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    Black and Blue
    Black and Blue
    Black and Blue
    Audiobook9 hours

    Black and Blue

    Written by Anna Quindlen

    Narrated by Ruth Ann Phimister

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Writing with the depth and insight that have become her signature, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Anna Quindlen explores a passionate marriage that turns into a nightmare. This Oprah's Book Club selection, destined to become as successful a best-seller as One True Thing, secures her reputation as a significant author of fiction. When 19-year-old Fran married Bobby Benedetto, she never dreamed that she would find herself in an abusive relationship. Every time her New York City policeman husband hit her, she would think of convincing reasons to stay. Now, with her 10-year-old son in tow, she is running for her life. Living in Florida under an assumed name, she is bravely shaping a new life and dares to believe that, finally, she has escaped from her painful past. Black and Blue is a wise and powerful novel whose protagonists could be the people next door. Ruth Ann Phimister's narrative talent beautifully underscores a suspenseful and very important exploration of the complexity of personal relationships.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateMay 9, 2008
    ISBN9781436135825
    Black and Blue
    Author

    Anna Quindlen

    Anna Marie Quindlen is an author, journalist, and opinion columnist. Her New York Times column, Public and Private, won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 1992.

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    Reviews for Black and Blue

    3.5/5

    1,045 ratings31 reviews

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    • 4/5
      It was a nice story. Easy listening for a busy mom.
    • 4/5
      Black and Blue by Anna Quindlen; (4*)This wonderful book hit way too close to home for me. Wives or girl friends who are battered may relate very well to the character, Beth, in this book. She is very typical of the abused significant other. I, too, thought that if I was just better or if I didn't make him mad he wouldn't hurt me any more. The problem was I was unable to figure out how I could be better or what I had done to make him mad. This 'novel' is a sad commentary on personal relationships and how we don't take care of ourselves very well. In this 'story' it is difficult to see a cop, a person who should uphold the law, abusing it. Not that it doesn't happen. It happens in every class, profession of people. There is not one exempt from it. It is a well-known fact that men and even women who have high stress jobs are more likely to become batterers and abuse alcohol or drugs. The really sad thing is how the the kids get hurt so badly & it effects their entire lives and their relationships. Often in domestic violence there are no winners, only losers. It is the woman who loses most often and the children are horribly affected by this. Quindlen is an easy author to read. Her descriptions of people and places is excellent. I found that reading this 'novel' triggered feelings and emotions in me that I thought had long died. After all it has been 44 years since I found the courage to get out. But apparently even after 6 years of counseling, those emotions are still there, buried deep. So if you are a person who has suffered at the hand of an abuser, read with caution,.............this wonderful book.
    • 4/5
      This story followed a woman as she left her abusive husband, bringing her son along as they started a secret new life. There were vivid flashbacks, but also a lot of current action. It had a good narrative structure, but overall felt very stream-of-consciousness, which worked perfectly. As the woman adjusted to her new life, you were living day-to-day right along with her. When she was struck by fear of her husband finding her, you were jolted into that emotion as well. It was very powerful, very realistic, and very suspenseful. The prose was beautiful in many parts, but never too flowery. The characters were realistic and likable, and I find myself thinking about them even after finishing the book.
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed it immensely. It broke my heart in the end though.
    • 4/5
      Early anger warning signs ignored, escalation of outbursts, sorrowful apologies given, excuses made, and then it happen again. A story that needs to be told.
    • 2/5
      I couldn't say I "liked" this book as, in spite of being captivating and extremely well-written, it was painful to read...but insightful into the lives of an abused family. Would not read again and would only recommend to those wanting to understand the dynamics of someone like Fran.
    • 3/5
      Black and Blue. Anna Quindlen. 1998. A book that will stay with you longer than you want it to. Fran Benedetto is a battered wife and mother, The novel opens as she is leaving her husband and going into hiding. The story is told in flashbacks as she and her son settle in a nondescript town in Florida under assumed names. My friend who told me about the book said her friend who recommended the book said it was the most realistic picture of an abusive marriage she’d ever read. Suspense builds slowly, but you just know the SOB is going to find her. Hard to read but well-written.
    • 4/5
      It's the the story of Frances (Fran) Benedetto. On the surface a successful nurse with a handsome policeman husband and adorable son. All seems well and the marriage seems perfect but there are dark threads woven throughout and they are about to become unraveled. Fran is the victim of physical abuse from her husband Bobby. Bobby's job as a policeman is to protect...but who is going to protect Fran? Because Bobby is liked and respected by his peers...Fran fears that she'll lose her son so she puts her off reporting and hides her injuries. Bobby eventually went beyond the hidden bruises and breaks her nose, Finally Fran decides that enough is enough, and contacts a mysterious woman who runs an 'underground' service for battered wives. The woman gets Fran and her son relocated but her problems and her fears never completely go away. Running from New York to Florida she fights to stay one step ahead of the husband who's hunting her...perhaps with murder in mind this time. A well written story about a horrible subject that is too often on the other side of fiction.
    • 2/5
      I hated One True Thing, but a friend highly recommended this. I didn't like it either. It's about a battered wife who escapes her husband with her son. I find her writing kind of trivial, with too much telling and not enough showing through scenes.
    • 5/5
      In this very sad story, one woman tells of her flight from a life of domestic abuse as the wife of a New York city policeman. She and her ten-year-old son are assisted to begin a new life under new identities in Florida. Constantly she is reminded that hers must be a life of new secrets because her husband is looking for her.Quindlen's writing in Black and Blue is exquisite. The words just flow into images and feelings. While reading this book, the reader is actually taken into the body of Beth Crenshaw, formerly Fran Benedetto, feeling her pain
    • 4/5
      In dem Buch wird die Geschichte einer Frau erzählt, die mit ihrem Sohn vor ihrem brutalen Ehemann flieht udn sich an einem anderen Ort ein neues Leben aufbaut.Ich finde die Personen sehr glaubwürdig. Die Hauptfigur wird in ihrer Zerrissenheit zwischen einstiger Liebe und Demütigung sehr plausibel dargestellt, genau wie der Sohn, der beide Elternteile liebt.Auch die Nebenfiguren sind ausgezeichnet.Ich blieb am Schluss mit zwei Hauptgedanken zurück: Die Hauptfigur kann auf ein ausgezeichnetes Unterstützernetz zurückgreifen, gibt es so etwas wirklich? Wie wäre das heute, wo jeder auch digital zu finden ist? Wie wäre das in Deutschland?Und natürlich die Frage, ob jemand in meinem Umfeld betroffen ist.
    • 3/5
      Book on CD narrated by Kimberly Schraf.With the help of an advocate group, Frances Benedeto leaves her abusive husband, Bobby (a New York city detective), and takes her son to a new state with new names and new backstories. It’s not much different from entering the Witness Protection Service, in that she has to cut all ties with her family and friends in order to avoid being found out. Now she’s Beth Crenshaw, living in a small apartment, walking to work as a home healthcare aide, and trying her best to explain to her son why they have to do what they are doing to stay safe. Okay, there’s a nugget of a good story here, and I started out completely engaged in the story. But as the book moved along I found that I couldn’t really believe in Fran/Beth. I get that women who are repeatedly abused and controlled by animals like Bobby lose what self-confidence they started with pretty quickly. That they become full of self-doubt and take on the blame for what has happened. That they become immobilized by fear and the certainty that they are all alone and no one will believe and/or help them. That they lose the ability to trust. But Beth keeps saying she’s never going back and then doing things that will clearly make it easier for Bobby to find her. And when, after her new identity is compromised, she’s offered additional help and another relocation, she refuses … more than once. I was just so frustrated by her behavior. While I was interested enough in the book to keep reading/listening, I don’t think I’ll remember it for long. On the positive side … Quindlen gives the reader a reasonably suspenseful story arc. She also gives us a new group of friends that will obviously help Beth and her son, Robert, move forward in a new life. And she resists the impulse to give us a happy ending. These kinds of cases rarely end happily, and Beth will face these issues for years to come. I applaud Quindlen for shedding some light on the issue.Kimberly Schraf does a fine job of narrating the audiobook. She sets a good pace and gives the many characters sufficiently unique voices to help differentiate them. Her rendition of Bobby is oily and just gives me the shivers.
    • 4/5
      Some reviewers felt this book was predictable and boring in parts. While it's true that I was certain throughout that the abusive husband would return to seek vengance against his wife for her escape, I found myself, like the heroine, looking around corners and suspicious of everyone. Fran, the heroine, frankly tries to discover how she became caught up in such a long-term abusive relationship, and tries against strong odds to provide a normal childhood for already emotionally damaged son. While the romantic angle was a little pat, the rest of the relationships seemed authentic and I enjoyed watching Fran's growth and search for independence and power over her own life.
    • 4/5
      Although I fear the subject matter has been tackled many times before, this is a well written, non judgemental novel about domestic abuse, recovery and its impact on children.
    • 3/5
      My wife and I listened to this on a trip to Texas and while it held our interest was just not as good as some others out there.

      Fran Benedetto is a battered wife. She’s an RN whose abusive husband is a cop, and she has seen to what little effect orders of protection have. In fact, three women she had seen in the emergency room after being battered by their husbands of boyfriends were later killed by them despite the supposed legal remedy. So when Bobby, her husband, really smashes her about the face, she enlists the support of Patty Bancroft, the organizer and founder of an agency that relocates women and creates new identities for them so they can escape from their abusive partners.

      Her torment lies in the fact that she still loves her husband and his passion. He had a brooding and magnetic personality and loved their son Robert, but his drinking and rages had become more and more violent. She escapes with Robert, a child of about twelve and settles in with a new identity in Florida. She constantly worries that her husband will seek her out and kill her. She knows he has the resources and connections to find her if he wants to. Despite her new name, new job, and new location, everything she does is tempered by the realization that Bobby could show up at any time to take away Robert and beat her again.

      Quindlan renders the horrors of spousal abuse so realistically one has to wonder if she herself had perhaps been a battered spouse. There is a strong tension throughout the novel for the reader who wonders just when everything will fall apart and why. It remains a tragedy that society has yet to find a better way to deal with the terrible plight of women who find themselves in such a tragic situation.

    • 5/5
      I think it’s amazing when you meet characters in a book and they become so real that it becomes difficult to think they are just characters. They tell a story, so real, that you feel sympathy, worry, ache. I can only think of a few books that have left me with that feeling after putting the book down and this one was one of them.Fran is one of the bravest characters I've ever "met". This book certainly tackles mature, sad and sensitive topics, but I thought it was done with an amazing amount of insight and experience. Though reading Quindlen's note at the end, that wasn't the case. I understood the end, it wasn't the perfect fairytale ending we all wish for in life, but it was real.
    • 4/5
      Fran has been the victim of domestic abuse for years. She’s built a life around the lies she tells her family and friends when a new bruise appears. Her husband, a New York cop, intimidates and threatens her into feeling helpless. Finally, she’s had enough and decides to take her young son and leave. With a new identity and very little else, she starts a new life in Florida. But even a new home and friends doesn’t help her shake the constant feeling of fear she’s grown to live with. Every new stranger talking to her son is suspicious and each wrong number leaves her shaking. I don’t know why, but I always seem to lump this author into the same group as Jodi Picoult, Anne Tyler and Anita Shreve. I don’t read much from any of those authors, so I tend to confuse them. I think I enjoy Quindlen more than the rest, but I’ve only read a few things by her.This book made me feel so grateful for the men in my life. My husband, father, brother, etc. are all wonderful men and I have never ever had to live with the fear of being hit. I think it’s easy for people who have never been abused, like me, to wonder why the women stay or go back to the men. This book helped give me a better understanding of their point-of-view and how hopeless those situations can feel. Quindlen did a great job portraying this without painting Fran as only a victim. I won’t give anything away about the ending, except to say it really surprised me. I was expecting something much more predictable and instead I think it was much more realistic.
    • 5/5
      Fran Benedetto, is a nurse who lives in New York City and although she seems to be happily married to her husband Bobby she is a victim of domestic abuse. Fran realizes that the only way to survive is to go underground and assume a new identity with her son Robert. However, since her husband is a police officer she always feels like he'll turn up one day to kill her and take her son away.You can feel every emotion that Fran feels through Anna Quindlen's excellent descriptions in this book. I would highly recommend this book to anyone, especially when trying to understand how domestic abuse affects those within the situation.
    • 5/5
      Very grabbing, can't put down book
    • 5/5
      Anna Quindlen's Black and Blue follows in Lolita's footsteps as a great work of psychological fiction. Psychological, because the author sketches in such a realistic fashion the profile of the abuser that I'm tempted to say her novel should be available in every domestic violence shelter under the category of "nonfiction." And yet, one can't forget that Black and Blue is above all a work of fiction, masterfully crafted. Its beginning echoes the first lines of Lolita, in fact, the novel which it resembles in style even more than in content.The message of Black and Blue is similar to that of nonfiction books on dangerous men, which attempt to educate the public and empower the victims. Abusers are often charming. Abusers don't usually begin intimate relationships with overt abuse. Abusers can be entrancing and romantic, at least at first, during the wooing phase. Abuse doesn't get better; it escalates. Abusers push the limits of their victims' tolerance, little by little, until they dominate their targets. Abuse is above all a power game. The abusers are generally narcissistic individuals who lack empathy and want total control. The victims, however, aren't necessarily weak or passive. They can be strong and loving men and women, like Frannie Benedetto. Abuse is a tragedy without a silver lining.It's one thing to read this familiar message in self-help books and pamphlets and quite another to feel it in a great work of fiction. From the very first lines, Black and Blue gets under your skin. It reveals the mindset of both abuser and abused. It traces the emotional scars of the child or children who have to endure these sad family dynamics. "My son scarcely ever cries. And his smile comes so seldom that it's like bright sunshine on winter snow, blinding and strange." (26). Such beautiful language for such ugly facts... Perhaps this is the best way to bring the abuse to life for others. Above all, Black and Blue puts you in the shoes of all those who have the courage to run away from it without ever looking back.
    • 2/5
      Interesting story about a battered woman who leaves her husband (who is a cop) in hopes that her son will not become the same type of man her husband was. Very interesting look at the mind of someone who is manipulated like that, a little graphic sometimes so I wouldn't recommend to just anyone, but a good story to understand how many women feel like they have no choice and no way to escape.
    • 2/5
      Good topic, bad execution.
    • 4/5
      Black and Blue was horrifing because it is a situation many women face day to day. The story of domestic abuse and broken families was powerful and heartbreaking. You can feel Fran's, the main character, desperation and struggle. The weight of the situation becomes real to those who have never been near to experiencing it.
    • 2/5
      For December 07's book discussion at work, we had to read a Jodi Piccoult readalike. I am not a fan, and this book didn't do a lot for me. The pace was really slow and the protagonist spent too much time in her head for my liking. The "surprise" ending wasn't much of a surprise and I found it disappointing.
    • 4/5
      Recommend- excellent character development of the main character- Frannie Benedetto- who escapes to Florida with her only son and becomes Beth Crenshaw. Her recovery- in fits and starts- seems realistic. You feel her fears and her pain. Fortunately, I have no personal knowledge of this problem, but now I'll have more insight into it.
    • 5/5
      "...Black and Blue has to be [Quindlen] at her finest. This was a book I was not able to put down at all. The characters are very realistic and you get a true understanding of all the emotions that they are feeling.Fran Benedetto, a nurse who lives in NYC and seems to be happily married to her husband Bobby but she is a victim of Domestic Violence. The book deals more with Fran trying to escape her situation by going underground and assuming a new identity with her son Robert but its extremely hard to run away from a police officer. I was able to feel the suspense on every page wondering if or when her husband would catch up to her.Anna Quindlen does an excellent job describing each and every emotion that Fran must have been feeling and this book gave me a new understanding of Spousal Abuse."
    • 3/5
      Not too bad.
    • 1/5
      ehh. just really depressing and i guess intriguing but not terribly riveting; i don't feel like there was much really intense plot advancement.wouldn't read again.
    • 4/5
      tough story about people caught up in the cycle of domestic abuse
    • 5/5
      I didn't know anything about this book when I picked it up, but it's a very compelling story and has an incredible ending. Story leaves you on the edge of your seat. Well written and she describes things in such a way that you know exactly how the protagonist is feeling.