Desperate Acts

I took longer than I would have liked to read this book, but it really hit home. I too was in an abusive relationship for 26 years. I tried like Nan to make the best of everything. She went through so much and I could relate to almost everything she went through. Most people will ask why did you stay? Well Nan and I know how difficult it is to get out and away. She made me cry, and she made me cheer. Every Woman and Man should read this, and really try to understand what happens in these situations. I too now live in the Southwest and have found a wonderful life here, and a wonderful Husband. No one should go through what Nan went through. I hope Jane never stops her writing. She really knows how to keep the reader interested.Thank you JaneKaren

The title of this review is based on the reaction to the reading this book by Hollywood Agent (Selleck/Elliott) Bettye McCartt.Psychological battering is very real and so much a fact of life for the victims that they think it is simply something they have to bear, like whipped dogs, as this book makes graphically clear. This form of abuse is subtle and insidious, but nonetheless equally as painful as beatings, perhaps more destructive of the soul. As this book emphasizes, the first step needed for a woman to escape to a normal life is to recognize that she is abused. (Of course women are not the sole victims of psychological battering – or abuse, as it’s more commonly called – men are sometimes abused as well, both physically and mentally, but not as often as women.)This book is a primer, based on real-life experience by a prize-winning author who recounts a parallel to her own story in the novelized form for which she is well known. This is fiction, but based on solid first-hand knowledge.The first "desperate act," is the suicide attempt of Nan’s teen-age son, Jamie, who has become desperate enough to do anything to escape the constant abuse of his father. This awakens Nan to her responsibility to save someone beside herself – the next generation. Only then does she fully comprehend that the primarily abused people have perhaps greater responsibilities to help their children escape and gain a hope for a normal existence. Yet, even with this incentive, she is paralyzed with fear of her husband, Jake.She is driven to her own desperate act, the pivotal point of the book, after she is subjected to an outrageous cruelty when she is almost too ill to move. Still fearful, Nan braves up to the huge first step, which is to get a lawyer and discover her options. Writer Coleman makes clear how important this first step is, since most abusive husbands have convinced their wives that they can’t live without their support – can do nothing on their own, have no rights.Even after she files for divorce and flies to a distant hideout, Nan is still afraid. She wonders if she can support herself and her son. She meets a man she is attracted to who appears to be everything she wishes Jake had been, but wonders if she can ever trust love again? Jake told Nan, who was actually a stunningly talented writer, that her writing was trash and she could support herself as nothing better than a paper grader in some backwater school if she left him. She had her doubts, but never quite believed him despite his hold over her. However, his almost complete hypnotism of her is something she must overcome, and although she realizes it, and sometimes almost overcomes it, it recurs and she constantly has to fight the fear that he is right, or that he will follow her, make her come "home."Bonuses in this story are the parallel experience of Nan's lifelong girl friend with an unfaithful husband, which she valiantly concealed for sixteen years and the experience of Nan’s black maid and s

I purchased this book on a Sunday, but didn't have time to begin reading it until the following Friday. I began to read and couldn't put it down - I finished it in one sitting! It's a powerful,emotional novel with everything-friends,support, hurt, hate, husbands, wives, children,and lovers! The author also has a definite love and knowledge of nature, the southwest, and animals -educating us on these elements while taking us with her through the story! It's a book every woman should read and so should men! Thank you, Jane!

I simply loved this book. I started to read it one day last week, at about 4pm. At 7 or 7:30pm (that same day!) I had finished it. Just a great read.!!And even though the story seems familiar: unhappy wife, rotten husband, confused child, it is not familiar at all. The wife really, genuinely suffers as she makes a decision that will alter their lives. This is not a pretty story, but it certainly it a riveting one.!!!!!!!

I simply loved this book. I started to read it one day last week, at about 4pm. At 7 or 7:30pm (that same day!) I had finished it. Just a great read.!!And even though the story seems familiar: unhappy wife, rotten husband, confused child, it is not familiar at all. The wife really, genuinely suffers as she makes a decision that will alter their lives. This is not a pretty story, but it certainly is a riveting one.!!!!!!!