A New York Times Notable Book of the Year
When Marion Winik fell in love with Tony Heubach during a wild ...
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reviews
Nov 27, 2007
Susan
rated it: 
I love the way Marion Winik writes. I can't get enough of the way it flows so smoothly over such rough subject matter. Her personal story is so painful and wrenching but I couldn't put the book down. Now I want to go back and reread her earlier book, Telling.
I met her at the TExas Book Festival a few weeks ago here in Austin. She was very personable and approachable. I wish I had read this book before I met her.
I highly recommend this book. And "Telling"
I met her at the TExas Book Festival a few weeks ago here in Austin. She was very personable and approachable. I wish I had read this book before I met her.
I highly recommend this book. And "Telling"
Jul 20, 2009
Ellen
rated it:
Suggested to me by one of my oldest friends who lives in Austin, TX - this harrowing story of a girl who grew up in privilege in Long Branch, NJ and who almost lost herself to drinking and drugs is a great story of love and loss. Marion Winink used every skill she had to stop drinking and drugging and ended up in New Orleans in love with a gay man with AIDS. I could smell the booze on Bourbon Street and feel her anger and frustration that her life was not going according to her plan.
Jun 22, 2009
JM
rated it: 
Doesn't everyone have a friend who reads about five books a week and still thinks of herself as a slacker? My slacker reader friend read this book in about an hour right before having lunch with me. "Here, you read it," she said and gave me her copy.
Now when I think of Marion Winik, I think of all sorts of people I've known and loved who are no longer in my life. This book and "Telling" make it seem bearable to live and love and deal with departures.
Now when I think of Marion Winik, I think of all sorts of people I've known and loved who are no longer in my life. This book and "Telling" make it seem bearable to live and love and deal with departures.
Nov 15, 2011
Mason
rated it:
A dying-husband-memoir written with such love and tenderness toward the conflicted, drug addled and addicted dying husband and her own desperate young self that it was completely worth the effort even if maybe a little too soon after losing my mother to be reading this genre. Especially endearing to me was her honesty about having created a very unusual family.
I cried all the way through it and would read it all over again, just not right away.
I cried all the way through it and would read it all over again, just not right away.
Aug 27, 2010
Jeff
rated it:
Just your typical love story about a heterosexual girl who falls in love with a homosexual man, they then marry, have kids, and share their lives. While he remains homosexual.
The unusual situation of their relationship is not what defines the story. It's the passionate love of two people who can't live without each other and can't live with each other. Winik shares all the joy and all the pain of their love affair, their marriage, and their family. And there is plenty of both joy More...
The unusual situation of their relationship is not what defines the story. It's the passionate love of two people who can't live without each other and can't live with each other. Winik shares all the joy and all the pain of their love affair, their marriage, and their family. And there is plenty of both joy More...
Oct 29, 2009
J
rated it: 
What a roller coaster ride - You feel the highs, lows, anxiety, sadness, pain and love come right off the page. The story is told so well the book just glides along.
Oct 23, 2007
Annie
rated it:
I read this book years ago and fell in love with it. It was borrowed for a beach weekend and returned promptly upon returning, I never could remember it's title or authors name until this semester I walked into my writing class and there she was... the author of one of y favorite all time books. She pretty freakin' cool in real life too. The story's gritty realism and love when there is nothing else is absolutely amazing and inspiring, specifically for anyone who has even neared the trips Marion
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Jan 31, 2008
Rebecca
rated it:
This is a lovely book about forgiveness and understanding. Winik marries a man who eventually comes out as a gay man. They divorce, and she nurses him through an HIV diagnoses and eventual death from AIDS. It's sorrowful, sweet and heartbreaking as the experiences include the couple's two children. I highly recommend.
Jul 05, 2008
Amy
rated it:
This memoir took my breath away, although I was already predisposed to love Marion after reading her first collection of essays. Here, she recollects the triumph and tragedy of marrying the love of her life, a gay man who fathers her two sons, but ultimately contracts AIDS. Haunting.
Nov 29, 2007
Jen
rated it:
Amazing writing about an extraordinary life. Honest and no-holds-barred tale of how she fell in love with a gay man, fathered two children with him and eventually helped him commit suicide after his suffering with AIDS. Must read. Warning: You'll be bawling at the end.
Jan 22, 2008
Faith
rated it:
This is the story of a woman and the love of her life - a man who happens to be gay, HIV positive and her husband and the father of her children. It is absolutely heartbreaking and beautiful at the same time.
Aug 03, 2007
Kelley
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on one hand I think of all that she did for her love of Tony as amazing, and then I think of it as co-dependent and sick as hell. I always enjoy her essays though.
Feb 19, 2008
Harold
rated it:
A great book about a husband who is gay and is stricked with AIDS and a couples ability to not fall apart. From the NPR commentator Marion Winik.
Aug 09, 2008
Katie
rated it:
i want many people to read this promptly. well written, completely compelling, and heartrending.
Oct 03, 2010
Jyl
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Marion is the bravest writer I know of. She shares her life in such a way that will have you laughing till you cry, and then have your heart breaking for her when her heart breaks, and cheering for her as she finds her way through the pain, emerging as a fierce devoted warrior mother. I identified with her in so many ways that it made me question my own strength, and finding comfort in knowing that I'm not the only woman in the world who would willingly choose to fully dare to love someone in
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