TUESDAY EXCERPTS: “LEAVE ME”

Welcome to another Tuesday celebrating bookish events, First Chapter/Intros, hosted by Bibliophile by the Sea; and Teaser Tuesdays hosted by Books & a Beat.

Today’s featured book is an e-ARC from NetGalley.  Leave Me, by Gayle Forman, to be released on September 6, 2016, is about facing the fears we’re all running from. Gayle Forman is a dazzling observer of human nature. She has written an irresistible novel that confronts the ambivalence of modern motherhood head on and asks, what happens when a grown woman runs away from home?

 

Intro:  (New York City)

Maribeth Klein was working late, waiting to sign off on the final page proofs of the December issue, when she had a heart attack.

Those first twinges in her chest, however, were more a heaviness than a pain, and she did not immediately think heart.  She thought indigestion, brought on by the plate of greasy Chinese food she’d eaten at her desk the hour before.  She thought anxiety, brought on by the length of tomorrow’s to-do list.  She thought irritation, brought on by the conversation with her husband, Jason, who when she’d called earlier was having a dance party with Oscar and Liv, even though their downstairs neighbor Earl Jablonski would complain and even though keeping the twins up past eight upped the odds that one of them would wake in the night (and wake her up, too).

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Teaser:  She followed him down a long narrow hallway, the walls covered with framed photographs, through a dining room, the table piled high with mail and medical journals, and into a bright open kitchen with top-of-the-line stainless steel appliances and fire-engine red laminate cabinets.  It looked like a showroom, pristine, as if the kitchen had never been sullied by the messy act of cooking. (45%).

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Synopsis:  Every woman who has ever fantasized about driving past her exit on the highway instead of going home to make dinner, and every woman who has ever dreamed of boarding a train to a place where no one needs constant attention–meet Maribeth Klein. A harried working mother who’s so busy taking care of her husband and twins, she doesn’t even realize she’s had a heart attack.

Surprised to discover that her recuperation seems to be an imposition on those who rely on her, Maribeth does the unthinkable: she packs a bag and leaves. But, as is often the case, once we get where we’re going we see our lives from a different perspective. Far from the demands of family and career and with the help of liberating new friendships, Maribeth is able to own up to secrets she has been keeping from herself and those she loves.

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Would you keep reading?  Does this book capture your attention?  I know that I’m definitely eager to learn more about the characters.

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