Black and Blue: A Novel (Hardcover)

by Anna Quindlen (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Oprah Book Club® Selection, April 1998: "The first time my husband hit me I was nineteen years old," begins Fran Benedetto, the broken heroine of Anna Quindlen's Black and Blue. With one sweeping sentence, the door to an abused and tortured world is swung wide open and the psyche of a crushed and tattered self-image exposed. "Frannie, Frannie, Fran"--as Bobby Benedetto liked to call her before smashing her into kitchen appliances--was a young, energetic nursing student when she met her husband-to-be at a local Brooklyn bar. She was instantly captivated by his dark, brooding looks and magnetic personality, but her fascination soon solidified into a marital prison sentence of incessant abuse and the destruction of her own identity. After an especially horrific beating and rape, Fran realizes that the next attack could be the last. Fearing her son would be left alone with Bobby, she escapes one morning with her child. Fran's salvation comes in the form of Patty Bancroft and Co., a relocation agency for abused women that touts better service than the witness protection program. Armed only with a phone number, a few hundred dollars, and the help of several anonymous volunteers, Fran begins a new life. The agency relocates her to Florida, where she becomes Beth Crenshaw, a recently divorced home-care assistant from Delaware. Fran and her son adapt, meeting challenges with unexpected resilience and resolve until their past returns to haunt them. Quindlen renders the intricacies of spousal abuse with eerie accuracy, taking the reader deep within the realm of dysfunctional human ties. However, her vivid descriptions of abuse, emotional disintegration, and acute loneliness at times numb the reader with their realism.

From School Library Journal
YA?This powerfully written story grips readers from the very first page. Fran and Bobby are crazy about one another from the moment they first meet, but his violent nature reveals itself even before they are married. Later, the "accidents" become more and more frequent and harder to hide: a broken collarbone, a split lip, a black eye. Finally, Fran escapes the abusive marriage, but by then she is damaged both inside and out. Assisted by a group that aids battered women, she flees with her 10-year-old son, Robert, who knows the truth but is reluctant to believe that the father who loves him so much could beat his mother so badly. Fran begins a new life with a new identity, but she lives in fear, knowing that Bobby won't rest until he finds them. Also, Robert longs for his father. Love between parent and child, coming to grips with the difference between passion and love, the importance of honesty in relationships, and self-knowledge as an essential part of healing?YAs can learn much about these and other themes in this novel about a shattered family and a strong woman determined to rebuild her life.?Molly Connally, Kings Park Library, Fairfax County, VA
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 293 pages
• Publisher: Random House; First printing edition (January 24, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375500510
• ISBN-13: 978-0375500510
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (458 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #409,169 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Anna Quindlen's Best!, December 28, 2002

By	Deborah Di Gioia "Dynamic Diva" (Middle Village, New York United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Black and Blue: A Novel (Oprah's Book Club) (Mass Market Paperback)

Anna Quindlen is one of my Favorite Authors and I have to say that Black and Blue has to be her at her finest. This was a book I was not able to put down at all. The characters are very realistic and you get a true understanding of all the emotions that they are feeling.

Fran Benedetto, a nurse who lives in NYC and seems to be happily married to her husband Bobby but she is a victim of Domestic Violence. The book deals more with Fran trying to escape her situation by going underground and assuming a new identity with her son Robert but its extremely hard to run away from a police officer. I was able to feel the suspense on every page wondering if or when her husband would catch up to her.

Anna Quindlen does an excellent job describing each and every emotion that Fran must have been feeling and this book gave me a new understanding of Spousal Abuse. This book is a real pageturner and it is one I would highly recommend and I would also highly recommend One True Thing also written by Ms. Quindlen.

33 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You can run, but can you hide?, April 18, 2000

By	allan bachman (austin, tx) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Black and Blue: A Novel (Oprah's Book Club) (Mass Market Paperback)

[Warning: a review below by "Drea248" unwittingly divulges a crucial element in the story line. Though a positive review, if you plan on reading this book, avoid the review.]

Anna Quindlan's latest work of fiction "Black and Blue" has the potential to do what few so called "women's books" are able to accomplish, have an intrinsic appeal which serves both genders. This is a story with the ability to be accessible on many levels and that is one of its strengths.

This is a book about women, about children, about men, about the building up and breaking down of relationships, about strength and weakness, about truth, about secrets, about courage, and about trust. It is enlightening, entertaining, and exciting; once started it will be difficult to put down. This is not an easy book to read or forget.

The issues raised, some resolved some not, remind us of the frailties and shortcomings we experience in our own lives. Hopefully the main topic is one with which many are personally unfamiliar. The description of the effort involved to achieve escape velocity from the gravitational pull of an old life is simultaneously interesting and frightening. But can you really escape?

This is the focal point of the story. The day-to-day events of the principal characters as they establish their new lives is beautifully and touchingly developed in every way, you almost forget how the main characters arrived where they are. Present experiences are cleverly woven with past memories throughout the narrative. However, this is a story that also has all of the underlying tension and menace of a good suspense novel, neither of which are ever very far from the surface.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Black and Blue was close to true, March 5, 1999

By A Customer

Wives who are battered, or girl friends may relate very well to the character Beth in this book. She was very typical of the "if I am just better, my husband won't beat me anymore" personality. This book is a sad commentary on personl relationships and how we don't take care of ourselves very well. In this book, it is heart breaking to see a cop, a person who should uphold the law, abusing it. Not that it isn't common place. It is a well-known fact that men and even women who have high stress jobs, become batterers, and abuse alcohol or controlled substances. The really sad thing is how the the kid gets stuck taking side. Often in domestic violence, there are no winners, only losers. It is the women who usely loose the most. I am angry and disgusted by domestic violence, but as a woman, I believe given the right circumstances or the worst kind of stress, I could probably dish out battery if the shoe were on the other foot. Anna Quindlen is an easy author to read. She writes excellent dispriptions of places. This subject matter or this book should be rated R for violence. This novel also would most certainly trigger uncomfortable feelings in one who has been in an abusive relationship, or who has been abused.