false <![CDATA[Black and Blue]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165517888m/5157.jpg 5157 23 <b>Oprah Book Club® Selection, April 1998</b>: "The first time my husband hit me I was nineteen years old," begins Fran Benedetto, the broken heroine of Anna Quindlen's <I>Black and Blue</I>. With one sweeping sentence, the door to an abused and tortured world is swung wide open and the psyche of a crushed and tattered self-image exposed. "Frannie, Frannie, Fran"--as Bobby Benedetto liked to call her before smashing her into kitchen appliances--was a young, energetic nursing student when she met her husband-to-be at a local Brooklyn bar. She was instantly captivated by his dark, brooding looks and magnetic personality, but her fascination soon solidified into a marital prison sentence of incessant abuse and the destruction of her own identity. After an especially horrific beating and rape, Fran realizes that the next attack could be the last. Fearing her son would be left alone with Bobby, she escapes one morning with her child. Fran's salvation comes in the form of Patty Bancroft and Co., a relocation agency for abused women that touts better service than the witness protection program. Armed only with a phone number, a few hundred dollars, and the help of several anonymous volunteers, Fran begins a new life. The agency relocates her to Florida, where she becomes Beth Crenshaw, a recently divorced home-care assistant from Delaware. Fran and her son adapt, meeting challenges with unexpected resilience and resolve until their past returns to haunt them. Quindlen renders the intricacies of spousal abuse with eerie accuracy, taking the reader deep within the realm of dysfunctional human ties. However, her vivid descriptions of abuse, emotional disintegration, and acute loneliness at times numb the reader with their realism. 2349447 book 1998 Black and Blue (Oprah's Book Club) total:4955|5:705|4:1774|3:1856|2:515|1:105| 4955 17324 6090 408 3 3 false false Mon Nov 01 00:00:00 -0800 2004 Tue May 29 00:58:57 -0700 2007 Tue Jun 12 12:18:52 -0700 2007 Lifetime... T...more...]]> 2 2 false false Thu Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Mon May 28 06:48:19 -0700 2007 Mon May 28 06:48:46 -0700 2007 more...]]> 1 3 false true Tue Mar 18 13:46:05 -0700 2008 Tue Aug 05 15:54:55 -0700 2008 5 2 false false Sun Jun 08 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue May 06 15:43:26 -0700 2008 Thu Jun 26 21:17:10 -0700 2008 more...]]> 2 2 false false Fri Mar 31 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Wed Mar 26 17:10:11 -0700 2008 Wed Mar 26 17:11:32 -0700 2008 Black and Blue is the story of a woman who flees an abusive relationship, taking her son and attempting to disappear into residential Florida, all the while waiting for her husband, a New York cop, to find and hurt her. The book is not Quindlen's best and while it is readable, and at less than 400 p...more...]]> 3 1 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Wed Feb 20 21:53:04 -0800 2008 Wed Feb 20 21:53:28 -0800 2008 more...]]> 0 1 false false Wed Dec 17 04:58:40 -0800 2008 Wed Dec 17 04:59:17 -0800 2008 fear---Heartbreaking.

Maggie
]]> 4 1 false false Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Fri Jul 06 09:46:07 -0700 2007 Wed Oct 10 13:47:06 -0700 2007 more...]]> 3 0 false false Mon Mar 02 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Mar 02 14:25:10 -0800 2009 Mon Mar 02 14:27:10 -0800 2009 This book reflects the sad reality of one of the many plagues affecting this world: domestic abuse.

Fran Benedetto lives the kind of life that none of us should ever have to live...what starts out as a very passionate relationship (in Fran's eyes at least) starts to go wacky even b...more...]]> 2 0 false false Sat Jun 20 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Aug 27 06:26:48 -0700 2009 Thu Aug 27 06:28:30 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Mon Jun 08 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Jun 07 19:44:55 -0700 2009 Sun Jun 07 19:45:09 -0700 2009 1 more...]]> 1 1 false false Fri Mar 23 11:13:54 -0700 2007 Fri Mar 23 11:15:44 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 0 false false Tue Sep 29 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 29 16:12:24 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 29 16:17:41 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Thu Aug 27 17:26:22 -0700 2009 Thu Aug 27 17:34:18 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2003 Wed May 27 14:30:03 -0700 2009 Tue Jun 30 14:21:37 -0700 2009 more...]]> 2 1 false false Mon Jan 14 11:47:06 -0800 2008 Fri Feb 22 17:59:55 -0800 2008 2 0 false false Wed Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Apr 09 09:41:55 -0700 2009 Thu Apr 09 09:41:55 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 1998 Sun Aug 23 18:44:03 -0700 2009 Sun Aug 23 18:52:59 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Mar 19 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Mar 19 10:39:57 -0700 2009 Thu Mar 19 14:55:31 -0700 2009 more...]]> 1 0 false false Mon Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Fri Nov 21 13:45:13 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 02 10:35:41 -0800 2008 One too many. more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=5157