Fiction Tuesday -Ann Bauer

 In the tradition of women's fiction as in Anne Tyler, Alice Sebold and Elizabeth Berg comes the author Ann Bauer. As a writer she deals with domestic life, relationships with husbands and wives and of course stories about mothers and their children. She is a fascinating storyteller.

In 2006 she brought us A WILD RIDE UP THE CUPBOARD. This is the story of Edward's descent into autism, and Rachel and Jack's struggle to sustain their marriage under this unanticipated strain. Threaded through the novel, too, is the tale of Rachel's late uncle Mickey, who may have suffered from a similar disorder during a time when society's notions of parenting, pediatrics, and psychology were dramatically different from today's. As Rachel delves into her own family history in search of answers, flashbacks to Mickey's life afford moving insights into both the nature of childhood trauma and the coping mechanisms that families employ. Carefully crafted and deeply entertaining, A Wild Ride Up the Cupboards reveals the author's remarkable gift for language and offers a striking exploration of domestic life that will resonate with readers everywhere.

Ann Bauer is an essayist, journalist, and fiction writer whose work has appeared in The Atlantic Monthly and Salon.com, among other publications. Currently a visiting professor at Macalester College.

"I’m a writer. It’s all I do—all I’ve ever done—because it’s the only thing I’m good at. People assume I’m making a joke when I say that. I’m not. I don’t knit, decorate, garden, draw, run marathons or ski. I have no sense of direction. I can’t even hem my own pants; and I’m 5-foot-3, so they always need hemming. I write because it’s how I think." Bauer says about being a writer.

"Despite my “nonfiction” training, I published a novel, A Wild Ride Up the Cupboards, with Scribner in 2005. Then I hacked away at a bad book for the next several years. I did at least five wholesale revisions before my agent (bless him) told me to give it up. It just didn’t work. I put that manuscript away and about a week later, I started writing The Forever Marriage, my actual second novel. It was done in nine months." Bauer says about her second novel.

THE FOREVER MARRIAGE : Storyteller Ann Bauer brings to life the tale of one faithless widow. Carmen wishes Jobe, the husband she never loved, dead --only to fall in love with him after he is gone. As she helps her three children grieve, she discovers, after a tryst with her most recent lover, that her own life may be in danger. Her emotions reeling, Carmen reflects on the fateful days of her youth that made her the person she has become: privileged suburban wife, unfaithful widow, mother of a child with Down syndrome, fierce friend. The Forever Marriage is at its heart a mystery, and the mystery is what, exactly, the nature of Carmen and Jobe's marriage might have been. Page-turning and irreverent, The Forever Marriage is a compelling examination of a relationship and of a woman facing up to her imperfect past.

"With quiet power, Bauer explores the isolation, betrayal, duty, and, finally, compassion that constitute an unhappy marriage . . . With lovely prose and fine pacing, Bauer (A Wild Ride Up the Cupboards) offers a sensitive portrait of a flawed woman coming to terms with a lifetime of regrets."

(--Publishers Weekly, starred review )

 The Forever Marriage is on sale June 14th.


Ann Bauer
Ann Bauer's Blog