THIS IS NOT THE STORY YOU THINK IT IS . . . A Season of Unlikely Happiness

Instead of falling apart when her passive-aggressive husband announces he's leaving their fifteen-year marriage, Laura Munson, a frustrated writer, said to him, I don't buy it." Then she asked how she could give him the distance he needed for his "midlife" crisis without harming their children, ages 8 and 12. Joyce Bean delivers Munson's debut memoir, first published in a New York Times column on modern love. With dramatic energy she captures Munson's determination to achieve two goals: remain married and become a published writer. In a plainspoken yet compelling style Bean contrasts scenes of Munson's reasonableness and appearance of serenity with a simmering rage that from time to time unexpectedly explodes with f-bombs. Bean’s presentation of Munson's heartbreaking and laugh-out-loud vignettes makes the listener her confidante. G.D.W. © AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine [Published: AUGUST 2010]