Blindsided

[Wendy]

*SPOILER ALERT*
What did you think of the ending?

I had read (by accident on Wikipedia) that Mamah and her children were murdered and so I had this sense of dread as the book drew to a close. Also I wondered how the heck the author was going to switch from being inside Mamah's head, to telling the story of her death with a narrator or Frank's voice.

I felt a lot of anger, and it seemed so unfair that John and Martha were part of it. As much as I understood Mamah and her struggles, I still felt she had put those children through a lot.

Also sometimes I wondered why Mamah had promised to stay out of the children's lives, but then she decided to go against that.

[Della]

I think that that's one of the big points of the book--the irony that the children just happened to be there, when they were usually with their father. I did the same thing--looked it up on Wikipedia to see what really happened, but it didn't reduce my desire to finish the book. If you'll remember, the whole idea of the needs of chidren and obligations of parenthood versus a woman's need for fulfillment as an individual was kind of a bone of contention between Mamah and some of the other feminists. Mamah bought into the idea that children will be happy if parents are happy, and a lot of people have used that as a justification to do what they want to do. Then you have to ask, how happy was Mamah herself? Would she have been better off staying with her husband? Living with Frank was no bed of roses, partly becasue of his poor business and money management.

[Vinnie]

I resisted reading this book because it was a bit out of my usual genre. I'm glad I gave in. A very interesting, albeit sad, story.

[Joanne]

The two of them were much too infatuated with themselves. I felt sorry for the kids.

[Ruth]

It was so incredibly difficult to be a strong woman back then. I regret that the children were hurt by their mother's choices, but I can't really blame Mamah for refusing to keep sacrificing her individuality to make other people happy. If Mamah had led a more conventional life, her children would no doubt still have been scarred because she would have been so depressed. Children are affected strongly by that too. Nobody makes perfect choices in life.

But maybe I'm biased. I just finished writing a book about a woman who made unconventional choices and took a lot of flack for it. I could be reacting out of that rather than what I actually recall from Loving Frank.

[Judy]

There is so much to discuss about that book.