Customer Reviews

The Language of Good-bye

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Maribeth Fischer's, The Language of Good-bye, is a work of art. Sungae, a Korean-born woman who has left her great love behind to honor family duty is an artist. She paints her memories of Korea with great detail as she studies art and learns to speak English. Annie, Sungae's English teacher; Carter, Annie's ex-husband and childhood friend; Will, Annie's great love; and Kayla, the wife Will leaves for Annie, are characters that you will in turn love and understand as you get into each one's thoughts and desires. Sungae explains, "Duty is like an ancient tree which has survived many seasons. Love is only the blossom."

Fischer is a beautiful writer. Language swept me into it with characters that are so alive I missed them when I finished. Her detailed writing creates a world that made feel like I could not only see the motivations of her characters, but that I was a part of the story; I felt as though I were a player in this compelling world: I could see it, smell it, and taste it. I could taste the hazelnut coffee Will doesn't like, feel the chill of the autumn air I shared with the Trick-or Treaters, and I understood Annie's need to be loved and that she must endure her sadness: an inability to bear her own child. And her resentment toward Will, father of five-year old Brooke, the child he adores.

Often when literature is beautifully written, I am impressed by the skill and art of the writer, but still, I cannot wait for the book to be finished; there is a dryness when a writer loves words more than characters. As I read Language, I found myself wishing that it wouldn't end. The losses, passions, and joys of these people became my losses, passions, and joys as well.

This book made me ask myself how much I was willing to lose in order to follow my heart and made me review the losses of my life where I had no choice in the matter. I have heard that we read books to feel less alone, and when I read this book, I knew from the writer's great craft that I was safe, that I had found a book I could relax with. I could identify with these living characters; Fischer and her characters understand that throughout our lives, we will continue to suffer loss, and we will continue with to live our lives as though we are not in pain because that is what we do. And that nothing we gain comes without loss, that our lives are very complex indeed, if we choose to live them fully.

I am an English teacher by trade. I read books because I need them, love them, and live for them. This book touched me in a way few have. It reached me on an emotional level, and it touched my soul. It is a literary feast of the heart and of the senses not to be missed.

I stumbled upon this novel and despite its melancholy title, I brought it home. This was a great decision.

Fischer examines her characters by employing equal parts affection, empathy, and what can only be described as prickly honesty. In so doing, she manages to avoid smarmy stereotypes and clean resolutions.

I was very sad to see it end.

This novel is a must-read - I finished it in less than twenty-four hours. The powerful emotions and conflicting desires of the main characters, Carter, Annie, Will, Kayla, and Sungae, actually brought tears to my eyes. The detail is incredible, using specifics to bring the characters to life. Carter remembers the smell of Annie's vanilla conditioner, Will buys Annie cherry Pop-Tarts because that's what her mother had done for her when she was little. Will has dry salt on his neck after bicycling and as summer turns to fall, Sungae suspects infidelity when Will doesn't protest when Kayla brings him hazelnut rather than amaretto decaf coffee. It is the emotion of grief that brings the characters of the novel together - Annie's Palestinian ESL student who writes about his friend being shot by Israelis in every assignment; Sungae, a Korean student, who avoids learning English for seventeen years to avoid remembering her past. Carter's inability to let go of Annie that brings him to stalk her, ordering pizzas because the delivery boy is in her class and Will's doubts about leaving his five-year-old daughter. The insights that the characters find, from Annie's observation that her students write about past tragedy in to present tense to Annie and Will's lesson that leaving is as hard as being left, leave a reader a little wiser.

I was given this book for my birthday and could not put it down. It is the story of Annie and Will, two lovers who each leave a marriage in order to be together, and then suffer the repercussions of that decision. Fischer never takes the easy way out -- she looks at difficult and complex emotional situations with unflinching honesty. As well as being an engrossing read, this novel helped me understand why people sometimes leave a marriage even when it has been a loving one. A wonderful debut by a talented new novelist. I hope we'll see more from her.

I love Maribeth Fischer's writing. I had pulled The Language of Good-bye from a library shelf, having heard nothing about the author or book, and was immediately drawn to the language, the characters, the story. The writing is just so honest and the situations created, compelling. After buying a copy, I found myself rereading it, talking about it, lending it out....It's wonderful to stumble upon a writer who so much deserves to be published.

I really enjoyed reading this book. It kept my interest very well, and the constand plot changes made the book very exciting. You never knew what was going to happen next. The irony in the book was very unlikely, however, Fischer was able to make it seem beliveable. I also enjoyed the way that Fischer put such emotion into the story. You could almsot feel how the characters were feeling. For example, after one of the characters, Sungae, an English as a second language student, was told to come up with one sentence that described her life, it showed how depressed she was. She came to America to escape her past, and now it was brought back into memory. I think Fischer described this so well, because she used to teach an English as a second language class. Overall, I was glad I picked up this book and decided to read it. Not only did it entice me with the amount of drama it had, it really showed how powerful love is. That is something that could be appreciated by everyone.

Maribeth Fischer's The Language of Good-bye is a gorgeous, fine-point analysis of love and marriage. She breaks down and bears down on the minute details of the lives of her characters, and uses the metaphor of language in ways I'd never imagined. This is a very compelling novel by a very gifted writer.

Oddly enough I picked up this book while on vacation in California. From reading the flap, I had no clue that the story took place in (pretty much) my backyard of Richmond, VA. What a pleasant surprise! Going through a divorce myself, the character of Annie and her disallusionment of marriage really hit me - hard. I found myself underlining sentences in the story, so that I could find them again easily, to re-read over and over. These thoughts, and feelings that I had been feeling for months...were on paper in front of me. The author had found a way to put them in words for me.

The international students storylines were an added bonus. It was wonderful for her to touch base on some of their beliefs and customs. I know this is the kiss of death...but I would love to see this adapted for the screen.

In addition, Fischer seems to have a way of pulling in awesome references with music: Sarah Mac, a line from a Ben Folds Five song, etc. The wonderful point to this journey....what is your telling line? What sentence...would tell the story of your life up til now?

The kind of accident-scene voyeurism that draws people to a car wreck will draw some people to this book on the shelf, but if they are looking for tabloid sensationalism, they won't find it here. Maribeth Fischer's intelligent exploration of the complexities of marital commitment and fidelity transcends not only what you might find on the racks at the checkout stand, but even the therapeutic guidance of a psychologist. The reader learns early that the affair in this story is a bilateral morass of pain for the four principal spouses, decent people all, who because of their own frailties find themselves enmeshed in the agonies of love lost and love gained. More importantly, Fisher explores the slippery slope of infidelity by weaving in the powerful evolution of language from cognition to action. Annie and Will depersonalize their spouses by their choice of words; in conversation Kayla and Carter later become "she" and "he". All of us, presidents and paupers, remain vulnerable to the vagaries of infidelity whether in thought or deed and Maribeth Fischer masterfully tells us why in this story.

This book presents a compelling and passionate struggle between "duty" and "love." Before Fischer's book, I had failed to understand the depth of inter-personal and intra-personal relationships of the two. It is a book that will provide every reader a reflection into their most personal feelings on both "duty" and "love." READ IT!!