Book Review: The Resurrection of Joan Ashby

The Resurrection of Joan Ashby

by: Cherise Wolas

Publication Date: August 29, 2017
Finished on: August 24, 2017
Publisher: Flatiron Books

I received a free advanced reader's copy via an Instagram giveaway from Flatiron Books in return for an honest review.  The synopsis and review expressed below are my own.  I highly recommend this book for lovers of Women's Fiction, especially those going through major life changes.

Synopsis:

"reading Ashby's work required fearlessness and readers ought to be ready."

At the age of twenty one, Joan Ashby publishes her first short story collection,  Other Small Spaces.  It is an instant, world-wide sensation.  Four years later, Joan Ashby publishers her second short story collection,  Fictional Family Life, and announces that she will begin work on her first full-length novel.  Joan has strong views on success and has no plans to start a serious relationship, get married, or have children.  It is after she has written her second collection that Joan Ashby falls in love and gets married to a successful surgeon.  The couple agrees not to have children, but Joan ends up pregnant soon after.  The Resurrection of Joan Ashby focuses on Joan's life while she struggles with her decision to have children and focus on being a mother over her professional career as a writer.   This novel spans decades of Joan's life, giving the reader the opportunity to get to know Joan at a very deep and personal level.

"Sometimes I worry, too, that what I have done will end up disappointing myself...Beware, because your life may move in ways you didn't expect, or want, suddenly hallmarked by the seemingly traditional.  In other words, beware of finding yourself living an unintended life."

My review:
I will admit that this story was initially hard for me to get immersed into.  I adored Joan and her thoughts on relationships and motherhood, but while reading, you are frequently interrupted from the primary storyline with excerpts from Joan's writing.  At first, this was distracting for me as a reader.  It probably took me over 100 pages to really feel settled into this story and these characters.  That being said, once I was in, I was hooked!

"She's a mother, just a mother, that's all she is."

This story spoke to me on so many levels.  I have recently been grappling with the dichotomy of my professional life and my family life.  As a reader who is going through somewhat similar personal issues to Joan, I appreciated her views and enjoyed seeing how her choices played out.  I personally find it difficult that so many people only speak out about the positive, glowing aspects of marriage and motherhood.  For a while, children were something that my partner and I decided wouldn't be possible with our goals and lifestyle.  It is something we have been grappling with more frequently as our lives and goals have changed.  I adored being immersed in Joan's mind while she also struggled with these concepts and the effects they had on her life.

"...there would be stories wrapped inside other stories, wrapped inside other stories, wrapped inside other stories, an archaeological dig that would reveal new treasures as one dove deeper and deeper.  I wondered what I would find at each level, what the beating center would look like." 

Cherise Wolas' writing in this novel was flawless.  Every page and every paragraph were beautiful.  I can't believe this was a debut work.  I can't even start to comprehend how long this must have taken Cherise to write.  Further, I adored the excerpts from the short story collections.  I honestly want to read Other Small Spaces and Fictional Family Life, along with the other novels Joan worked on during the course of this story.  I often found myself lost in the excerpt, forgetting about the main story.

"The first thing you need to figure out is exactly who you are, only then can you become who you want to be."

Ultimately, this is Joan's story and I loved Joan.  I can't say that I agree with every decision she made, but I understand why she made her decisions and how she dealt with the consequences.  I also really liked the supporting cast in this novel.  I think each reader will hate each character at some point, but I think that is why this book stuck with me so deeply after I was finished.  The story and the characters felt real; I could image my friends and loved ones as Daniel, Eric, and Martin.  These characters are well developed and dynamic.  They will give you pause to analyze the others in your life.

Verdict:
I rate The Resurrection of Joan Ashby as 5/5 stars.  The Resurrection of Joan Ashby was a flawlessly written expose on what it means to find yourself at various points throughout life.  Joan is a unique character, yet I think there are aspects of Joan in every woman.  I think women new to the process of becoming mothers will enjoy this read, but also women who are going through major changes in their professional and personal life.  For me, this was a perfectly timed novel about the sacrifices women make in marriage and in motherhood, while also remaining true to ourselves.

Additional Amazing Quotes from The Resurrection of Joan Ashby:

"I thought it was brave to to cease living a particular life, to slam the breaks on the known, to want something else in its place.  How strong his need must have been to so drastically change course."

"Who can say what is true or what is false, when all of life filters through the personal.  My own experience has taught me there is no golden ticket at birth; the richest life is stitched with thievery.  Take what you need from everyone.  Just do right by those stolen gifts.  Exhaust all to ashes.  If you are brave, you too may experience what I have experienced: a transformed life turned extraordinary, miraculous, and singular."

"I'm thinking I want a new life.  I've done this one, and even though I've done really well, I'm not sure it's good for me.  Don't most of us wish we could start over again?  People say they would beg, borrow, and steal to change their lives.  I just have the cash to do such a thing in my own way."

"Whoever you were as a child, she's your future."

"She needs clarifying golden words right now and wonders if they will fly down to her from the Himalayas, or perhaps one day float to her straight from the Dalai Lama's mouth, or if she will have to discover them for herself."

"And I am a consumptive reader, or should that be an all-consuming reader, or an uncontrollable reader, or a man whose reading is uncontrolled?"

"It is important to remember that the smallest gesture of kindness and generosity can have a huge effect, rippling the waters out from ourselves, allowing us to touch others in a wondrous way.  Those of us who stand in the sun must share the light with others."

"Is motherhood inescapably entwined in female life, a story every woman ends up telling, whether or not she sought or desired that bond; her nourishment, her caretaking, her love, needed by someone standing before her, hands held out, heart demanding succor, commanding her not to look away, but to dig deep, give of herself unstintingly, offer up everything she can?"