Realities

A year after her husband’s suicide, Jenny Weaver impulsively moves from a suburb in the Northeast to California. Her young children adjust to the move, but she does not. She has made only one friend, and she isn’t sure of how to handle the children’s problems. Matthew developed a stutter after his father’s suicide that seems to be getting worse, and Catherine is a perfectionist. In a moment of deep frustration and loneliness, she begins writing to her dead husband, Richard, establishing an intimate connection in which she tells him about her daily life—a bullying boss who harasses her at work, the difficulties of single parenting and, after some hesitation, a new romance. She also writes about the past, the forces that led to the destruction of their marriage and the life they had worked hard to build. When the past becomes threatening, she decides not to write to him anymore, but she finds it impossible to stop. The answer to their children’s question -- “How-and why-did-Daddy-die?”—is in the past, and she can’t hide from the truth forever. In this intensely personal narrative, Jenny finds courage and wisdom she didn’t know she possessed as she meets the challenges that confront her as a widow and a single mother.