The Life You Longed For: A Novel [Hardcover]

Maribeth Fischer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 6, 2007

Grace's son, Jack, is a miracle. At three years old, he is fighting a mysterious and deadly disease that doctors predicted would kill him as a baby. Everyone around the family credits Grace's blind dedication with helping Jack survive. But perhaps not everyone. Grace's world is upended when she discovers that she's under investigation for Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy, a psychological disorder whereby a mother makes her otherwise healthy child sick in order to gain approval and attention for herself. Soon Grace is in a constant state of suspicion - of every doctor, nurse, friend, acquaintance...and even her husband. And the private secrets she has kept finally come to light. The Life You Longed For is gripping, suspenseful, and the definition of a page-turner - readers will want to skip to the end to figure out if the accusations are true. By mixing this controversial topic with endearing characters and a delicately layered plot, Maribeth Fischer has established herself as a voice to be reckoned with among today's finest women writers.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In Fischer's wrenching second novel, Grace Connolly's youngest son, three-year-old Jack, is terminally ill following a baffling, heartbreaking diagnosis of mitochondrial disease. At times, Grace, a full-time mother of three with a background in epidemiology, feels that everyone else around her (Jack's medical specialists; husband Stephen) has given up hope. Desperate to reclaim her "normal" life, Grace reignites a romance with her first love. Her predictable affair with the almost painfully idealized Noah McIntyre becomes one factor in accusations that Grace has fabricated Jack's disease to gain attention—allegations that result in his removal from her custody just when he is most ill. Fischer (The Language of Goodbye) has an uphill battle to gain readers' sympathy for an adulterous mother, and for the most part she succeeds. The weight of the disease, science and history trivia that peppers Fischer's prose seems ponderous at first, but matches the heaviness of Grace's grief. While allegations of Munchausen by Proxy (a real disorder where mothers sicken children to get attention) form the sensationalist backbone of the novel and Fischer's characterizations tend toward the schematic, agonizing truths about losing a child while still longing for "a life beyond the one you were living" come through clearly. The ending's reliance on 9/11, however, feels forced at best. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Fischer's uneven second novel (following TheLanguage of Goodbye, 2000) centers on young mother Grace Connolly, whose three-year-old son, Jack, has been diagnosed with mitochondrial disease. Because the fatal disease produces an array of misleading symptoms, Jack can, at times, appear perfectly healthy. Grace, who has a medical background, struggles to keep herself from falling into total despair. When she is charged with Munchausen syndrome by proxy, a psychological disorder in which women induce illness in their children in a bid for attention, Jack is removed from his home just as he is in the final stages of his illness. As the investigation uncovers Grace's flaws--she is carrying on an affair with an old high-school love; she has been a fierce and sometimes overly aggressive advocate for her child--she starts to feel like her every move is being scrutinized. Aside from a few serious missteps--Grace's unrealistically portrayed lover, for one--Fischer, like Anita Shreve, has a real knack for crafting a suspenseful plot while exploring deeper familial issues, such as intimacy and grief. Joanne Wilkinson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Touchstone; 1St Edition edition (March 6, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743293282
• ISBN-13: 978-0743293280
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,131,414 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Must read for parents, April 12, 2007

By 

Robert (Oconomowoc, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Life You Longed For: A Novel (Hardcover)

Reviewed by Carol Janc - The best experience in life is to bear a child, know a child, love a child. Perfect innocence. Unless that child carries the dark secret of an incurable disease. Then life is terrifyingly shattered; a family knows the experience of being keel hauled despite overwhelming devotion and love. That is the family MARIBETH FISCHER casts a spotlight on in THE LIFE YOU LONGED FOR. Based on medical facts, and a painfully believable family, this book is so close to the bone, so true, so enlightening about the lives of those involved with the serious and deadly illnesses of children. It is a must read for moms and dads, as well as medical professionals. THE LIFE YOU LONGED FOR will touch your heart and your head, hopefully forever.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Between a rock and a hard place: mothering a sick child, April 14, 2007

By 

Wave Millar "cmlong" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Life You Longed For: A Novel (Hardcover)

In "The Life You Longed For," Maribeth Fischer exquisitely captures the fierceness born out of necessity of mothering a sick child that everyone but the mother has given up on. By it's very nature, mitrochondrial disease is elusive in diagnosis, perplexing in symptoms and frustrating to doctors who cannot seem to stop it's inexorable progress. The Connolly's finally have a diagnosis for their three year old son, Jack but one that carries very few clear answers. Do nothing or do everything to help him? Those questions inhabit every character in one way or another in this story that seeks to make sense of the senseless -children that no one, not doctors, not God, not even love may end up saving.
Grace Connolly, despite the odds, is determined to save her son.

Her every word and action become subject to painful scrutiny causing a cascade of unfathomable events that make this book impossible to put down. Grace's loss of control, her guilt as a wife and mother converge in a perfect storm of heartbreaking grief. The relentless bureaucracy that unfolds is both terrifying and torturous adding more pain and suffering than any one family should have to endure. Grace Connolly is a woman swallowed whole by motherhood until she is barely recognizable to even herself. Ms. Fischer realistically details the nuances of how people perceive themselves, each other and circumstance; how and where they find comfort and solace and their final day of reckoning. If you've ever struggled with forgiving or being forgiven, "The Life You Longed For" will resonate in perfect pitch.

Ms.Fischer's ability to weave historical and scientific fact, particularly of the Salem Witch trials lends a unique perspective to the terror of mothering sick children in any era. The centuries old insistance of blaming the mother first is haunting long after you finish reading. Don't miss this book- a terrific starting point for discussions on motherhood, children who die, grief and forgiveness.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Life You Longed For: A Novel, April 11, 2007

By 

Thomas E. Hoyer Jr. - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Life You Longed For: A Novel (Hardcover)

The reviewers who have called this book an "exploration" are right on target. I was a little disappointed to see the number of jacket blurbs from authors who are women because I thought it may have suggested that this is a woman's book, and it is no more necessarily a woman's book than Job is necessarily a man's book. Both books feature a central character whose life is animated by unconditional love and devotion; in both cases the character ends up in trouble for that very reason; and, in both cases much of the book is consumed in an effort to discover what it all means.

There is a kind of diabolical cleverness in the plot, in which the mother of a terminally ill child, a woman who is struggling to keep the child alive in a world that sees his death as a foregone conclusion is suddenly accused of Munchausen's Syndrome by Proxy (MSBP), that is, of making the child sicker as a means of getting attention. The accusation forces her to question everything: her own motivations, her relationships, and her perception of reality. MSBP is the perfect tool to pry the truth of things out of the plot because the observable symptoms of it are all the same observable traits of a devoted and caring mother. The facts don't much matter when the conclusion is known. One could carry the comparison with Job too far but his friends did spend most of the book spinning out potential reasons for his plight: all of them wrong.

Ms. Fischer's writing is especially effective because it is full of highly detailed images and metaphors so the reader is submerged in a concrete world where everything can be visualized and felt. Just as is the case with MSBP, the details are very important but they are not enough. Just what is enough - well, you'll need to read the book to find that out.

There's enough meat in this book to keep a book club busy. The fundamental questions about love and personal motivations and the presence of evil in the world will keep resonating long after the book is closed.