Customer Reviews

When You Go Away (Nal Accent Novels)

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A third and truly captivating novel by Ms. Inclan. Peri Mackenzie is a wife and mother of three children who is suffering from a mental breakdown and depression. Peri is totally dumbfounded and awestruck when her husband leaves the marriage. Peri has great difficulty dealing with the breakup as she believed their committment in marriage to each other was solid and unshakeable. Her husband is living in Arizona with his new mate and leaves Peri and her children without financial aid. Peri appears to emotionally struggle and is caught up in an ever increasing depression. Desperate, angry, hurt and confused she gets in her car and drives away from home leaving her children behind. Peri drives to Arizona in search of the husband who abandoned her. Peri unfortunately, doesn't think about HER abandonment of her own children by driving away. Once gone, Carly the eldest child is forced to take over running the household. Carly's younger sister Brooke is handicapped and Carly struggles to do her best for her sister in the absence of her mother. Changing, washing and feeding her sister each day is tough for this young teenager. Brooke becomes ill with a high fever and Carly is uncertain who to turn to. She calls their maternal grandfather Carl, whom they haven't seen or been in contact with for quite some time. Carl immediately steps up to the plate and takes in his abandoned three grandchildren. Carl begins a search for his depressed and missing daughter, while tending to the needs of his grandchildren. Once Peri has been found and spends time in a hospital, she must come to terms with the fact that she abandoned her children and must now live without them until she can prove to the courts, her father, her children and most of all herself, that she is well enough to take care of them again and deserving enough to have a second chance!
Ms. Inclan's portrayal of vulnerability and mental illness in these people's lives is written with compassion and sensitivity. Also, that having a child with a handicap, whether it be physcial or mental, requires a twenty-four hour, 365 day committment. We are all subject to vulnerability and down times in our lives and Ms. Inclan's ability to communicate these subjects to the reader is done with grace.
I have read Ms. Inclan's other two novels: 'Her Daugher's Eyes' and 'The Matter of Grace' and would highly recommend all three to your readers.

I thought this book was excellent! I was intrigued to buy it just by the first chapter that someone put on the website to be viewed by people. This book is about a girl named Carly, who's mom has left because she can't deal with taking care of her children now that her husband has left her. Carly has a 5-year-old syster with Muscular Distrophy and Cerebral Palsy, who is completely dependent on other people to care for her. She is fed through a tube in her stomache because she cannot digest food properly. Carly has learned from her mom how to feed and care for her sister, but after a few days the supplies needed are running out and the little girl is showing signs of an infection. Carly is forced to contact a neighbor for help. Carly also has a brother who is a few years older than her. He doesn't know how to take care of their little sister and doesn't help, but when he finds out that the little girl is sick, he wants to help and is scared along with Carly about her health. There is much that happens in this story. The children's grandfather on their moms side decides to check up on his daughter and finds out that she has left and wants to help his grandchildren. The children's grandma on their dads side also wants to help and the two grandparents have to struggle with their dislike for each other and bond together to help care for the children. I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a good book about families and sticking together.

I am a huge fan of Ms Inclan and have read most of her work. She does not fail me here with When You Go Away. It is a touching and revealing look into a woman's temporary break down. As the pressure mounts choices are presented, when you cave to the pressure and have to escape, there are consequences to be paid. Ms. Inclan creates a world where the reader completely understands and empathized with the wrong choices this woman makes and the irreversible situation that is created because of her actions. I highly recommend this book for everyone who has ever felt overwhelmed.
Justice Rules - 2010 Finalist Pacific Northwest Writers Association Literary Contest (A Brian Wylie Novel)

What if...

what if...you had a happy marriage, two healthy kids and a third on the way. You lived in an upper middle class Oakland outskirt utopia and had a wealthy mother in law that doted on your kids, even though she was a pain in the a-- sometimes. She was worth tolerating.

what if...you still had boiling unresolved feelings of your father leaving your beloved, wholesome, adored mother for a life of random affairs and self-centered actualization.

what if... your mother dies at an early age, you are still a young mother longing for her love and support , holding fast to an anger to father for leaving all of you..

what if....your third child is born with cerebral palsy, and other disorders that literally consume all your attention, a great deal of the family dynamics and the husband's longing for the life before the birth of this child. The price of the child is too high, the husband can not fulfill himself in this selfless village, and he takes flight. A divorce occurs, and unbelieveably, he remarries and deserts not only his family but all financial responsibility...

what if .....this was happening to you?

How angry, depressed, hopeless and alone could you possibly feel when the real estate lady places a "sold" sign in front of the only home your children have known, and the only source of income you now have is a question mark. Because, he has left you and taken everything. Your life, your hopes, your dreams. And left you with his children (HOW COULD HE DO THAT!) unsupported, one virtually on life and death from day to day.

Oh, but he did. And, say your freaked out one day...took the keys in a moment of dispair and drove away. That very act was worse than all the horrible things your husband has done to you and his own children. It will be you that must pay the price for a mental breakdown that should have weighed heavily on the back of a man too weak to take it.

This is a novel that will wake you with a new attitude. Read it.

Stunned because she thought they had a solid family relationship, Peri Mackenzie walks in a sad fog following the total desertion by her spouse. The housewife and mother of three finds more than just the emotional rug ripped from underneath her, as her husband left the foursome with no financial floor either.

Months later with the depression even deeper, Peri drives away from her three children. Teenager Carly takes over running the household though she pretty much had done so unofficially for the past few months. However, when her handicapped sister Brooke becomes feverish, Carly turns to their neighbor for help. That neighbor locates their estranged grandfather Carl, who takes in his three grandchildren who he sees as a chance for redemption. When Peri regains her equilibrium and realizes what she did, she races home, but now must re-earn the respect of her children.

Although well written and providing insight into what bonds a family unit, WHEN YOU GO AWAY avoids being a tearjerker but the reader feels no empathy towards Peri. The story line intrigues fans of character studies as it clinically dissects what can happen to individuals and a family when a major shattering event occurs but the key quintet, though fully developed, never grips the audience. Jessica Barksdale Inclan provides a perceptive tale, but the audience will wonder why the tissue box remained closed?

Harriet Klausner

I had posted a review on this book but for some reason it never got listed...
Anyway, I just want to say I absolutely love this author. She writes exactly the type of books I want to read. I love all that I have read so far by her and look foward to reading more.
This was a very touching story and I won't give anything away. All I can say is that this is a definte must read. Enjoy!

WHEN YOU GO AWAY by Jessica Barksdale Inclan

A few months ago I read the uncorrected proofs of WHEN YOU GO AWAY by Jessica Barksdale Inclan. The book is about a mother who is suffering from depression and mental illness, and because she does not know how to deal with her problems, she runs away, leaving her two teenaged children and a younger physically challenged child alone to fend for themselves.

With Peri gone, the eldest daughter, Carly, takes over as she usually does when her mother can't seem to deal with their problems. The biggest issue is with the youngest member of the family. Brooke suffers from Cerebral Palsy, and cannot breath without a machine, is on tons of medications to help keep her alive, is allergic to so many foods, but despite all these problems she is a happy child when she is with those she loves. She cannot function at all alone - she cannot talk or walk or even move on her own. Carly or Peri need to regularly move Brooke from side to side to ensure she does not develop bedsores. Brooke also cannot speak clearly, but she speaks well enough so that the family understands her needs and wants.

Carly knows that Brooke will die if they cannot find their mother. So Carly, with the help of her brother Ryan, seeks advice and help from one of their neighbors, Mrs. Candelero, who also happens to be a nurse. Rosie does what she can, and then calls an ambulance. Brooke is in pretty bad shape by this time, and it does not bode well for Peri if she ever returns to California.

In the mean time, Peri is on her way to Arizona to seek out her ex-husband who has not acknowledged the children since their divorce. She receives no money from him, not even to help support their three children. Peri and her children are living in poverty because of this, and due to a falling out she had with her father, she does not let him know where they are when they are forced to leave their home and into an apartment. Thanks to Mrs. Candelero, Peri's father Carl is located, and he is soon on his way to save the family. Or is he too late?

I'm going to give a marginal thumbs-up for WHEN YOU GO AWAY. I loved the premise of the story, with a very fast paced plot line akin to something out of today's headlines. However, what I didn't enjoy about the book was some of Inclan's characterizations. The children Ryan and Carly came out as rather stiff one-dimensional imitations of modern day children. None of the dialogue rang true to me, and it made the book that much less enjoyable. I also found that the book was rather uneven, as if in some parts someone else was writing the book for her. I don't know if this was because this was an uncorrected proof or not, but if it weren't for these irritating problems with characters and structure, I think I would have given this book a better rating.

Devastated by the collapse of her marriage and the ordeals incurred by having a handicapped daughter, Peri takes off, abandoning not only that child, but her two teen aged children. When the youngest becomes ill, the older children are forced to turn to their maternal grandfather for help. Eventually, Peri is found. Forced to get herself together before she can be trusted to be a mother again, Peri and her entire family must confront generations of demons to reknit their brokenness.

** Tragic as the entire situation is, there is an emotional distance and lack of sympathetic characterization that results in a wholy depressing, despondant read. If you just need to read something to prove that there are people worse off than you in your bleaker moments, this might be reassuring. **