Ellen, he thought, and the name seemed to him to hold everything he might possibly want to say to her....He looked at her lying on her side of the bed, looked too at the space she had left beside her. That was his side, because he was her husband. And she was his wife."
Griffin is a happy man. Settled comfortably in a Chicago suburb, he adores his eight-year-old daughter, Zoe, and his wife, Ellen -- shy, bookish Ellen, who is as dependable as she is dependent on him for his stability and his talent for gently controlling the world they inhabit. But when he wakes one morning to hear of his wife's love affair with another man and her request for a divorce, Griffin's view of life is irrevocably altered. Overnight he goes from being Ellen's husband to being her roommate, from a lover to a man denied passion and companionship. Now he must either move on or fight for his marriage, forgive his wife or condemn her for her betrayal, deny or face up to his part in the sudden undoing of his seemingly perfect life.
From the New York Times bestselling author of Open House and True to Form comes a brilliant novel that charts the days and nights of a family whose normalcy has been shattered. With startling clarity and a trademark blend of humor and poignancy, Say When follows a man on an emotional journey to redefine his notions about love and happiness and asks questions relevant to any contemporary couple: when is a relationship worth saving and when is it better to let it go? Might a man and a woman define betrayal differently? How honest are we with those to whom we are ostensibly closest?
Searingly honest, Say When is an engaging and memorable story that takes readers into the heart of a modern marriage, where intimacy and love, denial and pain, so often collide.
I loved this book!!! It was very well written, and I would recommend it highly. It showed the intricacies of a marriage on the rocks, and the power of undying love. Loved it.
This book was very sad for me. You just want to pull the husband by the hand and tell him to move on and that he is better off without his cheating wife, but in the same breath you want them to work everything out. I found myself mad at the wife and identifying with her at the same time. I thought the emotion of the book was very real.
What happens when the marriage you thought was so solid and strong suddenly falls apart? When you move from husband and wife to roommates? Say When asks questions relevant to any contemporary couple: when is a relationship worth saving and when is it better to let it go? How do men and women define betrayal? How honest are we with those to whom we are the closest?