What a gem of a book this was! I loved Joan's use of "words" that she uses to describe what is happening around her. I loved how the characters were so well developed throughout the story. This was a wonderfully written debut novel! I am going to look forward to more books by Ms Wolas.

My thanks to netgalley and Flatiron books for this advanced readers copy. ( )

Terrible. Starts out with an article about Joan Ashby, her writings, the fact that she dropped out of sight for years, singing her praises. Prologue. OK. The book proper seemed better - young woman, writer, knows her own mind, does not plan to get married, have children. Wants a writing career, period. Wants to write. Meets a guy, falls in love, ok. Stuff happens. You can write & be married. She tells him right off & plain as dirt: Want to write. Do not want any kids. Ever. Him: OK. So they get married & in a couple of months (YES!) she is pg. OMG. Tells him. HE is delighted! Oh happy me! So what does she do? Pretends she's happy too. Never sez a word about their agreement, about any hesitation, let alone unhappiness on her part. In fact tells herself she's gonna be a wonderful mother & of course that means she will have *2* children because what kind of family has only 1? So I read another 50-or-so pages of this crap, but the other thing is, it seems to be skipping, from her pov writing to something else, but it's not clearly delineated. So. Bottom line I am two things: Confused, and not liking any of it. Boo Hiss. ( )

Resurrection was my third ARC in a row, and this was the one that won the day with this reader. The story centers on a female writer and her family. Before she married, she was a bestselling author of wide acclaim, then, as she gave birth to her two sons, she found that so much in her life came before her writing time. The plot is well-constructed and the book is filled with many of the short stories and segments of her other works, making it a wide selection of writings. Other than a long segment on traveling in India, I was always right there with her writing, and even then, it had a great payoff involving smiling. ( )

UPDATED REVIEW 9/26/17:
This is a brilliantly written (debut!) literary novel at 500 pages that reads both like an intimate memoir and a sweeping epic. The language dazzles as we become infatuated with, invested in, and infuriated with Joan Ashby: The Writer. Her craft is the single most important thing to her, and her ambition never wanes as she begrudgingly accepts motherhood. Reading her stories and knowing her sacrifices makes an eventual betrayal that much more painful. I’m halfway convinced that Joan Ashby is the real writer here, and Cherise Wolas is her literary agent. Wolas has an immense talent for storytelling and I will gladly read anything else she writes.


ORIGINAL REVIEW 8/29/17:
I received an eGalley from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I almost didn't read this book. The description and the cover art definitely grabbed my eye, and I have a weakness for all protagonists named Joan, but I don't read "women's fiction" or much "contemporary family life" at all. Give me gritty realism and raw facts; even my taste in poetry tends to hit hard. I didn't want to read about another woman coming to realize that motherhood was a blessing in disguise, despite her sacrifices along the way.

I could not be more happy to be entirely wrong about this novel.

I am besotted with the way Wolas writes. I would read and reread entire paragraphs, languishing in their beauty before I was ready to move onward to the next delicious sentence. I, too, have fallen under Ashby's spell and would be delighted if any of HER writing were published today. I would read anything Ashby wrote, and the same now goes for Cherise Wolas, even if I have to wait 28 years in the meantime. I know it will be worth it. ( )

Joan Ashby, a talented writer, who at a young age vows not to let a husband or children get in the way of her art, ends up married, then pregnant. Joan falls in love with her first baby, not so much with second. Her first son has the gift of writing, but stops when he discovers at age 11 his mother is a brilliant writer and he compares himself to her and feels like a failure. He feels she has crushed his dreams. His father is a brilliant neuro-ocular surgeon traveling the world restoring people’s vision. His younger brother drops out of school at age 14 to design his own software program used throughout the world in hotels and is worth billions. The family dynamics and sibling rivalry conspire against him to make him feel small.

Joan ever intuitive when it comes to her children is able to sense when things are well and when things are awry. She understands her children far better than her husband. She understands their strengths and weaknesses. She gets swept up in motherhood and in helping her children build on their strengths and supporting them through difficult times.

Joan hides her writing. She keeps it a secret, not wanting to have to share what she is writing about with her husband. She feels like a prisoner in motherhood, only able to eek out stolen hours to write her newest novel that gets hidden in a box for two years before she is ready to have it published, because life (her family and their needs) get in the way. In the meantime, her book is published in its entirety, except for a gender change by her son, under a pseudonym and in two parts.

There are three parts to this novel. The first and third are told by a third person narrator, but the focus is mostly on Joan. The second section is recordings made by Joan’s son, Daniel, that he will eventually send to Joan as explanation for his actions. Interspersed within these pages are short stories written by Joan as well as the beginnings of another novel Joan is working on during part three. In addition, there are writing samples from Joan’s writing students.

Joan is so hurt by Daniel’s actions, publishing her novel without her knowing about it, that she flees to India, a country she has always wanted to visit and the place where Eric had retreated after sobering up and selling his company. In India, Joan is able to rediscover herself, realize her present day wants and needs, as well as forge a closer relationship with her younger son.

The writing is amazing. Each short story seems publishable on it’s own. The story of Paloma that Joan is writing in the third part was particularly intriguing to me. However, I felt like all of these stories within the actual novel detracted from what constituted this novel. It seemed like I was constantly readjusting to new stories within the original and back out again. For me, it was too much bulk. The writing is great though, and I never wanted to skim. I just wish the author had constructed this novel differently. I felt way too happy to be finished reading this book.

For discussion questions and more, please see: http://www.book-chatter.com/?p=2273 ( )