book was far more complex than the famous movie with Julia Roberts about a battered wife faking her own death to escape her husband.
The film was a thriller with a fairytale happy ending with the man who lives next door, in her new life, becoming her Prince Charming.
In Prices book, once she fakes her death and escapes her husband she creates a different, difficult life for herself as caretaker, However, she has but yet another man much younger than her husband that she also needs to stay clear of, Furthermore, her happy ending is a result of her manipulation of Prince Charming, who also has some serious women issues, In the end she escapes all men and secures a safe home for herself and her mother, The novel is about her selfpreservation, Although initially excited to read this, I started to feel quite let down the more I read, The writing wasn't especially groundbreaking, and much of the book was filler in my opinion, it could've been a lot shorter, I think the story itself is great, but on this occasion I would have to say that the film is far superior, I was simply relieved when I turned the last page, I am very disappointed by this book! I have loved the movie for years and had this book on my read list for a long time, but I have to say the movie is much better than the book.
Sara is married to an alcoholic, physically, mentally, emotionally abusive bottom of the totem pole computer salesman, She plans her escape as the book description states and creates a new life far away in a small town in Iowa, In the movie she becomes friends with a kind, caring, bright, unimposing man named Ben who lives next door and they strike up a friendship and begin to have feelings for each other.
In the book Ben is possessive, conceited, chauvinistic, and even thinks of her as a bitch and a tease who he hates,
Ben's thoughts "He was pretending she didn't exist, Women who wear sexy clothes and smile and then say 'Oh, no, not you' and slide right out of your life, Laura was probably laughing at him because he'd tried to score, "
Ben's thought's "If they were marries and she wanted to go on to get an M, A. in library science, he'd let her she'd practically be living on campus because his house was so close, If he had a wife, he wouldn't have to take care of all the damn details and could write that book, . . here he was, out of bread and he had to make his own lunch, "
Those are not even the worst of his thoughts, he says at one point that he would like to hit her, I have many problems with this book, I understand that this setting is in a rural town likely in the late's and therefore not as progressive, but he is an educated, wellread theatre professor who I'd imagine would not adhere to such outdated gender roles and societal expectations.
At one point when she is crying and he sees how upset she is when she says she cannot have sex with him right then, instead of being empathetic to her or at the very least acknowledging that something is wrong, she calls her a "bitch" for not sleeping with him and wonders if she is in fact a "cold lesbian".
I also find it hard to believe that she goes from one very abusive relationship that started out so well to another situation that gives clues that it could go down the same path.
She quickly slips from one man to another,
To me this book seems to tell more about the writer than anything else, All the men, and I mean ALL, are described or portrayed as some combination of cruel, uncaring, possessive, abusive, drooling, uneducated, selfish, and demanding, Author Nancy Price seems to have a real distaste for men in general and I feel the novel left off with the main character safe from her old abuses but now in another tricky, and possibly even criminal, situation in which she will continue to live as a new person and maybe never safe from law enforcement discovering the web of lies and potential involvement.
If the author intended the book to end showing that things never really change and people are the same everywhere, then she hit the nail on the head, but it was inferior to the film's storyline.
I actually read this book when I was a freshman in high school, I had seen the movie on tv and LOVED it, so I decided to pick up the book, I loved the book as well, although the ending is different, I preferred the movie ending if you can believe it, even though the rest of the book was pretty amazing, Just about what you'd expect, . . intense, emotional, suspenseful, and it kept me on the edge of my seat, The movie inspired by this book is one of my favorite movies, so when I realized there was a book, I couldn't wait to read it.
This is one of the rare cases where the book is NOT better than the movie, The author seems to think that all men are rapists, abusers, womanizers, and obsessed with breasts, She mentions Sara/Laura's breasts ad nauseam and treats her like an object, Also, there appears to be no point to most of the other characters in the book, You've got the big three Sara/Laura, Martin, Ben and then other characters that she leaves by the way side,
I really liked the Ben character in the movie and was looking forward to learning more about him in the book, While the book version of Ben is a nice guy on the outside, he struggles with constantly thinking of Sara/Laura's breasts, wanting to have sex with her, being angry that she won't tell him her life story after only knowing him for a few weeks, being so sexually frustrated that he wants to hit her, and pouting because he's a single white male who thinks she should put out because he was nice to her.
Movie Martin is a scary psycho while book Martin is a pathetic cry baby with daddy and mommy issues and a tiny gun.
He spends the majority of the book crying about his dead wife because her death means he can no longer own her, abusing some woman who apparently exists in the book only to show what a pathetic loser he is, and obsessing over why he's such a horrible person and blaming it all on his parents.
His end in the book is much less satisfying than his end in the movie,
There are a lot more characters in the book than in the movie and I was looking forward to some deep character development.
Nothing. There are a bunch of secondary characters that go nowhere, They are absolutely pointless to the story except for the woman that tells Martin about Sara's swimming lessons, Even then, she's in the book much longer than necessary and she goes nowhere, We get to watch her creepy obsession with being Martin's new, perfect wife and her apparently lesbian relationship with her roommate, The author uses her to show us more of Martin's pathetic character flaws as he sleeps with her once and cries then beats her, She gets a few lines at the end implying that she's grieving for Martin and that's it, Everyone else is completely pointless, We get just enough details to be interested in characters and then we get barely a resolution for them by the dragging on ending of the book.
The only reason I finished this book was because I started it, It was terribly written and I can't wait to forget it,½. Worthwhile read about a woman escaping a physically abusive husband, Fulfilling feeling at the end,
I saw the movie years ago, The book is better. One part of the movie annoyed me stupid frustrating act of the mother, In the movie Martin visits the mother in a nursing home pretending to be a cop, He tells her that he needs to contact Sara to warn her about something with Martin, The mother stupidly tells him where Sara is, The book is different and better on this part, Sara does smart things. But Martin also does smart things to find her,
This book does not have much suspense until the end, But I liked it the way it was, If you want suspense and terror, read Stephen Kings
Rose Madder which I loved,
I did not like what happened with Martin at the end, It was too convenient. I wish the author did something different to achieve the same end, But the ending was happy,
At times I felt like the authors mind was wandering, A character is thinking about the environment, the smells, the sights, the feelings, Some of that was good, but some could have been cut, Some of Martins thoughts were too repetitive,
I love the plot of Sara taking action to change her situation, I was surprised that she nearly starved while waiting for her first paycheck, Werent there any food pantries or shelters Was there a reason she avoided them
I liked that Sara initially loved Martin, but after they married he changed.
That happened to me twice,
Something I enjoyed, but it had very little to do with the plot were conversations about literature with happy vs unhappy endings, A couple of those follow, “Fellini says he never wants to make a film with a happy ending, because then people will go home and never change their lives, On a subconscious level, happy endings fool us, We think our lives will turn out nicely without our help, like the movie, ” Mrs. Eaker said. “I like easy books escape in them, you know Murder mysteries, Historical romances. ” “Do you really escape into them” Sara asked, “Or are you just watching the characters do this or that, but when youre through the world hasnt changed at all for you”
Me, Im like Mrs.
Eaker, I want happy endings, I wonder how many other readers make changes in their lives or the world after every book with an unhappy ending
DATA:
Narrative mode:rd person.
Story length:pages. Swearing language: moderate including religious swear words, but rarely used, Sexual language: none. Number of sex scenes:. Setting: current day New York, Massachusetts, Iowa, and Nebraska, Copyright:. Genre: relationship fiction with a little romance, .