Author: Gayle Forman
ISBN: 9781471156786
RRP: $29.99
Gayle Forman is a well known author of Young Adult novels, and with Leave Me she has branched out and offers us her first adult novel. I thought I had a couple of her YA titles on my shelf but perhaps not.
Leave Me is a great introduction to her work and it is a completely relatable novel for anyone who has a partner and children, anyone trying to find a work/life balance.
Maribeth Klein is the mother of four year old twins, a wife and an editor at a women’s magazine working with her best friend. She is run off her feet at work and at home and with everything going on she manages to shrug off the symptoms of a heart attack, only discovering it when at a completely unrelated doctors appointment. This heart incident sets in motion a chain of events resulting in Maribeth running away from home.
I don’t have four year old twins and I haven’t had a heart attack but I can definitely relate to the desire to run away from home. There are certainly days where it all seems way too hard, days where it seems wife and mother are synonymous with cook and cleaner. If I feel like this perfectly healthy I can only imagine how strong that desire could get if you were recovering from major surgery and were still expected to do all of the household duties.
Maribeth withdraws a large amount of cash and walks away with a small suitcase, leaving behind her laptop, cell phone and a note. She heads to the station and gets on a train, all trying to ensure she doesn’t leave a trail.
I can’t imagine actually leaving my family, what a traumatic decision that must have been. It’s one thing to sometimes think how nice if would be to disappear from the responsibility but a totally different thing to actually plan and do it.
The story follows Maribeth, soon to be known as M.B. Goldman, as she starts fresh somewhere that she can start healing; her mind, her heart and her body. It seems living off the grid and under the radar is a little more difficult than Maribeth expected, in a world of paperwork and paper trails paying with cash is looked on with suspicion.
Maribeth has the time to sit back and take stock of her life, and face up to things she’s been hiding from herself.
Leave Me is a touching story of heartbreak and love that brings together an interesting range of different characters and relationship dynamics to explore the inner conflicts we all face and the different ways they can be approached to find the strength to move on.
There is a lot to be said for Leave Me and the way it addresses relationships of all types, and the way they evolve but also the maintenance they require so they don’t start being taken for granted.
We discover there is a lot more to Maribeth than we would have first thought, and issues even she wasn’t sure she had come to light throughout the story.
She has walked out on her husband and her children but throughout the story we realise that this book is as much about friendship as it is about her marriage and her health.
Maribeth was a character that I sympathised with at times, but also couldn’t understand some of her actions. She was certainly believable and relatable.
I think Leave Me will be a satisfying read for women of all ages.
Thanks to Simon & Schuster 25 of our Beauty and Lace Club members will be reading Leave Me so please be aware there may be spoilers in the comments below. I look forward to hearing what they think.
Leave Me is available now through Simon & Schuster, Angus & Robertson Bookworld, Booktopia and where all good books are sold.
Gayle Forman can be found on Facebook, Twitter and her Website.
I devour books, vampires and supernatural creatures are my genre of choice but over the past couple of years, I have broadened my horizons considerably. In a nutshell – I love to write! I love interacting with a diverse range of artists to bring you interviews. Perhaps we were perfect before – I LOVE WORDS!
I really enjoyed “Leave Me” – it was a very perceptive and accurate depiction of a woman experiencing a significant health crisis, and re-evaluating her life as a result.
Maribeth is typical of a lot of women in their mid-forties. She’s a mother to small and still very dependent children, working part time hours that still seem very long, with a husband who doesn’t do his share of the “family” work. The career she loves seems to have stagnated, and she’s losing or lost touch with many of her friends.
And then she has a heart attack.
Still, everyone seems to turn to her. She doesn’t want to be indispensable; she wants to be cared for while she recovers. That doesn’t seem to occur to anyone around her, who all expect her to carry on as before only a week or two after emergency open heart surgery. So Maribeth packs a bag and leaves, eventually finding herself a space to recover physically, emotionally, and look closely at her life and possible futures.
In many ways Maribeth and I are very similar. I too experienced an unexpected near death medical emergency which left me with long term issues, when the oldest of my children was the same age as Maribeth’s. So I can say with absolute certainty that Forman has absolutely nailed that sense of “can’t you just sort it out without me?” The desire to be able to abdicate your responsibilities just for a few days and be sick. To have someone else deal with the problems without turning to you. The despairing way you drag yourself out of bed because if you don’t do the shopping, no one will.
There is a scene in a supermarket, where Maribeth finds herself completely confounded by what she can eat. This too was deeply accurate; the confusion brought on by thinking you’d been doing things (like diet) right, and then it turns out maybe you weren’t – so how do you recalibrate? Forman has captured the sense of total upheaval, and having to look at everything you took for granted – even basic things – in a very different way.
Not everyone will have as complicated a past as Maribeth, and hopefully most people have more support around them. Very few will choose to copy her and run away. But what makes this novel so gloriously good is that the reasons she runs away, and the emotional conflict she experiences before and after her run, are so recognisable. Most women will have experienced at least a flash of her feelings. And anyone who’s experienced a life altering medical emergency will have experienced much of what she does.
I really loved this novel. Sure, that’s partly because I saw parts of myself reflected in this, parts which don’t often get canvassed in fiction. It was largely though because of the perceptiveness with which Forman depicted Maribeth’s feelings and experiences. She got so much of this right. Highly recommended.
Thanks to Beauty and Lace for letting me review Leave Me by Gayle Forman. It an easy, flowing story which I surprisingly read in a day. It tells the story of Maribeth – mum, wife and career woman – who suffers a heart attack without knowing what it is, then undergoing major surgery. While recuperating at home she feels undervalued, unappreciated, no one else is looking after her and she has to do it all. She writes a note, packs her bags, leaves behind her mobile and laptop, withdraws a large amount of cash and leaves her husband and 2 kids.
I really felt for Maribeth, here she is trying to run the household and be supermum while recovering from a heart attack, and her husband and mother (what a dreadful character she was written as) are doing nothing to help. I could feel the frustration, and when she left it was a mixture of surprise yet jubilation. Out of all the characters I think you get to know her the most and probably her husband as you get further into the book – the others (Sunny, Todd, Stephen, Janice) just seem like sub-characters who you get to know a snippet of their life but they had so much more to offer I thought. (Not wanting to give away plot details) but the character she was trying to find, which I thought where the story was leading up to meeting, didn’t get too much of a resolution. I guess Maribeth came to the realisation she is/was/always loved, but it sort of led up to this and went nowhere.
I liked Maribeth taking time out for herself, but there just wasn’t much else to the story. Don’t get me wrong, it kept me turning the page so it was an okay read, but the story didn’t really go anywhere, and some parts with certain characters I just felt were a little pointless in the end. I guess I liked the ending and the resolution with that particular issue, but everything else was wiped away from the moment she decided on where her mind/heart was at (very hard not to give away the plot/ending so that might sound bit vague!)
Overall, it was an alright book, but the story just wasn’t overly memorable.
Such a different story, and one perhaps along the lines that every woman has thought of doing at some stage – walking away from a house full of family members who take you for granted. Except that Maribeth actually carries it out.
After coming home from hospital following emergency surgery due to a heart attack, Meribeth’s husband, and her mother, still expect her to care for her 4 year old twins, and the household. Feeling totally unappreciated and craving some caring and attention, Meribeth withdraws a large amount of cash, packs a bag, and exits the family.
The story follows Meribeth’s difficulty setting up a new life in a different city without leaving a trail. She attempts this by paying cash for everything, and faces problems in doing so. We meet her new neighbours, and learn of Meribeth’s attempt to discover her past. As her body heals , she is still troubled by things she has not even admitted to herself.
I found the book easy to read, and wondered what path I would take if placed in the same situation.
It seems that very few understand the value of a Thank You, or a Let me Help, and the huge difference it can make to one’s everyday life. We all want to feel appreciated. But perhaps not many would follow Meribeth’s action and really leave.
Thank you Beauty & Lace, and also Simon & Schuster for the chance to read Gayle Forman’s first novel for adults. It was an interesting story, which I enjoyed.
What a great read! I thought that this book was about what a lot of people would do, if they actually had the guts to do it – take some time out for themselves. Like Maribeth and a lot of other people, I’m guilty of not looking after myself properly. I suffer from migraines and I know that often I just keep pushing and doing what I need to do, because if I don’t do it, who will? But in reality we do need to look after ourselves and everything else will work out in the end.
Sometimes I wish that I could just get away from everything and really take the time that I need and my body needs to recuperate properly and energise for the next chapter in my life, but I can’t. I guess what that means though is not that I can’t, but that I just won’t. It takes someone a lot stronger than me to put themselves ahead of all the other people and commitments in their lives. Maribeth was such a strong character. I couldn’t imagine not being in contact with my husband and children and I really felt for her tug-of-war of wanting to contact them, but wanting to be strong enough to do it.
I really enjoyed seeing her reconnect with her husband and I felt like the thing she was doing for her children would have been a great relationship builder with them, especially as they could look at them as they grew up. I would have loved to know whether she ever did get in contact with the person she was searching for and how all that went.
I’m finding it difficult to write about this book without giving too much away, but it’s enough for me to say that this is a wonderful, easy-to-read, feel-good book.
Thank you Beauty and Lace for another great book review >:o)
I can’t imaging the thinking going through someone’s head to actually be able to do that.
Thankyou Beauty and Lace for the opportunity to review ‘Leave Me’ by Gayle Forman.
I very much enjoyed this light and easy to read book. Maribeth (I once knew a lovey girl called Marybeth) or M.B. her later alias, a woman in her early 40’s and mother of twins suffers a heart attack with complications. Her life is hectic with a responsible editorial career and running around after her children. Her husband is of little help being totally engrossed in his own career. Everything just gets on top of her and she leaves with only a note to say that she’s gone. (No explanation of where). Getting a flat and without any technology and very little in the way of possessions she begins a new life, making friendships along the way but giving no hint of her former life. To me she was just trying to discover herself agin, and after the health scare just had to re-evaluate her life and it was almost a therapy.
Although not contacting her family for over a month, it was obvious that they were never far from her thoughts.
The humour in the book was great as well as a few touching moments.
I wondered that the cover was uninteresting but well on in the book I could appreciate that.
A thoroughly good read which I would totally recommend. I love Gayle Forman’s style of writing!
Received my copy on Friday and intend to start this tonight . So I best get organized so I can . Review to follow .
As always this authors work is well written. Her writing style is always smooth and flowing, her work heartwarming and touching with strong feelings and well illustrated within the pages.
It is slow paced and lacking action or really a lot of direction in the sense of the last part of the book was a tad of a struggle.
The main character really doesnt have a path to follow – just takes it as it comes so to speak. After a devasting heart attack decides to do what some may consider , takes action into her own hands and leaves. Confused and needing some time out she embarks on a road of recovery so to speak.
Its a definite thought provoking read. As a mother life can be difficult and we all handle life and situations certainly different.
I found Maribeth a complicated character, and could realate to her, but at the same time even when the going gets tough we all don’t all bale . The author wrote this knowing it may not give the character a strong reading follow but it worked.
The last third of the book, was scattered . a bit of this and that here and there , not as deep and meaningful as I would have liked, But raw in places ,and heartfelt for sure. I am sure some may understand.
The end fell a little short for me , but overall I did enjoy the story. It was fun, enjoyable and easy to read.
Not the best book by this author but certainly recommended to those who like a heartfelt read, with meaning behind the pages. Her writing as always is easily read .
3 1/2 stars out of 5 from me 😀
Thank you for selecting me to read this book, which I throughly enjoyed
I am not going to give too much of this story away as this a a book most people would enjoy reading and I don’t want to spoil for other readers
I will say Marineth the main character in the book is one gutsy lady who knows what she wants
Gayle Forman has written a great easy to read book
I would recommend this book to other readers
I thoroughly enjoyed “Leave Me,” the first book of Gayle Forman’s I’ve read and I thank Beauty and Lace and Simon and Schuster sincerely for this opportunity. The impact of the first sentence sets the tone and pace of the book for me – “Maribeth Klein was working late, waiting to sign off on the final page proofs of the December issue, when she had a heart attack.”
Maribeth doesn’t know she has had a heart attack but ends up in hospital the next day and subsequently needs emergency by-pass surgery. She’s extremely young to have something this serious. Once out of hospital Maribeth is more or less expected to get on with the things she does daily with little help or understanding from her husband. He contacts her mother, asking for her help, something that horrifies Maribeth and it is easy to see why. I could have cheerfully shaken her mother who didn’t seem to have any idea just how ill her daughter is. The last straw for me would have been when Maribeth went into the kitchen in the morning to find the dishes from the dinner the night before and breakfast dishes were in the sink unwashed.
I have no idea how anyone could walk out on young children but I can well see how Maribeth couldn’t face another issue of any kind when it seemed that no one was thinking about her welfare and she packed a few things, withdrew a large sum of money left to her by her father and left home.
The story is very easy to read, it flows well and the characters are well drawn. I wondered about the cover as it made little sense to me to begin with, but as the story progresses it is absolute genius. I loved the way the complexity of relationships in so many forms was explored. The book was one I enjoyed immensely, from start to finish.
This is Gayle Forman’s first adult novel, I certainly hope it won’t be her last. I’m definitely going to seek out her other books which are aimed at young adult readers but I imagine would appeal to any age. An understanding of complex relationships is so well shown in “Leave Me’ that I would not hesitate to recommend this book highly. It will definitely be passed on to special people.
Thank you for the offer to review Leave Me by Gayle Forman, I was certainly interested in reading it since it was her first adult novel.
The story revolves around Maribeth a married mother of four year old twins. She is busy in her editorial career when one day she has a heart attack and needs by-pass surgery. That in itself would make you think twice about your life and how you’re living it. It just shows that everything can change in a second.
After her operation when she comes home it seems like nothing has changed. Her husband is self absorbed in his own career and her mother doesn’t seem to understand what her daughter has been through. She is still expected to carry on like before her operation.
It all becomes too much for her and one day she leaves a note to say she is leaving but not where she is going. I won’t say more about the storyline so I don’t give too much away. I enjoyed this book it definetley made me think, I don’t know if I would have done the same especially leaving my children. However like they say until you’re in Someone else’s shoes you can’t judge.