Rating: 
Summary: A Journey more than Anything
Review: What is striking about this book is that it is far more about the emotional journey of the character than anything else. The plot is simple and uninteresting on its own. This novel is more like a Van Gogh painting of ordinary life. It emphasizes the elements of the characters lives that are, on the surface, nothing, and Quindlen's writing spreads all of the color out of each dull moment. This is not to say that the book is colorful or cheery. It's simply rich and filling. When I picked up this book I couldn't put it down. It's honest and it doesn't need flash or Hollywood style glitz to make it a valuable read. Succumbing to these things would have dumbed down the intelligence of the storytelling.
Rating: 
Summary: I Am Fran
Review: My name isn't Fran but her story is mine. December 17, my husband threatened to kill our baby and me. That day, I felt as though the hole in my heart was big enough to swallow the world. I vowed to leave him after Christmas. But, six days later, he tried to rape me while I held our infant. I don't know where I got the strength to knock down my husband, a Marine who is a foot taller that I am, with one arm, while holding our son with the other. Christmas Eve, to make me pay for defending myself against him, he shook our son. I will never forget the shrill, piercing sound our baby made. I was in the bathroom and my husband wasn't supposed to be home; he had left to finally do his Christmas shopping and I hadn't heard him return. I ran into the nursery to see my husband yank the baby like a rag doll. I moved so quickly that I don't even remember crossing the room. One minute my husband was shaking our baby, the next minute, I was in a hotel, kissing my son, praying that my husband wouldnt find us and that we could make it safely out of the state. Christmas day, nothing was open except for a convenience store. My Christmas meal was a hot dog but I was fine because all that mattered was my son's safety. My baby had faint bruises where his father yanked him but the person who examined himIcouldn't find any signs of damage. Still, I was told that sometimes such injuries aren't apparent until months later. At the first motel, an employee came to my room to say that a man had called asking if there was a woman, baby and car fitting our description. Sensing something was wrong, she told him no to buy me a little time. For the next week and a half, we moved from place to place, until my dad and brother could escort me back to my house to get what was most important - videotapes of my son's birth and first few months, as many pictures as I could stuff in my suitcase, and my teaching certificate-- and personally escort us to the airport. My family, my friends, my career as a teacher, my car, everything else, I left behind. Several thousand miles from my husband and my struggle isn't over. I constantly look over my shoulder, take different routes home, change my hair, my clothing style, change my son's appearance, don't tell anyone details about my former life and pray, pray, pray because sooner or later, my husband will find us. My name and where I am have been changed, for safety reasons, but I just wanted anyone who thinks that that story isn't realistic to know how eerily accurate it is. It is a miracle that my son has no damage, despite test after test. If my story sounds like someone you once knew and she didn't get a chance to say good-bye, know that I love you and "Mr. Big Cheeks "and I are fine. We are finally free.
Rating: 
Summary: Too long, too long
Review: I listened to the audio tape of this book. The reader was excellent (one of the 2 stars is for her) but this book was filled with cliches in word and plot.
Rating:
Summary: painful
Review: This book was very painful to read as it brought back memories of my own previous abuse of several years. However it was very well-written and spell-binding. Oprah's choices have proven to be among the best books I've read.
Rating:
Summary: Somewhat predictable
Review: The beginning of this book was amazing about how the abused wife Fran left her abusive husband and escaped with their only child to Florida. However, there were a few points in this book which you knew were going to happen such as her meeting a new man and coming to a cross road. Next you knew as a reader that her abusive husband would finally track her and I thought it would have come sooner than later in the book. But in all this was a pretty good book very well written and I would recommend it to someone going through an abusive relationship.
Rating:
Summary: An important novel on domestic violence
Review: "Your children make it impossible to regret your past. They're its finest fruits. Sometimes its only ones." So ends the story of Beth Crenshaw/Fran Benedetto and her struggles to do what is best for her family and herself.A respected nurse, Fran is described as "so calm and reasonable that she hardly seems real." In fact, this is her method of coping with a frightening secret: her marriage to a man whom she deeply loves is filled with mental and physical abuse so intense that she feels she has no choice but to take her son and escape. With assitance from a relocation agency for abused women and new friends, Fran/Beth is able to build a new life. However, the reader knows that eventually her husband will find her - it's just a question of when. This question keeps the reader turning the page. The characters in the story are warm, funny, sympathetic people who fill a void in Beth/Fran's life. The exception is Bobby, her husband. Bobby does not actually enter the story until near the end; but the reader is aware of his violent manipulation of Beth/Fran from the beginning. Beth/Fran does build a new life which is satisfying and rewarding in many ways. However, she cannot erase the feeling that escaping from Bobby and her life of balloon shades, mini-blinds, coffee mugs and routine was a mistake. In spite of all the pain she suffered, she does not regret her past because of the child which was a "fruit" of this past life. Anna Quindlen has written a compelling, exciting, realistic story of domestic violence. The reader cannot help but wonder if it is autobiographical. I think Ms. Quindlen has simply done her homework in depicting a painful, distressing subject - one that society must acknowledge and address.
Rating:
Summary: A Good Book!
Review: "Black & Blue" was a good novel. It was especially easy to read & it definitely flowed. I did enjoy it,but somehow, it didn't become one of my favorites.The story was great, with such a sad ending and even though its not one of my favorites, I would recommend it, because it seems like a novel that anyone would like, it's easy to like, but for me, it just didn't have that something, to make it WONDERFUL. But read it, you'll have fun.
Rating:
Summary: A Different Approach
Review: Black and Blue was an excellent book with a very different approach to domestic violence. What was so chilling was that the book begins where the main character's marriage ends. We never experience first-hand the abuse, nor do we meet Fran's husband. We only hear about him (for the most part) through her startling memories. This is a very realistic and honest account of domestic abuse, parent-child relationships and starting over. A must read.
Rating:
Summary: Good Read
Review: I really enjoyed this book. If I'm not hooked by the 3rd or 4th page then I know I probably won't enjoy it. I picked this book up and didn't put it down for hours. What made it great for me is that I was able to really picture what this family was like. I use to live in the New York area and knew many "cop" families and one in particular seemed to be close to these characters. I really enjoyed this book.
Rating:
Summary: absorbing run-for-your-life tale
Review: For eighteen years Fran Benedetto lived life in fear-and hid her bruises. For her husband Robert beat her. And beat her. And beat her. Until one awful night she took her son and everything they could carry to hide herself from the monster she had married. The two, under the help of a battered wives agency, flee to Florida and try to start new lives with new names and new appearances. But Fran's husband is a smart man. And he will stop at nothing to find her and take back what he thinks is his. A truly extraordinary author, Anna Quindlen chronicles on womans journey into the unthinkable. The characters are terrificly strong and believable. The ending is so heartbreaking and terrifying that you wonder-and know that this can really happen. This is a masterpiece, an important book that should be read and learned from. Anna Quindlen will live on through the face of literature and will be read and loved in years to come.
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