Behind Closed Doors

Rating:
Summary: A good, but overlong novel.
Review: A shattering act of violence is the breaking point for a woman who has suffered abuse all her life.

Valerie O'Conner met Jack Marsh when she was eighteen and instantly she knew he would be the man she married. Jack, a veteran of the Air Force, promises undying love and a lifetime of happiness to Valerie, the woman who stole his heart.

Against her father's wishes, Valerie marries Jack and starts a family, but within a few years all that was good turns bad...

Jack begins drinking and in drunken rages he takes out his frustrations on his wife. Before long, Jack begins using his entire family as a punching bag until a devastating act tears his family apart.

With most of the Marsh family forced to move out because of their hatred for their father, Valerie is left alone with Jack, but only after threatening to leave him. Jack, afraid of being alone, swears to change, and seemingly does until he begins several extramarital affairs. Valerie, still denying there is anything wrong with her marriage, is faced with another challenge...raising her grandson.

After many years of abuse, both physical and emotional, Valerie finds herself a broken woman fighting for her life when a night of violence leaves someone dead.


`Behind Closed Doors' is a powerful tale of a marriage plagued by violence. However, the story did trace too much of the Marsh family's life and much of the novel was not needed. Susan Sloan has written several excellent books and even though her newest novel is enjoyable it's not as good as her previous three.

Nick Gonnella


Rating:
Summary: Another Winner
Review: Another Winner

The problem with Susan Sloan is that too much time lapses between novels and that they can be read too swiftly. Sloan generally does not write page turners, but her characters continue to grow as the pages turn.

Each of Sloan's novels takes as her subject a real circumstances which has appeared on the front pages and explores it in the context of the broad issues it raises for society. Her characters are three dimensional and reflective of people her readers know and can identify with, even if they don't always know what goes on behind their neighbor's closed doors or in the recess of their minds. I would not rate "Behind Closed Doors" as powerful as her first novel, "Guilt By Association," but than I do not know of any novel which is as powerful or as good as "Guilt." But with the exception of "Guilt by Association," it is as good as any novel I've read.



Rating:
Summary: Not the Susan Sloan I Love
Review: Having read all of Susan Sloan's previous novels, I was looking forward to this one. What a disappointment. The book is depressing and the main character unbelievable. With the author's previous novels, I couldn't hardly wait till the next chapter. This book is boring. I found myself skimming over pages just to get through it. If you've never read Susan Sloan, skip this one and read one of her others.

Rating:
Summary: Don't bother
Review: I am a big fan of Susan Sloan - I have read all her other novels and passed them on to all my friends. This book is a huge disappointment. Abused women is not a new topic and this is even medicore in that arena. There is very little suspense and the characters are not well developed. The main character's life as a mother with five children is totally unbelievable. They leave home and she doesn't attempt to locate them! If you haven't read her other books - run, don't walk to nearest bookstore or library to get them. Don't bother with this one.

Rating:
Summary: Depressing story of domestic violence.
Review: In 1955, Valerie O'Connor, a naive young girl from Vermont, loses her heart to Jack Marsh. After a brief courtship, and against her father's wishes, Valerie marries Jack. She soon learns that Jack is far from the man of her dreams. He drinks too much, and he lashes out in violent rages with no warning. Since she is a devout Catholic, Valerie believes that a wife must remain with her husband for life and do her best to keep him happy. Valerie struggles to keep her problems "Behind Closed Doors" in Susan Sloan's dark novel of domestic dysfunction.

After Valerie becomes pregnant, it begins to dawn on her that Jack's behavior will adversely affect their children. However, she remains with Jack and her decision to stand by her man has devastating consequences for both her and her family. Sloan follows Valerie and Jack through over forty years of marriage and the journey is one of almost unremitting tragedy.

"Behind Closed Doors" is a heavy-handed novel about the causes and consequences of domestic violence. Everything here is very familiar. We learn about Jack's miserable childhood with a bullying father and a series of abused "mothers" who pass briefly through his life. This history supposedly explains why Jack grows into an immature and bitter man who uses alcohol to anesthetize himself. However, Sloan's portrayal never makes Jack seem real. He is the stereotypical wife beater whom we have seen so often in similar books. Valerie is a passive individual who lets life happen to her and waits a very long time to fight back.

Sloan's plotting is melodramatic, with drug dealing, prostitution, armed robbery, and murder figuring in this long and drawn-out novel. Sloan tells us nothing new about domestic violence, nor do any of her characters come to life. This book is exhausting to read, and one wonders how so much misfortune can befall the unbelievably miserable Marsh family. "Behind Closed Doors" may very well be one of the most depressing novels of the year.

Rating:
Summary: mesmerizing but chilling psychological suspense
Review: In 1955, while visiting her sister in Boston, Valerie O'Connor met and fell in love with Jack Marsh, the friend of her brother in law's brother. They saw each other every day until she returned home to her parents in Portland; Jack followed. Shortly there after he asked her parents for their permission to marry Valerie and although they had some doubts about the man's character, they gave their blessing.

Their wedding night was a disaster as Jack was only interested in satisfying his needs and as a result, Valerie had a lifelong revulsion to sex. She did her duty and was thrilled when she birthed five children before she was told she could not have anymore due to health reasons. As the years passed, Jack became increasingly abusive, hitting not only her but also their children. When they were of age, their kids left. One became a nun; another turned to prostitution; two went to jail; and the last a raged Jack threw off the roof when he was in an uncontrollable rage. The anger that Valerie tried to keep in check for years finally explodes and results in a tragedy that could cost her freedom.

BEHIND CLOSED DOORS is a mesmerizing work of psychological suspense that examines in depth the impact of a violent drunken abuser and a woman who accepts what her husband dished out. The story line shows the co-dependency between the abuser and abused so that Valerie does not garner much sympathy especially when she is incapable of protecting their children. Susan R. Sloan has written a memorable book that is not pretty or nice but accurately represents one of society's worst social problems.

Harriet Klausner


Rating:
Summary: Well worth the wait!
Review: My only problem with Susan Sloan's books is that there is too much time between them. But maybe that's what makes them so good -- she takes the time to do it right. Behind Closed Doors is no exception. Gripping from page one to page 467, it's the story of three generations of an American family caught in a cycle they don't know how to break. As with all Sloan's books, the characters get right up off the pages and into your head. You know them. They're real. They could be living right next door to you.

Domestic abuse isn't a subject that people are very comfortable with, but Sloan brings it right in your front door. I have so much admiration for her, as an author, that she is willing to take on the issues that aren't very comfortable for so many of us. This book should ring bells in a lot of households around the country. And maybe, in some of them, it might even make a difference. I hope so.

Congratulations, Susan, on another winner. And thank you!

Rating:
Summary: Difficult subject matter
Review: The reviews on this book are certainly mixed so for what its worth, here's what I thought.

The subject matter is somewhat difficult but at other times (further into the book) it reads like a Sidney Sheldon and the last sentence is totally surprising.

But I do agree with the reviewers who had it hard understanding Valerie. I really thought she was a very stupid woman and found it hard to sympathize with her.