Black and Blue (Oprah's Book Club)
by Anna Quindlen
List Price:
Our Price: $4.15
You Save: $10.85 (72%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $1.34 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Anna QuindlenEdition: Paperback
Published: 2000-02-08
ISBN: 0385333137
Number of pages: 288
Publisher: Delta
Book Reviews of Black and Blue (Oprah's Book Club)
Book Review: Boring, long winded and pathetically predictable
Summary: 1 Stars
The title of my review sums it up. Quindlen went all over the map, describing people, emotions and scenarios that were empty. I skipped dozens of pages of yawn-infused diatribe to get to something...anything...that would be interesting. The ending was so predictable it was laughable and an insult to her readers. Not her best effort.
Summary of Black and Blue (Oprah's Book Club)
Oprah Book Club? Selection, April 1998: "The first time my husband hit me I was nineteen years old," begins Fran Benedetto, the broken heroine of Anna Quindlen's Black and Blue. With one sweeping sentence, the door to an abused and tortured world is swung wide open and the psyche of a crushed and tattered self-image exposed. "Frannie, Frannie, Fran"--as Bobby Benedetto liked to call her before smashing her into kitchen appliances--was a young, energetic nursing student when she met her husband-to-be at a local Brooklyn bar. She was instantly captivated by his dark, brooding looks and magnetic personality, but her fascination soon solidified into a marital prison sentence of incessant abuse and the destruction of her own identity. After an especially horrific beating and rape, Fran realizes that the next attack could be the last. Fearing her son would be left alone with Bobby, she escapes one morning with her child. Fran's salvation comes in the form of Patty Bancroft and Co., a relocation agency for abused women that touts better service than the witness protection program. Armed only with a phone number, a few hundred dollars, and the help of several anonymous volunteers, Fran begins a new life. The agency relocates her to Florida, where she becomes Beth Crenshaw, a recently divorced home-care assistant from Delaware. Fran and her son adapt, meeting challenges with unexpected resilience and resolve until their past returns to haunt them. Quindlen renders the intricacies of spousal abuse with eerie accuracy, taking the reader deep within the realm of dysfunctional human ties. However, her vivid descriptions of abuse, emotional disintegration, and acute loneliness at times numb the reader with their realism.With daring and compassion, Anna Quindlen weaves a forceful, harrowing portrait of a woman and a marriage, capturing the profound intricacies of love and rage, passion and violence. At once heartbreaking and utterly riveting, BLACK AND BLUE is an extraordinary work of fiction and a brilliant achievement.
For eighteen years, Fran Benedetto kept her secret, hid her bruises, and stayed with Bobby because she wanted her son to have a father and because, in spite of everything, she loved him. Then one night, when she saw the look on her ten-year-old son's face, Fran finally made a choice--and ran for both their lives.
With the repackaging of BLACK AND BLUE and One True Thing, Anna Quindlen takes her place alongside Dell's Alice McDermott and Rosellen Brown bringing their beloved, acclaimed contemporary classics to a whole new audience of trade paperback readers in Delta editions.
Contemporary Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Audiobooks on Cassette
- Audiobooks on CD
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- e-Books
- Engineering
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Medicine
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Enjoy it
Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sexby Mary Roach
W. W. Norton; Published: 2008-04-07; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $13.99
Price in other shops:
When You Are Engulfed in Flamesby David Sedaris
Little, Brown and Company; Published: 2008-06-03; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $11.20
Price in other shops:
Nine Inch Nails - The SlipRelease date: 2008-07-22; Music CD
Best price: $13.49
Price in other shops:
![Nine Inch Nails Live - Beside You in Time [Blu-ray] Image](/images/Nine-Inch-Nails-Live-Beside-You-in-Time-Blu-ray-B000MM1GJK-X.jpg)
Nine Inch Nails Live - Beside You in Time [Blu-ray]Release date: 2007-02-27; DVD
Best price: $15.96
Price in other shops:
Coldplay - Viva La VidaRelease date: 2008-06-17; Music CD
Best price: $7.09
Price in other shops:
The Biggest Winner - How to Win by Losing: The Complete Body Workout (5-Disc DVD Set: Shape Up - Front, Shape Up - Back, Cardio Kickbox, Maximize - Full Frontal, Maximize - Back in Action)WELLSPRING/GENIUS; Release date: 2005-12-22; DVD
Best price: $21.20
Price in other shops:
The Last Lectureby Randy Pausch, Jeffrey Zaslow
Hyperion; Published: 2008-04-08; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $8.73
Price in other shops:
Jillian Michaels - 30 Day ShredLION'S GATE ENTERTAINMENT; Release date: 2008-03-18; DVD
Best price: $7.88
Price in other shops:
![Spaced - Complete 2nd Series [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Great Britain ] Image](/images/Spaced-Complete-2nd-Series-NON-USA-FORMAT-PAL-Reg-2-Import-Great-Britain-B000N1H1B2-X.jpg)
Spaced - Complete 2nd Series [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Great Britain ]DVD
Best price: $25.99
Spaced: The Complete SeriesRelease date: 2008-07-22; DVD
Best price: $38.99
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
Ellen Fosterby Kaye Gibbons
Vintage; Published: 1990-05-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.50
Price in other shops:
One True Thing: A Novelby Anna Quindlen
Random House Trade Paperbacks; Published: 2006-08-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.39
Price in other shops:
Here on Earthby Alice Hoffman, Alice Hoffman
Berkley Trade; Published: 1998-03-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.57
Price in other shops:
The Deep End of the Ocean (Oprah's Book Club)by Jacquelyn Mitchard
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 1999-10-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.96
Price in other shops:
While I Was Goneby SUE MILLER
Published: 1999-01-31; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $8.00
Price in other shops:
Cane Riverby Lalita Tademy
Warner Books; Published: 2001-06-20; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $4.68
Price in other shops:
I Know This Much Is True: A Novel (P.S.)by Wally Lamb
Harper Perennial; Published: 2008-04-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.56
Price in other shops:
A Virtuous Woman (Oprah's Book Club)by Kaye Gibbons
Vintage; Published: 1997-11-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.69
Price in other shops:
She's Come Undone (Oprah's Book Club)by Wally Lamb
Pocket; Published: 1998-06-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.22
Price in other shops:
Drowning Ruth: A Novel (Oprah's Book Club)by Christina Schwarz
Ballantine Books; Published: 2001-07-31; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.96
Price in other shops: