Unraveled: The True Story of a Woman Who Dared to Become a Different Kind of Mother

by Maria Housden

Hardcover, 2005

Status

Available

Call number

306.893

Tags

Collection

Publication

Harmony (2005), Edition: First Edition, Hardcover, 288 pages

Description

As a twelve-year-old girl, Maria Housden’s vision of a happy future included everything that society expects girls to yearn for: a home, a husband, and, of course, children. Life had other plans. Unraveled is Housden’s riveting and thoughtful story of how, after the death of her young daughter, she found the courage to break away from her role as a wife and stay-at-home mom and strike out on her own in search of a more fulfilling life. Leaving her three surviving children in the primary custody of her husband, Housden faced down the disbelief of friends and family and began a journey that would ultimately lead her not only to the truth about herself, but also to a deeper and more loving connection with her children. Housden writes about the emotional reckoning that led to her decision and the ways in which she has become the best mother she can be while no longer living with her children full-time. With fierce honesty and the same gift for poignantly beautiful writing that she demonstrated in the bestselling Hannah’s Gift, Housden makes a valuable contribution to our collective conversation about mothering, marriage, and the assumptions we make about the way life is supposed to be. Unraveled is the remarkable story of one woman’s choice not to live every girl’s dream . . . and instead to find her own.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member markfinl
the worst book I have ever read. It's a ridiculous story of a woman attempting to justify leaving her husband and children. Not only is the subject matter objectionable, it is written in the style of a high school expository writing assignment. The author never uses just one adjective when she can
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use three. Just an awful waste of time.
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LibraryThing member TimBazzett
Found this at a library sale for a quarter. Apparently Maria Housden's first book, HANNAH'S GIFT, about the death of her second child from cancer at not quite five years old, was an international bestseller, translated into a dozen or more languages. What we learn from this her second book,
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UNRAVELED (2004), is how her marriage gradually came apart in the aftermath of Hannah's death - not unusual, as the death of a child always puts terrible stress on a marriage. As it turns out, her marriage to Claude was already on rather shaky ground, as he was overly controlling and emotionally - and even physically - abusive, at least in the author's version. And there were three other young children still to consider. The author tells how hard she tried to maintain the image of a perfect family, and also how she wanted to tell Hannah's story, to write a book. Theh go to counseling. She suspects Claude is cheating on her. She arranges to leave the children with her sister and goes on a solitary "retreat" in a remote, rural area, where she hopes to begin writing. Instead she meets Roger, a fifty year-old writer from England (she is thirty-five), and rather quickly, it seems, falls in love - and into bed - with him. Upon returning home to New Jersey, she files for divorce and agrees to give Claude primary custody of the children. Gets her own lovely little place by the sea where the kids can visit. Later she moves to California to be with Roger, writes her HANNAH book and makes some very big bucks, finally marries Roger, moves back East, and, I guess, lives happily ever after - although she and Roger maintain separate residences in NY and NJ. And, oh yeah, since the divorce, her ex refuses to see her or speak to her, or allow her into the house where her kids still live with him. And we're meant to believe the kids are all just fine with this. In regard to this, the author tells us -

"There are many days when my heart still aches to be more with my kids, but I also know and trust that I am close to and still discovering my changes. And each morning as I sit on my terrace, sipping my coffee and gazing out at the ocean, I feel blessed to be reminded again that every river, no matter its twists and bends, always returns to the sea."

My, my. Isn't that pretty? I mean, Huh? I'm sorry, but I found this whole story to be completely self-serving, mawkish and overly romanticized in the manner of a Harlequin romance novel. I skim-read whole passages and pages. Not recommended, but probably worth what I paid for it.

- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER
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Language

Physical description

288 p.; 8 inches

ISBN

1400054168 / 9781400054169

Local notes

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