How do you know that the stories you tell yourself, about yourself, are true? Where do they come from? What if they are actually based on distorted memories? Maggie is newly qualified, full of self-doubt and trying desperately to pretend that the dark tragedy in her past never happened. When a client, remarkably like her younger self, arrives for therapy, her carefully constructed defences are put to the test.
I learned of Joe’s work and his book from an interview on the Global TV Talk Show—whose host, Ed Cohen, asked many revealing questions. I learned that Joe and I are contemporaries—he was in Kenya with the Peace Corps when I was in Guatemala, but he took his knowledge of cross-cultural communications to new levels, and we have a more tolerant world as a result—at least among those who have read his book or participated in one of his classes/courses.
Although I am a voracious reader, I can remember very few books that I’ve had to stop during reading to walk away and get my emotions back under control. The Original Wife is one of those books. I can feel Lanie’s pain, shame, and her all-encompassing need to be loved. She and Brock are so good together, but Lanie has so much to learn and accept about herself before she can successfully be one of a couple. I laughed, I cried, I raged, and I could even feel the punching bag as I raged against Stanley.
A thriller. A love story. A cruel twist of fate. Sometimes six-feet under isn't enough to bury someone.
