Those We Love Most

July 2, 2012
Woodruff’s first novel (after the essay collection, Perfectly Imperfect) traces the repercussions—both destructive and redemptive—of a parent’s worst fear: the death of a child. Maura Corrigan’s ostensibly perfect life is shattered when her nine-year-old son James, riding his bicycle, is hit by a car in front of Maura while she responds to a text. Guilt, anger, depression, and pain sweep over Maura; her husband, Pete; and her parents, Margaret and Roger, as Alex, the teen behind the fatal wheel, seeks desperately to make amends. As the family struggles to cope, James’s death highlights the myriad problems in Maura and Pete’s marriage, as well as in Margaret and Roger’s relationship. Pete’s drinking intensifies, Maura careens toward an affair, and Roger’s long-term infidelity comes to a sudden end. Woodruff occasionally falls into the trap of too much telling and not enough showing (e.g., “a sense of giddiness lent her a visual hyperawareness”), and the emotional effect of James’s death on the Corrigans’ other two children could withstand further illumination. Nevertheless, Woodruff’s deft navigation of emotionally troubled territory makes this a riveting and heartfelt read. Agent: Richard Pine, Inkwell Management.

September 1, 2012
A year in the life of a family that suffers a tragic loss. Margaret is gardening, while ruefully reflecting on the knowledge that her husband, commercial real estate exec Roger, has been having an affair. Indeed, at that moment, Roger is in Florida, in his mistress Julia's arms. Margaret and Roger's daughter, Maura, is walking her three children to school when she receives an intriguing text to which she must respond. In that instant, everything changes: Her oldest son, James, his bike zigzagging in and out of school traffic, is hit by a teenage driver, Alex. James lingers for a week and then dies. Roger, whose ardor for Julia has cooled as he faces retirement and old age, must now spend more time at home as Margaret assumes their devastated daughter's parenting and household duties. Maura's husband, Pete, who never outgrew his college drinking habits, is struggling to accept his son's death, but the crisis also brings home the increasing distance between him and Maura. As she gradually fights her way back from despair, Maura must cope with the guilt of knowing that at that crucial second she was distracted, taking her eye off James, she was texting another man. Exacerbating her anguish, Alex has been holding a silent nightly vigil outside her house. Told from Margaret's, Maura's and Roger's vantage points, an accretion of daily details depicts how a typical upper-middle-class family in the Chicago suburbs copes with a major trauma. Woodruff does not explore the edgier areas her subject matter suggests. For the most part, the main characters resist their baser impulses, and the novel is somewhat duller as a result. Earnest and life-affirming, but a bit too tame.

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July 1, 2012

In her debut novel, Woodruff (coauthor with her husband, ABC news anchor Bob Woodroff, of In an Instant) sheds light on the imperfections and vulnerabilities of shattered, stunned family members following a tragic loss. Adoring mother to three robust children, Maura Corrigan watches her life crumble in the aftermath of an accident involving her oldest son. The novel unfolds with several different viewpoints, but the author focuses on the undone Maura, who struggles to find joy and meaning in what remains of her life. VERDICT Maura's haunting Chagall-like dream is a wonderful touch, as is commentary on seasonal gifts of nature; surely some of this heartfelt, honest novel stems from the author's own real-life journey with her husband, who was severely injured while reporting on the war in Iraq. Overall, this is solid contemporary fiction, sure to please readers who enjoy Sue Monk Kidd and Anna Quindlen.--Andrea Tarr, Corona P.L., CA

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 15, 2012
Woodruff, who is married to Bob Woodruff, the newsman who suffered a traumatic brain injury while covering the war in Iraq, brings her own experience in dealing with sudden tragedy to bear in her first novel (after Perfectly Imperfect, 2009, a collection of essays). Maura Corrigan's settled suburban life changes in an instant when her eldest son, nine-year-old James, is hit by a car. Reeling from a welter of emotions, including guilt that she was texting instead of keeping an eye on her son, Maura feels too overwhelmed to try to deal with the distance in her marriage as her husband copes with the tragedy by spending evenings at the local watering hole with his college chums. Meanwhile, her parents must confront the rift in their own marriage when evidence of her father's years-long affair comes to light. Woodruff is surprisingly subtle in her nuanced portraits of the complexity of marriage, the far from well-intentioned people who seem to thrive on tragedy, and the great struggle to find meaning in life. Candid and heartfelt, this is sure to please fans of women's fiction.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)