Journey [Deckle Edge] [Hardcover]

Danielle Steel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 31, 2000

In her 50th bestselling novel, Danielle Steel takes us behind the closed doors of a prominent marriage to explore the private secrets hidden behind public lives.

Journey

Everyone in Washington knows Madeleine and Jack Hunter. Maddy is an award-winning TV anchorwoman. Jack is the head of her network, an adviser to the President on media issues. To the world, theirs is a storybook marriage. Two brilliant careers. A long, loving partnership. But behind the locked doors of their lush Georgetown home, a very different story emerges. For as Maddy's career soars, a bitter edge has crept into Jack's words, a pattern of subtle put-downs, control, and jealousy that Maddy has always tried to ignore and deny. For Maddy, there are no bruises, no scars, only the daggers of fear, humiliation, and isolation. Their effect as powerful as the gun, the knife, or the fist, the wounds as deep. Through hard work, long years, and with Jack's help, Maddy has become a role model and a star. It seems impossible to believe that a woman the nation idolizes lives in degradation and fear. Only Maddy knows the terror in her heart. Her secrets are well kept, sometimes even from herself.

Maddy's journey to healing begins when the President's wife offers an extraordinary opportunity, the chance to join her newly formed Commission on Violence Against Women. There, Maddy hears chilling stories from terrified wives and girlfriends that sound eerily familiar. And there she comes to know Bill Alexander, a distinguished scholar and diplomat who also works on the commission. Bill suspects that something is terribly wrong in Maddy's marriage and begs her to open her eyes. And as Maddy slowly, painfully takes the first steps toward freedom, as she and Bill grow closer, a remarkable series of events begins to unfold...a stranger from Maddy's past suddenly reappears...White House headlines bring the nation to a standstill...and a devastating tragedy occurs, forcing Maddy to realize just how much she has lost and how much has been taken from her--her confidence, her trust, her self-respect. As she is faced with the most difficult choice of her life, Maddy's extraordinary journey comes to a close, and with it comes a strength she never knew she had and a gift she never could have expected--a gift that will change her life forever.

Set against a vivid backdrop of world-shattering events, Journey is a book about abuse, in its subtlest forms. The powerful effects that last a lifetime. With wisdom and compassion, bestselling novelist Danielle Steel reminds us that no one is exempt from the effects of this devastating disease, which crosses social borders, has no respect for money, power, or success. But at its core, Journey is a book about hope, about change, and about daring to be free.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

It's amazing to think that Journey is Danielle Steel's 50th novel. What's even more amazing is the high standard she has maintained throughout all her books: when an author is this prolific, there is usually a falling off in inspiration, but Steel seems able to add new elements to each book that keep the level of invention fresh. Journey uses elements familiar from earlier Steel bestsellers, but manages a totally novel spin on the private problems of a very public marriage.

Madeleine and Jack Hunter are one of Washington's glittering couples. Jack is the head of a TV network, while Maddy is an award-winning anchorwoman. All around, people regard them as a golden couple: he advising the president on media issues, she at the top of the tree in her profession. Needless to say, the relationship we are shown behind the closed doors of their lavish Georgetown home is far more troubled than the public could ever know. As Maddy enjoys more and more career success, Jack's resentment and desire for control grow daily, and her life becomes hell in this fracturing marriage. Steel manages, as always, to convey character in concise paragraphs:

The diamond studs and her eight-carat engagement ring were her prize possessions. Not bad for a kid from a trailer park in Chattanooga, she often admitted to him, and he called her "poor white trash" when he wanted to really tease her. It was obvious that he thought calling her that was funny...

When Maddy joins the president's wife in the latter's newly formed commission on violence against women, the grim stories she hears from other terrified wives start her on a journey which will help her break the cycle of fear she is living through. Steel makes this situation resonate with a strong emotional impact, and the dark marriage is painted with the kind of skill we have come to expect from her. When Bill Alexander, a high-flying scholar and diplomat, enters the narrative and realizes what is happening in Maddy's marriage, the story is taken to a powerful new level, with their growing affection treated intelligently and sympathetically. --Barry Forshaw

From Publishers Weekly

Marital abuse in its most insidious form is the focus of Steel's (The House on Hope Street, etc.) dependable page-turner, her 50th novel. To the outside world, Washington, D.C., television coanchor Maddy Hunter appears to have an enviable life. Married to her boss, former football star-cum-media mogul Jack Hunter, she's got brains, beauty, a prestigious job, a glamorous marriage and all the trappings of success. Yet MaddyAwhose current husband saved her from a physically abusive former spouseAis trapped in another relationship that's as devastating and destructive as her first. Jack doesn't hit Maddy, but he subjects her to mind games, put-downs and constant undermining; it's obvious psychological abuse to observers, though not to Maddy. Using Maddy's participation in a commission on violence against women chaired by the nation's First Lady, Steel explicates the various forms of spousal abuse, and although the text occasionally gets preachy, the desperate plight of women who remain in destructive situations is clearly delineated. Meanwhile, Maddy warily builds a friendship with Bill Alexander, a fellow committee member and former ambassador to Colombia whose wife was killed by kidnappers. Maddy's experience interacting with women like herself and the appearance of a daughter she gave up for adoption as an unwed teenager (and whom Jack forbids her to see) both have an impact. Still, it takes a life-threatening event to convince her finally to change her life and accept the gift of a good man's love. Steel has her formula down pat, and she executes her story with her usual smooth pacing.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 323 pages
• Publisher: Delacorte Press; First edition, first printing. edition (October 31, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385316879
• ISBN-13: 978-1876590406
• Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 1.1 x 9.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (55 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,401,921 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Danielle Steel has been hailed as one of the world's most popular authors, with over 590 million copies of her novels sold. Her many international bestsellers include 44 Charles Street, Legacy, Family Ties, Big Girl, Southern Lights, Matters of the Heart, One Day at a Time, and other highly acclaimed novels. She is also the author of His Bright Light, the story of her son Nick Traina's life and death.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Can't she be alone??, November 15, 2000

By 

jean paschen (TUCSON, AZ United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Journey (Hardcover)

I wanted to read this book because it was on the best-seller list and I had just finished reading His Bright Light, the story about the life of Ms. Steel's bipolar son. The subject matter interested me as the topic of a novel because I prosecute domestic violence cases as misdemeanors and know how hard it is for women to get out of the cycle of violence. Ms. Steel certainly did her homework. The thoughts Maddy had are very common among victims who are emotionally abused. Having been a victim in my first marriage of all those subtle put-downs, the book was somewhat painful to read. The book had a great deal of repetition. I thought it could have been shorter and just as effective. It bothered me that Maddy, who was a top-drawer anchorwoman, never got out of the abuse without a man to help her. I would have liked the story better if she had not gone from one man to another to another. What about a break in between so that she can figure out who she really is? That would have shown real growth on the part of the main character. Maddy was a real likeable character, however. I did enjoy the book for raising the consciousness of those of us who like fiction.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good but not great, November 29, 2000

By 

K. Morgan (United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Journey (Hardcover)

Journey is the story of Maddy Hunter, the victim of lifelong abuse. She witnesses her father being abusive to her mother and then is abused herself by her boyfriend-turned-husband Bobby Joe. After joining a commission on violence she discovers the husband who rescued her from Bobby Joe may not be the hero she thinks. Along Maddy's journey she meets a part of her past and her future.

Ms. Steel did a fantastic job of writing about abuse, and not just physical abuse but emotional abuse, or invisible abuse, because it is harder for everyone to see. I must say this book opened my eyes to the subject. Overall journey is a good book. I found parts to be repetitous. I guess that could be chalked up to the fact that during Maddy's journey she keeps thinking about incidents from the past. I just found some of these parts to be (and I hate to say this) a little boring.

I think every woman should read this book. It gets the messge of emotional and verbal abuse across very well. Towards the end the book is very good and reminds me of Ms. Steel's early work.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Journey worth taking., November 3, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Journey (Hardcover)

As usual Danielle has taken a subject that is much on the minds of women today. Abuse, for years abuse was thought of as black and blue marks on the outside but in reality more women suffer from the black and blue marks on the inside. These women can be seen just as our Maddy is,as beautiful, successful, and with a got it together attitude. But all of this is a front, many a night these women are abuse through bad language and put downs that creates a feeling of being useless, ugly,un-loved and a feeling of never doing anything right. This book tells of someone who escapes the a life of black and blue on the outside to be plunged into a life of black and blue on the inside. This is a story of Maddy's escape a second time. I would recomend this book to all women but especially the one's that live a life like Maddy's, a life that makes them wonder if they can take the journey and be happy or are they destined to a life of co-dependency that they will never escape from.