Customer Reviews

Breakup

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

... or even considering it. I had read Texier's fiction years ago and found it only so-so. Whatever she was trying to get across about sex and human passion, major themes in her novels, never came across in a way to make me feel anything for the characters. But this memoir made me feel everything -- the passion, the pain, all that was at stake. I inhaled it, rather too quickly, perhaps, and it sank into my soul and left my nerves feeling bruised. Anyone who has been through a crisis (and not even particularly this kind of crisis) in a long term, deeply felt relationship, or even witnessed it in their parents' marriage or that of a close friend, will recognize the essential truths so well and precisely articulated here. Unlike other reviewers, I didn't mind the rawness, or the repetitiveness. It was necessary to see the wearing away of her dignity. It takes a while to say good-bye to twenty years of your life, and there is always that suspense of, will the situation reverse itself? I've known married couple who weathered multiple infidelities and a three year seperation and wind up happy grandparents together in the end. Americans are often in denial about matters of the heart, still clinging to absolutes -- total fidelity, happily-ever-after stories, despite that pesky one in two divorce statistic and the 70% infidelity rate. Texier's baring of her soul has been succor to several divorced women I know, and should be an antidote for all young women subject to the Cinderella propaganda still being broadcast through Julia Roberts movies and limp women's fiction. What intrigued me were the updated dynamics which I've also noticed everywhere in real life -- in the end, a man leaves not for a better blow job, but for money, or the illusion that success is obtainable through a relationship with a more influential woman. No longer do men want the little woman at home, taking care of the domestic front. Any emotional dependency is likewise anathema. As Texier reported, when she "cocooned" at home with her children, her husband rejected her. When he felt she was a has-been as a writer, he went on to someone he perceived to be a success. Well, it's rather ironic that this memoir has become Texier's pot of gold, professionally, and that Rose's "big" novel launched by his new editor/lover sank without a whisper of either sales or critical praise. Bravo Catherine! Perhaps it was she who needed to dump Joel Rose in order to get her literary star back on the rise. This breakup clearly invigorated her writing. It think memoir is her true metier, and that she has much more to tell about her unconventional upbringing and life. I look forward to her next work.

Many of the reviews comment on Ms. Texier's histrionic extremes. Hey, she's French. The bottom line is she was dumped, after two children and 20 years. And her husband still came home to her, right after servicing his mistress. Who wouldn't go a little crazy? Being in the middle of a divorce/mistress/dumping/betrayal/20+ scene myself, I found Ms. Texier's work at least brutally honest. It reassured me that divorce is, indeed, CRAZY TIME. If you attempt to sugar coat it, or gentle it with dumb social responses ("Well, it just didn't work for a long time and we both decided to move on with our lives..." and other socially acceptable platitudes), you lose the disorienting reality that divorce is. Nobody wins. French, sexy, cosmopolitan? Suburban, overweight, buried in PTA issues? It makes no difference. The men walk when they want to. The women are left to figure it out. Thank you, Catherine, for your passion and determination to NOT be proper and censored.

I know it sounds cynical, but any abandoned woman with chidren, espcially, who feels there may have been a third party involved needs to read this book. it is so close to the bone that some may find it uncomfortable, but for me it was like finding out I am not the 0nly one who--despite better judgement but becasue of leftover passion and abiding love for one who is not worthy -- slept with my soon to be ex, tried to fight for my marriage/ and also, for anyone who has had a long term passionate relationship which hid the skids. I equate it with inexpensive (and comeplling, page-turning and entertaining) therapy for the (admittedly damaged) soul who blames themselves for trying to keep the family together despite insurmountable odds and for joel? a midlife crisis of a vain (aren't they all) creative man. do read it and cry when you emphasize with this valient woman's baring of her soul. brava to ms texier.....

I identify with Texier's pain and confusion about the breakup of her marriage. There are many passages which literally made my heart beat faster. There were times I wanted to strangle Joel for treating Catherine the way he did, but I also wanted to strangle her for allowing him to live a double life for as long as she did. I know it's hard to let go of someone you love, but on the other hand, have some self respect!!! Kick him out already!!!! I certainly wouldn't have allowed a man to treat me the way Joel treated her. I understand that they had "a bond", but reading page after page of her masochism was incredibly sad and frustrating.

Overall I enjoyed the book. It did its job of evoking a strong emotional response. However, it was incredibly repetitive. How many times did she have to tell us how confused and sad and angry she was? I know that's the point of the memoir, but I couldn't help but roll my eyes while reading yet another passage that read like one on a previous page.

I only wish Texier had the courage to dump the sad, pathetic Joel sooner than she did. If not for herself, then for her two children who had no choice but to weather their storm. I feel very sorry for them and what they had to go through.

I don't know what I would have done in her situation so I can't pass judgement. (Even though I kind-of am!) Texier is a beautiful writer and I'll read more of her work in the future. But if you haven't bought it already, wait for the paperback.

Yes, this book is painful--and I mean painfully bad. It's like reading a teenager's diary, complete with frantic exclamations, hormonal outbursts, and pathetic revenge fantasies. If you are seeking an intelligent memoir about divorce, try John Taylor's FALLING. Skip this one for sure.

While this written in progress diary may be too raw for most readers to handle, I find so much in Texier's explicit account of her breakup - beyond the dynamics of the relationship she had with her ex-husband. I can't help but admire Texier for her wit, cockiness, viciousness, and vulernability in the face of adversity. Undoubtedly, this book is quite an emotional roller coaster as the author explores all of her mixed emotions, but the exploration is done effectively, without muddling her tone or intent.

For once, I feel as if this is a novel where a woman's identity is fully represented, in as much as a novel can represent a person's identity. Although the novel greatly revolves around Texier's role as a mother and wife, she still is foremost an artist, thinker, and writer. While she may be overcoming the ultimate betrayal, Texier seems to be able to balance all facets of her life with great fluency, while still remaining true to herself in needs and desires. All people should strive to be so strong during life rocking changes!

The author did an excellent job of making you feel every emotion that she went through during the breakup of her marriage. It was a haunting depiction of raw human emotion. She took you from the beginning of the breakup, through therapy and finally acceptance. Gut wrenching!

Catherine Texier expressed perfectly what a lot of women feel, with exquisite attention to every emotional detail. I just started to wonder why she would hold on so tightly to such a shallow, pathetic guy!

When I was little I wanted to grow up and be a successful New York writer. I wanted a husband who shared my passion for language. I wanted to be French. Catherine Texier seemed to embody all I wanted to become because the idea of her life seemed so far from the messy real life trials of the rest of the world. In her memoir Breakup, she reveals that bad things happen even to writers and perhaps writers feel that pain in a uniquely crystilline way. Passionate, gutsy, un-apologetic, it is a story every woman wants to tell, but doesn't have the guts, or talent to. Texier gives the reader a guided tour of hell, a world littered with rejection slips, adultery, Fiesta Ware and pieces of her broken heart. Breakup is not taking revenge. If anything the adulterating husband seems confused, disallusioned with his life, not strong enough to take responsibility for his actions or let his family go. And yet, this is Ms. Texier's story and although she gives her ex-husband a fair shake, she has roared onto the page with an intimate fury that most women contain for propriaty's sake. Yes, she has risked public acceptence and privacy in writing this book, many women will love it, all men will hate it. But in writing this very personal account of the end of her marriage she gives the female reader a sense of strength and survival and reaffirms the belief that when a man leaves his wife for another woman it is the wife's right to tell the story because it is her story too.

This is a story known to everyone. How Catherine Texier dealt with it is more interesting than the subject. In one way, it's a difficult book to read. All that stuff about killing the other woman. In other ways it's about true feelings. It tends to be emotional and multi-dimensional. It is not free of contradictions. It is not being easy on the self, and giving in to the completion of revenge fantasies. I think that people have trouble with the self-portrayal, because they want to see a strong woman somewhere in these pages. Instead Texier makes herself more exposed and more vulnerable. You can either not like it, or admire her for taking the risk. Pat endings all always dull anyway. Stories of failure are great stories. Stories of success are really a lie.