten year old boy adjusts well to moving and starting his life over, even though he and Fran have some problems in the beggining. Fran is afraid that Robert will blow their cover by telling a friend or classmate about his past. Fran finally begins to believe that she is safe and has escaped her past and quits living in fear. This book was an easy read for me, it was a book I found hard to put down. It was fairly easy to understand, the begining was slightly confusing but once I got into the book it was easy. It was amazing to read what she had gone through, and what her relationship with her husband was like. It makes you wonder why she waited so long to leave and why she didn't get help. This book shows emotions really well. "I can't find Robert. My voice an octave higher than usual, almost falsetto." This is just one of the many examples that portrayes fear. This book is mixed with many different emotions, every emotion is felt by the reader. Quindlen also uses detail to get emotions across. "...I felt the pain in my molars, the back of my head, the length of my spine. I felt the blood still seeping from between my legs..." It is amazing how detail like this is used to make it so realistic. I think this is such a great book because the reader feels what the characters are feeling. I think a book should be able to connect to the reader, whether they the share same experiances or they can feel with the characters. I would recommend this book because it is a great story, it isn't made up or unrealistic. It shows a sad but true story. It shows a mother-son relationship, re-building a life and over coming fears.
Rating: 
Summary: A Dramatic and Powerful Novel!
Review: After reading this novel I discovered the severity of Domestic abuse and the effect it has on the family. Anna Quindlen used extremely vivid detail in describing the way that Fran Benedetto's husband Bobby beats her. Quindlen continusly is using the most vivid detail in all of her memories of her husband. This book is similiar to most books that I have read in the way that this author goes deep into the life of the characters and portrays their life in detail for all to understand. This topic of domestic abuse is a common topic especailly in this day and age. Too many couples are getting involved in abuse, Anna Quindlen realizes this and shows one woman who escaped the horror and moved her son to Florida under protection. The trials that mother and son go through are very challenging. Suspense is the key to this novel, the fear of Bobby Bendetto finding them and what he would do, even in her memories there is suspense because the detail is so real, "...after he'd grabbed me by the hair, and another time he's pushed me down, and another time, and another." The voice of the character is very strong, Quindlen portrays Fran Bendetto as a weak woman in the beginning and then her courage and strength is built up and by the end she is fearless and capable of anything. I liked this because it showed strong character and showed that Bobby didn't take everything away from her when he beat her. This story is very realistic, it's as I have mentioned, vivid. This makes the novel more powerful and leaves the reader feeling the impact of the abuse. This novel shows the inner spirit in the characters as they grow and change making this a well rounded book for all to enjoy. There is a setting change and is not only a physical relocation but and emotional relocation, this adds to the emotions felt by the characters and even the author's thoughts and feelings are revealed. This novel may be a little too emotional or feeling orientned for some readers. Overall this is an excellent novel.
Rating:
Summary: Hits a nerve
Review: This book hits a nerve, like Quindlen's "One True Thing" or McCrae's "Bark of the Dogwood." Fran, the main character in "Black and Blue" finally does manage to escape the abuse and dysfunction of her relationship with Bobby (she takes a different name and relocates) but the fear still lingers. Anyone who has ever been in one of these types of relationships will find this a disturbing read. But the most harrowing aspect of this novel is that it shows us the psychological fear that a victim goes through, even after escaping the physical abuse. It's that "it can happen again" syndrome that paralyzes so many victims--the fear that you haven't really escaped or that you might put yourself accidentally in another situation like the one you just fought so hard to free yourself from. Well-paced and brilliantly written, "Black and Blue" is riveting.
Rating:
Summary: A Solid Contribution
Review: Fran Benedetto has a secret. Day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, her husband has been abusing her. Now, after nearly twenty years of marriage, Fran has decided that enough is enough. With her 10-year-old son and the help of Patty Bancroft (director of an agency to help battered women, Fran(who must change her name to Beth Crenshaw)goes to a small Florida town, hoping to escape her husband and begin a better life. The struggle doesn't end when Fran and Robert make it safely to Florida. Fran struggles with a constant fearful knowledge that her husband will eventually get her, she feels homesick for her sister in New York, and she worries that her son is more confused and hurt than he lets on. Things become still more complicated when Fran meets Mike Riordan, Robert's fifth-grade teacher, and begins to desire a relationship with him. Anna Quindlen's skillful writing is what saves this book from being yet another cliched "abused-wife-escapes" book. Yes, the abused wife escapes, but Quindlen describes Fran's experiences with understanding and insight. Her descriptions are some of the best I've ever read-she seems to know exactly how many words are needed to crystallize a situation, and we are taken on "journeys" through Fran's mind that never bore us and leave us with a clear understanding of the character. Cynical, nostalgic, sad, sarcastic-Quindlen deftly writes in all of those tones and creates a truly realistic novel. Characters were again, realistic and well-chosen. The only real flaw in this novel was the fact that between the second last and last chapters, there was too big of an amount of time "gone by," and as a result, the reader is left with some unanswered questions, a feeling that the author was rushing to end the book, and the thought that the book ended in a slightly "anti-climactic" way. Despite this fault, I found "Black and Blue" to be well-written, enlightening, and worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: Black and Blue was close to true
Review: Wives who are battered, or girl friends may relate very well to the character Beth in this book. She was very typical of the "if I am just better, my husband won't beat me anymore" personality. This book is a sad commentary on personl relationships and how we don't take care of ourselves very well. In this book, it is heart breaking to see a cop, a person who should uphold the law, abusing it. Not that it isn't common place. It is a well-known fact that men and even women who have high stress jobs, become batterers, and abuse alcohol or controlled substances. The really sad thing is how the the kid gets stuck taking side. Often in domestic violence, there are no winners, only losers. It is the women who usely loose the most. I am angry and disgusted by domestic violence, but as a woman, I believe given the right circumstances or the worst kind of stress, I could probably dish out battery if the shoe were on the other foot. Anna Quindlen is an easy author to read. She writes excellent dispriptions of places. This subject matter or this book should be rated R for violence. This novel also would most certainly trigger uncomfortable feelings in one who has been in an abusive relationship, or who has been abused.
Rating:
Summary: Not the usual suspects . . .
Review: My first thought on reading the description of this book was, "Oh, no. Here we go again. Another 'Look at me, I hurt'" type of book. "Abused woman barely escapes." That type of thing. Boy was I wrong! Anna Quindlen has given us a rare look into the life of a victim with "Black and Blue." What might have turned into a made-for-TV-movie type of book in any other author's hands turns to gold in this riveting tale or abuse, dysfunction, and psychological horror. I also initially thought that making the main character's husband a cop was, well, a bit of a cop-out (sorry). But Quindlen manages to bring even this to a new level. This is just a great book and I highly recommend it. Would also recommend another wonderful (though disturbing) book that I recently came across. "The Bark of the Dogwood" by Jackson McCrae. Equally well written and on the same level as this one.
Rating: 
Summary: A Stupid Protagonist
Review: The main character made so many stupid mistakes and had such severe character flaws herself, that I had to struggle a few times to sympathize with her. She admits that when she married her husband, she realized it was 'inevitable' that he would beat her -- yet she not only went ahead and married him, but she had a child, knowing this child would be exposed to the violence. When she meets a decent guy, she admits that the guy is rather dull compared to her ex-husband -- the subtext being that she misses getting beaten up? Most horrifying to me: She muses that if her son grows up to marry a woman and then beats that woman... she will not really care. She will not sympathize with the woman, because she will never be able to see any wrong in her son. This is one sick puppy, yo. And her sickness clearly pre-dates the abusive marriage, so it's not like her husband 'twisted' her. I resented how she seemed hostile to the very people who were helping her out of her abusive situation. They got her a new identity, moved her to another state, supported her -- she didn't even have to work unless he wanted to -- and yet she complained about how superior they must feel for helping little pathetic her -- a paranoid feeling that was only in her own head. Make no mistake -- I'm sympathetic to any abuse victim, but this one was such an idiot it would have been hard for ME not to knock her around a little.
Rating:
Summary: Extremely Powerful and Nervewracking!
Review: I could NOT put this one down for the life of me! I literally read it in 6 hours! It was explosive at times and tense most of the time. Always powerful and enlightening.
The writer did a fantastic job of sharing the character's emotions and fears with the reader. I was constantly on edge and nervous for her. Fran is an abused woman with a little boy in tow and on the run from the very man that may kill her. Married 18 years and most of them not happy memories, this nurse is finally strong enough to leave the situation, but fears she will be caught.
The reader feels her pain and frustration the whole way through. Numerous flashbacks and told from first person, this is so unbelievably powerful and eyeopening, that I recommended it to everyone I knew.
Fran doesn't come off as being whiny or 'feel bad for me', she comes off as being so incredibly strong, yet very vulnerable and real. Someone you would know. She doesn't try to turn her young son against his abusive father, yet she doesn't try to pull the wool over his eyes either, which I thought was refreshing. Robert, her son, isn't out of control or misbehaved so there isn't the 'irritating child' factor you see so much in novels.
Fran must go under an assumed name and identity and start her life over at 38. Being married to her husband for 18 years and knowing nothing else but him and his demands, she finds it hard at times to adjust and move on, but soon she realizes that life is full of unseen opportunities and possibly a new lovelife.
But will her new life come crumbling down after one tiny misstep? You see, Fran's husband is none other than one of New York's finest...and a very determined detective... Do NOT miss this gem... Tracy Talley~@
Rating:
Summary: Did she do the right thing?
Review: Did Fran do the right thing by fleeing with her son Robert from Bobby, her abusive husband? I would have to say probably not . . . but I could be wrong. I suppose when someone is in that horrible of a situation it is very easy to judge them as an outsider; perhaps if I had been in her shoes, I would have done the same thing. It really was inevitable, though, that "Beth" would eventually be found. I think there's an old saying something like "two people can keep a secret if one of them is dead," well it was only a matter of time before Robert took a wrong step and blew their cover. And maybe Fran would have eventually, too- after all, she never really was 100% committed to the decision she had made. Now Robert is in a worse situation than he was before: alone with a mentally ill father, living on the run, cut off from his mother . . . the boy has a long road ahead. Of course, hindsight is 20/20. I thought the ending to Beth's story was very appropriate: although she was able to start a new life, it was a far cry from a happy ending. She definitely has issues that will continue to impact her life forever. For example, she admits to not having a "jones" for her new husband, a far cry from the excitement she felt for the "tasty and dangerous" Bobby. In spite of everything she doesn't seem to have been able to get past her weakness for the bad boys. Still, her life will be good enough . . . Robert is the real casualty.
Rating:
Summary: Hits a nerve
Review: This book hits a nerve, like Quindlen's "One True Thing" or McCrae's "Bark of the Dogwood." Fran, the main character in "Black and Blue" finally does manage to escape the abuse and dysfunction of her relationship with Bobby (she takes a different name and relocates) but the fear still lingers. Anyone who has ever been in one of these types of relationships will find this a disturbing read. But the most harrowing aspect of this novel is that it shows us the psychological fear that a victim goes through, even after escaping the physical abuse. It's that "it can happen again" syndrome that paralyzes so many victims--the fear that you haven't really escaped or that you might put yourself accidentally in another situation like the one you just fought so hard to free yourself from. Well-paced and brilliantly written, "Black and Blue" is riveting.
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