Eine Geschichte, in jede/r wiederfinden kann, der schon einmal eine Trennung durchlebt hat. Egal in welchem Alter, es geht immer um die gleichen Fragen, um die Suche nach Antworten und die gleichen Gefühle und deren Verarbeitung in der Zeit nach der Trennung.
Balsam auf die Seele von Verlassenen, sehen sie doch, dass sie nicht alleine sind und andere Menschen Dasselbe durchleben.
Insgesamt ein gut und nicht zu anstrengend zu lesendes Buch, dass sich zwischendrin ab und an einmal als etwas langatmig erweist. Im Großen und Ganzen aber nette Literatur für Zwischendurch. ( )

BLACK OLIVES By Martha Tod Dudman takes place over the course of one day, but spans ten years. Virginia tells the story of her failed relationship with David, her much older boyfriend. This man, throughout the duration of their relationship, wanted nothing more than to meld their lives in marriage. David is sure of what he wants. Virginia, many years his junior, is sure of what she doesn’t want. David loves Virginia and wants a wife. Virginia loves the idea of a boyfriend, but not the reality of David, and so conspires to keep him in the background of her daily life.
Virginia’s attention focuses on the colors of things, the blackness and whiteness of things, the texture of things, gets so caught up in the minutia of her life that she cannot see the trees. Her fragmented sentences echo her fragmented thoughts. She is a flagrant “what-iffer”, daring to imagine all sorts of events that might occur, often paying scant attention to what actually is going on. Are the events she is describing really happening? Is it a fight of ideas that is confined only to her mind? There are the parallel stories being told, the actual events in the present, with the story of their relationship being told in the background of current events...and it's all very...confusing.
She is in love with the idea of David. Getting a boyfriend is just another thing to do, something to be checked off on her list, like taking out the garbage. Did it; done; on to the next item. The ambivalence about all of the major people in her life is evident. She revels in the physical aspects of her relationship with David; it is the dailiness of it she can do without. “I want someone in my life, but not necessarily in my home,” Virginia tells us. She kept David in the background of her life for the ten years that they were together, and then, after the break up, she finds out what it’s like to be in the background of his. She literally takes the backseat while he is living his life, his new life, without her. The tension builds as the story unfolds. Is her sanity unraveling with the telling of her story? Is she a ghost? On page 156 Virginia’s tone changes with the abrupt introduction of a starkly profane word that has up to this point been absent from her dialog. Might she hurt herself? Might she hurt him? I read the entire book and I still don’t know! If I knew then what I know now…I would have skipped this one. ( )

Mesmerizing read, simple plot: A 50-ish woman hides out in her ex-lover-of-10-years' car after a chance run-in 10 months after the breakup, she relives their relationship while the ex keeps driving along unaware. The details about the different phases of a relationship: The perfect honeymoon period, beginning of discontent, and the disillusionment before the breakup all ring true. The ex was experiencing depression, so the protagonist's efforts to revive the relationship seemed doomed in its cheerfulness. The ending was surprising but also inevitable. ( )

A 50-something woman, obsessed with her former lover, hides in his car nine months after he broke up with her. She rides to and explores his house, reliving their not very satisfactory relationship along the way. It was well-written and held my interest - fortunately it was quite short), though it was hard to understand what she saw in this old depressed man. ( )