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An advice columnist for a Wisconsin newspaper, Julieanne Gillis dispenses wisdom to her readers, but somehow missed the signs that something was amiss in her own home. Devoted to being a good mother and keeping her twenty-year marriage fresh and exciting, she is shocked by her husband's surprise announcement that he needs a "sabbatical" from their life together—and devastated when he disappears, leaving Julie with no funds to raise two teenagers and a small daughter alone. But it is the discovery Julieanne suffers from a serious illness that truly crumbles her family's foundation—setting her children on a dangerous, quixotic journey to locate their missing father before it's too late.
Praise for The Breakdown Lane
"Rousing melodrama; fluid, often funny, dialogue; and the convincing portrayal of children involved in the collapse of a marriage add up to another page-turner from Mitchard." —Publishers Weekly
"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
"A compelling mix of suspense, humor, and abiding humanity." —Boston Globe
"A novel you will read once, then again and again." —Tulsa World
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
August 18, 2023 -
Formats
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Kindle Book
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9780061842092
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9780061842092
- File size: 1354 KB
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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January 31, 2005
No one could blame Julieanne Gillis, beleaguered heroine of this no-holds-barred family drama by Mitchard (The Deep End of the Ocean
, etc.) for not seeing the signs. At first her lawyer husband, Leo Steiner, seems to be in the throes of a midlife crisis, informing Julieanne that he is planning to take early retirement and go and live on a commune in upstate New York for six months. The next thing she knows, he's vanished, leaving her with three children and only her meager income from her advice column for the Sheboygan, Wis., local newspaper. To make matters worse, she's diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. The narration alternates between plucky Julieanne and her 15-year-old son, Gabe, a handsome Holden Caulfieldesque loner with a mild learning disability. When things get desperate, Gabe and his 14-year-old sister, Caroline, scan their dad's old e-mails and learn where he might be. Then, during spring break, lying like troopers, the two juveniles take off by bus to find their father. Surely, they think, he'll come home when he learns that their mother is sick. He comes, but the baggage he brings along means further disaster. Leo's behavior is almost campishly craven, but the novel's soap-operatic bathos is perversely satisfying. Rousing melodrama; fluid, often funny, dialogue; and the convincing portrayal of children involved in the collapse of a marriage add up to another page-turner from Mitchard. Agent, Jane Gelfman.
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