Gayle Forman forays into the realm of adult fiction with a stirring account of a woman in crisis in Leave Me. I found the book captivating and engaging.
Maribeth, a workaholic mother of 4-year-old twins, suffers a life-threatening heart attack that she doesn't even realize is happening. This event triggers many emotions in Maribeth, and when her husband says he will build a bubble around her, she takes it to the limit and gets on a train to Pittsburgh, leaving everything at home (except a hefty withdrawal of money from the bank.)
She finds a simple apartment in the city and has sense enough to find a doctor for her follow-up care. For a long time, she doesn't make any contact with her family or friends. She was adopted as an infant, and she eventually decides that, because of her health, she should pursue finding out who her biological parents are.
It is interesting to see Maribeth work through her difficulties. She gets assistance from some unlikely places -- her doctor, who becomes more than a doctor and is suffering in his own way. Also, her young neighbors and Janice, who is assisting her to find her birth mother, play important roles.
I think it's pretty obvious how this is going to end, but that isn't important. Going through Maribeth's struggle along with her is what keeps you reading. I became attached to her and felt myself yearning for her to work it out.
Leave Me is appropriate for teens, and I included it in my library because of the popularity of her teen books (If I Stay). But it hasn't been checked out very much. I thoroughly enjoyed Leave Me and would recommend it to fans of contemporary fiction.
Published by Algonquin, 2016
Copy obtained from the Library, eARC obtained from Edelweiss
340 pages
Rating: 4/5
I do like Gayle Forman so would automatically be drawn to this book. Am I going to be mad that she left her kids behind?
ReplyDeleteI don't think you'll be mad. She really needed to work things out, and it's not like her husband wasn't a good guy. Let me know what you think....
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