Anger Novels

I just received a novel that will be released from a friend who wanted me to read it. I was flattered as she is a good writer and she normally writes short stories. She wrote it a few years ago when she was angry with her then husband. She thought I would understand. I divorced mine over 25 years ago and he recently released some pent up anger at me during my absence on my house last year.

Susan said she wrote the novel instead of short stories because she knew her anger was way too big for a mere short story. I asked her if that was the reason she wrote in the first place. She said she did not give it a thought until a mutual friend, Ted, told her that he started to write so he could kill his abusers on paper instead of in person. One cannot go to prison for killing people in a story as in real life. She loved the idea and started the novel with the idea of writing it for her own amusement, but it went into a novel and her agent loved it when she showed it to her.

So, I took some time out of what I was doing to my house and read it and to be honest I could not put it down. It is called "Time out Time" and it is about a mild mannered wife who supports her husband through law school and during the time when he tries to pass the law exams and until he finds a job "worth his talents". Then as soon as he finds the ideal job, he moves out. All this took 15 years. Then on top of that, a neighbor tells her that during the time he was supposed to be studying for his law exams, he was screwing every housewife in the neighborhood who would have him. This was a mirror of what really did happen.

Unlike Ted, she did not want to kill Matt. She wanted to get even. Since, she did not have to support Matt anymore she found an attorney who was able to get her some money but not much. She sold her house which she bought with money she got from her mother's estate although her then husband tried to get anyhow. She had a good attorney and he prevented that since it was premarital money. Her mother died before they were married and she bought it. She quit her job and sold the house for a nice price and for this current time was a miracle. She sold her short stories and the last collection did very well.

She kept returning to the novel and how she got even with her ex-husband. First, she found out the dream job he was able to get was based on the romance he had going with the daughter of the main partner. In the novel she messed up that romance by subtle tricks that showed him involved with other women except it worked even better when it turned out to be true. She dumped him and the law firm edged him out. He found another job that paid him a lot less but several girl friend found themselves pregnant as someone put pin holes in all of the condoms that he kept in his dresser. It was very foolish of him to leave his key under the doormat as he usually did. Susan did not think that would be believable since most woman would take birth control but the editor kept it.It illustrated who the ex-husband's character was and the type of women he was involved with. In a few months he would be having to pay birth control. It was so easy to do since Susan was so trusting during their marriage. He did not think other woman would be so angry.

A surprising thing happened during the writing of the novel. Susan found that her main character was getting over her ex and getting on with her life. She dropped the vengeance game and started to get on with her life. What made the book really real for me was that she did not find romance and find happiness again but she came to grips with the whole fairy tale story itself. She began to examine what it mean to have a life of one's own. She became acquainted with herself and found out what she really wanted in her life. She started to look back on the dreams she gave up so her husband could have his. With the money in the bank, she did what her mother wanted her to do in the first place and that was to enter medical school.

The book was about what goes through a woman's life when she starts to do what she really wants to do and what other people thinks of her when she does. It was a remarkable read. She had become a nurse so that she could work long hours to support her husband. Now, she was free to get on with her life and she was astonished that she wasted so much time on revenge. She was glad he left.

Of course, Susan did not go to medical school; but she started to do the things she wanted to do before she was married. She also never wrote novels because the turn around for money was too long. She is at work on her next novel. Now, she does what she wants to do. She does not think it will be an anger novel though; but I would not want to see her angry again or do I? The novel she wrote far surpasses anything she had written before.