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We've Come Undone
Paperback
Publisher: Readers Cafe Press
Published: Sep 20 2022
Pages: 426
Weight: 1.37
Height: 0.95 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
We've Come Undone is the story of two contemporary marriages from idealistic, yet misguided beginnings. Each couple mistakenly believe their happily ever after will come without really knowing the person they've married. Over time, their wounds come to define them-a marine, chronically ill from pills he took in the Persian Gulf War to protect him from Sarin gas, a ballet dancer whose ambitions are crushed by a single encounter, a woman desperate to have a baby, a man whose wife barely tolerates him and doesn't love their child. Long simmering tensions ultimately explode and an accident throws everything they thought they knew and wanted into free fall. At its heart, this story is about the choices we make, how they shape our lives, and how our innate resilience allows us to reclaim the lost part of ourselves.
A young, naïve WILLOW imagines domestic bliss with DENNY. She yearns for a stable home life with a large family after her nomadic childhood growing up in communes. Denny wants to be the right man for her but can't contain his impulse for risk and flight and joins the Marines without consulting her. When he returns from the Persian Gulf War, the drug he took to protect him against the threat of chemical warfare has consequences that threaten to derail their future.
JILLIAN is consumed with ambition to become a ballet soloist in a major ballet company. A floundering BLAKE, bereft by the death of his sister, is attracted to her certainty and resolve and fully commits to her dream. When the ballet life is abruptly shattered, she immediately and intentionally gets pregnant. Her disappointment in herself and what life has become festers and she turns on Blake and their daughter. While she may be ashamed of her failure as a dancer, Blake feels the true rupture comes from her inability to love their daughter.
Retreating emotionally from their marriages, Blake and Willow fall in love. On her way home to tell Denny she is leaving him, Willow is in a car accident that threatens to upend everything.
LILY, an international reporter had a breakdown while covering a bombing and is on a leave of absence. Until this point, she lived her job and could not commit to her long-distance boyfriend, STEPHEN. We learn her backstory through blogs, emails and letters. Now, everything is on the line. Sleepwalking through a temporary job at a local TV station, she hears Willow's crash and her reporter instincts finally kick back in. She embroils herself in the drama of these two marriages in crisis while trying to come to terms with her own life.
Although Willow is seriously hurt, ultimately she will fully recover. Denny understands on some level that he's lost her, but has not accepted it. Through the drama Lily witnesses, the mistakes she makes, and what she learns about Persian Gulf War vets, she finds a path to balance her life. Jillian begins her difficult journey back to finding a life that she can own and crafts a new relationship with her daughter. Willow is facing a long recuperation. Blake comes every evening. They savor their time and look forward to a future they will shape together.
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