The Language of Good-Bye - Hardcover

Fischer, Maribeth

3.95

135 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0786237597 ISBN 13: 9780786237593

Publisher: Thorndike Pr, 2001

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

What is the cost of leaving a country, a child, a marriage? What is the cost of not leaving? These are the questions at the heart of The Language of Good-bye, Maribeth Fischer's powerful and provocative debut novel.

For Annie and Will, who have left their marriages to be together, the future is fraught with the complications of starting over. Both have left pieces of themselves behind: For Annie, it is the husband and friend she has known since childhood; for Will, it is the five-year-old daughter he adores. And for the Korean-born Sungae, one of Annie's English-as-a-second-language students, it is a search for the words that will help her resolve the sorrows of her tragic history.

As Sungae struggles with the new language and with her memories, her story unfolds in ways that will have profound consequences not only for Sungae, but for Annie, Will, and their former spouses. A lyrical and deeply moving novel about love, loss, and language-and about confronting life's tough choices-The Language of Good-bye "weaves a wonderful story [about] letting go of the past and moving forward into the future" (Gail Tsukiyama, author of The Language of Threads).

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

About the Author:

Maribeth Fischer is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize, the Smartt Family Prize, and has been twice been mentioned for a notable essay in Best American Essays. She has taught creative writing and English as a second language in Baltimore for nine years. Her creative essays have appeared in The Iowa Review, The Yale Review, and the Pushcart Prize XX: Best of the Small Presses.

From Publishers Weekly:

Loss and new beginnings are the burdens of essayist Fischer's courageous, gently affirmative first novel. Annie Helverson has recently abandoned the safety of a marriage to her childhood sweetheart, Carter, for the uncertainty of an affair with Will Sullivan, who has left his own long marriage and beloved five-year-old daughter, Brooke. Annie finds herself empathizing with the recently arrived immigrants in the English class she teaches, as she too is alternately bewildered and delighted by her new life and surroundings. Will's wife, Kayla, is devastated by his betrayal, but she also senses his ambivalence, while Carter seems mired in anguish, self-doubt and obsession. Their spouses' reactions profoundly affect Will and Annie, as the new couple discovers that living with the decision to leave can be as devastating as being left. Their struggle is reflected in Sungae Oh--one of Annie's students and, coincidentally, an employee in Kayla's bakery--a Korean-born painter who has lived in the States for 17 years without learning English. She is afraid to articulate the pain she feels over her lost homeland, her own loves and infidelities and the daughter she left behind. As Annie encourages her to speak and to paint her past, Sungae taps into a rich talent, finding self-forgiveness and her way back to a marriage she had thought beyond repair. The story is told from all five of the main characters' viewpoints, and sometimes their internal monologues tend to bog things down. But it is Annie's grief--over the pain she's caused Carter, the untrustworthiness of her emotions, Will's ongoing relationship with his family and her own infertility--that dominates the narrative, and her growth that drives the story. Fischer is a strong new voice in women's fiction, and her book should rise above its unfortunate jacket to find a receptive audience.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.