Releasing Gillian’s Wolves, by Tara Woolpy: A Review by Beth Tornes

Releasing Gillian’s Wolves is a gem of a first book. You won’t want to put down once you get started. It is well-written, funny, and chock full of womanly wisdom. Gillian is wholly captivating—a smart, savvy politician’s wife who seems smooth and polished on the surface, a superb hostess, a gifted cook—but whose surface belies a very spiritual being who is original and wild, an artist, dreamer and lover who feels betrayed by having to tuck away her own life, and exist superficially with the lies and hypocrisies of her domestic situation, one that eats away at her spirit. At the same time, she remains a devoted and loving mother whose children (fascinating characters in their own right) have become alienated as she has by their father’s endless affairs. They rally to her side, and in her struggles, she is supported by them, by a dear gay friend named Edward (her lifelong best friend), his partner, Sam, and ironically, her mother-in-law, the funny and extravagant Pearl. Throughout the novel, Gillian’s romance with cooking and food connects her to things real and earthy, such as the magical “Survive Anything Double Chocolate Brownies,” (recipe included!), which sustain her creative and playful spirit.
The novel follows Gillian through the maelstrom of discovering her husband’s affair with a young intern, who also happens to be their son’s girlfriend—the proverbial straw that breaks the camel’s back—waking Gillian out of her somnolence, and throwing her smack into a divorce. In facing her anger, her anxieties and uncertainty about the future, she strides fearlessly down the road of independence and healing. In the process she re-discovers and re-envisions who she is, and what (and whom) she loves. Her long-forgotten love of painting returns, and as she begins tapping into her creativity, it opens doors she could never have imagined. Escaping to Amsterdam, then to an isolated Greek island, she lives the American dream of reinventing oneself in the face of enormous odds. In the process, Gillian becomes an inspiration to all who know her—including the reader—to follow our dreams and release the wolves within us.