Accidents of Marriage by Randy Susan Meyers

Accidents of Marriage by Randy Susan Meyers
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was my first book by Randy Susan Meyers and it was excellent. It’s about Maddy, a social worker with a husband, children and career, and her husband, Ben, a public defender, who is controlling and, I think, verbally abusive. He punches things, but not his family, luckily. Maddy does not share her family drama and most people think they have the perfect marriage. The book is about the lies and secrets in this family. I think Maddy is in denial, even though her work deals with abusive relationships! The book goes back and forth between the two of them and their 14-year old daughter, Emma – told in the three different points of view of what is happening. Maddy takes pills to deal with her husband’s moods and Emma is starting to act out, as her way of coping.

One day Maddy and Ben are in the car together (he’s driving) and it’s raining and they get in an argument and, due to Ben’s road rage, they are involved in a horrible accident. Ben is injured but basically okay, but Maddy ends up in a coma with a brain injury. Ben is devastated and guilty and tries to change his ways and devotes his time and energy to Maddy. Meanwhile, his children (there are also two younger ones), especially Emma, are suffering, and Emma’s narrations are heart-wrenching over how she is affected by all that has happened and is happening.

This book is emotional, thought-provoking, sad, hopeful, real, contemporary, and so well-written. It would be a good book club discussion book. I was not expecting the ending, but it was perfect. This book will stay with me for a while, I am sure.