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The Breakdown Lane
- Narrated by: Anna Fields
- Length: 12 hrs and 39 mins
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The Breakdown Lane
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Editor reviews
Anna Fields evokes an earthy, perceptive woman you'd enjoy having across the backyard fence. Fields has a knack for creating characters with vocal mannerisms and inflections that are authentic. This is especially true in Fields's performance of Julie, Mitchard's protagonist, an advice columnist for a Wisconsin paper who unexpectedly finds that no one is more in need of help than she. Her husband abruptly leaves her and their three children to go find himself (and a younger, more malleable mate) in a commune. Soon after, Julie learns she has multiple sclerosis. The blows keep coming, but even in Julie's many unheroic moments, Fields's humor and good nature maintain a sympathy she always merits.
Summary
Giving advice is what Julieanne does for a living; every Sunday she doles it out in a column in her local Wisconsin paper. But when it comes to her personal life, Julie herself seems to have missed some clues. Having worked creatively to keep her 20-year marriage to Leo fresh and exciting and to be a good mother, she is completely caught off guard when he tells her he needs to go on a "sabbatical" from their life together, leaving Julie and their three children behind. But it soon becomes clear that his leave of absence is meant to be permanent. Things take a turn for the worse when Julie is diagnosed with a serious illness and the children undertake a dangerous journey to find Leo...before it's too late. As the known world sinks precariously from view, the clan must navigate their way through the shoals of love, guilt, and betrayal. Together, with the help of Leo's parents and Julie's best friend, they work their way back to solid ground and a new definition of family.
No one illuminates modern love, marriage, and parenting better than Jacquelyn Mitchard. Written with her trademark poignancy, humor, and insight, The Breakdown Lane is her most moving, eloquent, and life-affirming work yet.
Critic reviews
"An astute observer of family dynamics, Mitchard renders her characters flawlessly, endowing them with a humanity that is both accessibly grounded and astonishingly deep." ( Booklist)