Customer Reviews

Around the Next Corner

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Like many housewives, Deena Munger spends her days doing chores and taking care of her family which they take for granted. Somewhere along the way, she lost any semblance of being an individual. Hopes, dreams, even her personal preferences have all taken a back seat to the needs and desires of her family. Deena realizes that she's become non-existent as an indivdual and is desperately unhappy. Who'd have guessed that an afternoon eating corn pops and watching Oprah would be the catalyst that changes her life as well as the lives of those around her?

Heloise is a yellow Labrador puppy. She's only ten weeks old when she comes to live with Deena and her family. Heloise is little more than a ball of energetic fur with the honor of having been selected to be part of the K-9 Eyes for the Blind program. For approximately fourteen months, Heloise will live with the Mungers in their neat orderly world and ensure that life will change for them all in ways they never expected.

While Deena is trying to retrieve their Persian cat from the pots and pans cupboard she begins to wonder how her life turned out this way. She's a dog person, so why is she living in a cat world? She's even scrubbing the floor grout with a tooth brush. Sex has become a Saturday morning scheduled event, which she now has no interest in and does her best to avoid. Deena's disappeared, in her place is a shell of a woman who caters to the whims of her husband, children, and even the cat. However, none of them ever return the favor. Her feelings do not matter in the big scope of things, or do they? She couldn't forget the episode of Oprah she'd watched about `using your life.' After yet another day of ceaseless demands and the mundane existence that her life has become, Deena made a decision. She spent some time researching about getting involved in the K-9 Eyes for the Blind program, and even interviewed for raising a dog - all before telling any of her family about her desire to do so. None of them are pleased, it will disrupt their lives and they all know it. For once Deena is going to satisfy her own desires, and the family will just have to accept her decision. Will Deena's decision be the final straw in Neil and Deena's already crumbling marriage? Maybe it will provide a stepping stone to help breach the walls they've built between them.

I am so impressed with Elizabeth Wrenn's writing. She alternately had me laughing and crying all the way through AROUND THE NEXT CORNER. It's a poignantly sweet tale and many married women will be able to relate to Deena. Yes, Deena is menopausal, but I am not and I can easily see myself in her shoes. The chaos that seems to rein when Heloise joins the family is absolutely hilarious. I have visual images of this overweight cat living on top of a refrigerator and this puppy gleefully terrorizing it. Ms. Wrenn does a beautiful job demonstrating both the joy and the heartache in raising guide dogs. In the midst of all the pandemonium, Deena learns a few things about herself, life, and love which may just help glue her life back together.

Chrissy Dionne (courtesy of Romance Junkies)

Since others have done a synopsis of this book, I won't. Instead I'll say it's one of the best books I've read in a long time. It's been on my to-be-read shelf for a while now -- I buy so many books I can't read them all -- but I finished a book yesterday and began this one last night. I've already read half of it. I simply didn't want to turn out the light and go to sleep. It's beautifully written, funny, touching, and filled with so many truths about life, love, and being a woman. I was laughing out loud, to the point my husband wanted to know what was so funny. Bravo, Ms. Wrenn. I hope you write many more books. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

This was an OK book. Not bad, easy to read, even made me cry in a few spots. But, it's not great. I think it is a nice mid-life crisis book for women and I love the central part with the dog. I wish that life and marriage were as easy to fix as was the case for the main character in the book - but still the storey is nice. A good weekend read if you're looking for something not too heavy and also isn't a bodice ripper.

This is a lovely first novel. Elizabeth Wrenn's writing has a Barbara Kingsolver-like feel to it. So, if you like Kingsolver, you'll like Wrenn. The characters are real. The narrative is natural. The ride is one you'll enjoy, even if you do cry a little along the way. For example, I finished the last 50 pages or so before bed one night. All of a sudden, my husband started laughing at me. When I asked why, he said, "Well, you cry, then you laugh. You cry, then you laugh. All I hear is boo-hoo ... ha ha ha, boo-hoo ... ha ha ha." So, if you're in the mood to laugh and cry about real life, and if you love dogs, then you'll enjoy this book.

This book should be read by all women 45 and up. A very insightful look at middle age. This book really made me think about how I deal with my children. The character is a stay at home mom who does everything for her family. Her emotional growth is fantastic. Her family learns from her. I had tears in my eyes many times during the book.

Once you start reading AROUND THE NEXT CORNER, you won't be able to put it down unless you're lucky enough to have your own puppy to walk, cuddle and love on. Elizabeth Wrenn's novel is a wonderful read, rich with insights about dogs and human nature--self-absorbed teens, a workaholic husband, and a woman at midlife finding her way back to her own big-hearted, fun-loving self. Wrenn is a great stylist, and her one-liners, such as "Middle-aged women were the Maseratis of emotion" contribute to a finely woven plot. I cried at heroine Deena's emotional predicaments, and yukked it up over the hilarious absurdities in raising Heloise, a yellow lab for K-9 Eyes for the Blind. Mostly I was riveted by Wrenn's gift for telling a generous story of how love, courage and a sense of humor effect transformation--personal, family, and canine.

She wonders what ever happened to intelligent enthusiastic Deena Munger. One day she had a future now middle age and all she shows is a disrespected unappreciated housewife and mother. In her mind there is no Deena; only mother to indifferent children and housewife to an uncaring mate though she admits she loves her family.

Deena decides it is time for a change from her mundane existence. She chooses to help society by raising a puppy for K-9 Eyes for the Blind. However, Deena begins to ponder whether the grass was greener when she was a common housewife as her new dog Helouise is a lunatic on four legs who has nuked the lifestyle of the Mungers. Deena realizes that Helouise will either prove the family savior or the straw that broke the marriage.

Elizabeth Wrenn provides a deep insightful look at a mom and wife who loves her family, but wonders when her unique identity vanished. Deena is a fabulous protagonist wondering is that all there is as she lives life through her family until she brings Helouise into the household. Ironically and realistically, she does not revert back to a previous Deena as her new role is through the canine as the teacher. Still Helouise changes the group dynamics so indirectly the heroine begins to reassert herself as more than just mom, wife, and teacher. AROUND THE NEXT CORNER will hit home to baby boomers who like this literary soul mate will wonder when I morphed from that idealistic dreamer into an aging pragmatist.

Harriet Klausner

Deena Munger is an average wife and mother, and is sick of the ordinariness and the feeling like she's only defined by her roles in her family's lives. So, she takes on the role of dog-trainer for the blind. Over the months of teaching Helouise, her pup, to be a guide dog, Deena's own eyes are opened to a new world. Even as she struggles with a rocky marriage and apathetic children, Deena discovers herself and falls in love with the dog.

*** Ordinary life is chronicled in a very matter-of-fact way. Deena is someone like you might meet at any time, even in the mirror. Her emotions will strike a chord with many, and offer them hope. ***


Amanda Killgore.

I came across this book because I was the English teacher for Elizabeth Wrenn's daughter Ella this year. I loved working with Ella, and had briefly met Elizabeth, so I bought the book--worried, I admit, that it might really only appeal to woman, that the dog theme might be a bit cloying, that I might end up having to say, "Oh, it was very...interesting," if someone asked me what I thought of it. Not at all! I ended up allowing myself to read only small sections of the book as I neared the end, not wanting to leave behind the company of these wonderful characters. Ms. Wrenn's depictions of what it is to be on the verge of 50 are right on, and relevant to men, and they very often made me laugh out loud, as did the early adventures with Heloise. At the same time, though, I was amazed by the fact that the dog was never given human qualities--it was always a dog, no more, no less, and always magical. The central character and narrator is a strong, likable person whose willingness to be honest totally wins the reader over. This is a rich experience. I could quibble just a little (being an English teacher, after all) over a few awkward phrasings and a sense that Wrenn moves from her heart to her head as she approaches an ending where everything is perhaps too neatly tied up, but these little bits of red ink in no way negate the fact that I consumed this book like a truly delightful and nourishing meal, eating as slowly as I could discipline myself to--and I have bought about five more copies of the book to loan out and give as gifts.

A friend gave me this book to read because I had just gotten a yellow lab puppy. Reading the book was like re-living those first few days with the puppy. The author really makes you experience the fun and the work of having a new puppy.

The characters in the book were well-drawn -- I believed in the mom who was feeling as though she had given up her own life for those around her, and suddenly found herself feeling not noticed and not important. For her, getting a seeing eye dog puppy to take care of is a step in the right direction, and as she grows to learn to take control of her puppy, she also learns to take control of her own life.