Undoing I Do

By Anastasia Royal

Tobin hands me a letter. The words that shred me are: I am no longer in love with you.The world stops.Ten years ago, we stood before an altar and looked into each other's eyes. There was so much we didn't see... Undoing I Do is a poignant novel about the convergence of love and divorce. Claire McCloud, musician, artist, actress and eccentric free spirit, suddenly finds herself a single mom in the new traditional American family--the divorced couple with two children.Wild, hilarious, and unconventional, Claire never thought she would meet anyone who could domesticate her. She never imagined a man who could be her partner forever. But then came He Who Wears Scarves in Summer: a handsome German artist named Tobin Kleinherz. It's the 1980s, and he claims Claire's heart and soul at a hip gallery opening. After a whirlwind courtship, Tobin proposes and Claire amazes herself by accepting.Years later, after a beautiful wedding, two adorable children and countless adventures, Claire and Tobin come face to face with their marital demons. Claire moves from morning sickness to mourning sickness as she realizes her dashing Tobin is leaving, and she must face her future alone. After her marriage unravels, Claire revisits the crucial moments when love and dreams began to shatter and spiral out of control. With refreshing humor and the hard-won wisdom of a survivor, Claire grapples with lawyers, an empty bank account and myriad jobs to make ends meet. Almost miraculously, she pulls a new life from the wreckage and starts again on the road to happiness. Through a unique structure of interlocking vignettes, Undoing I Do examines the demise of love, uncovering its early symptoms, mysterious connections and powerful conclusions. This beautiful novel is much more than the anatomy of a divorce. It's the compelling tale of one woman's struggle to transcend a bitter break up, protect her children from the fallout, and live life on her own terms. Using humor and a distinctive lyrical writing style, Anastasia Royal has created a soul-baring story that will have you laughing, crying, and enjoying every beautifully crafted sentence.With her debut novel Undoing I Do, Royal] paints a funny, poignant and realistic portrait of what happens when a golden couple's marriage unravels. --Chicago Sun Times Royal limns the raw depths of Claire's suffering with both disarming candor and delicate subtlety. Poignant, painful, lyrical, Royal's treatment of this lamentably common condition is astonishingly uncommon in the sheer force of its sympathetic honesty. --Booklist In this poignant novel, Royal tells of a marriage gone wrong, a hostile divorce, and the pain of single motherhood so beautifully that you won't know whether to cry for her character's broken heart or swoon over the lyrical prose. --RedbookAdvance Praise for Undoing I DoFew have picked up the pieces of broken love with more elan than Claire McCloud, divorce-casualty, struggling mom, and a let-it-all-hang-out iconoclast who will shock and delight you...shaping so iridescent a tale from divorce's dark matter takes a special writing gene, and evidently, Anastasia Royal has whole strands of it. -- Arthur Plotnik, author of Spunk & Bite: A Writer's Guide to Bold, Contemporary StyleCalling Anastasia Royal's stunning and supple roman a clef a first novel is like calling the Hope diamond a shiny little rock. As savage and sharp as it is lovely, with as many facets as life itself, Undoing I Do is a perfect gem of a book. Told with a surgeon's eye for detail, the narrative employs all manner of prose and poetry to slice through the telling episodes of a marriage coming undone. It tackles big themes, and at times put me in mind of Nabokov's Pale Fire, but the things that linger most are the tiny sensual details. A new, important voice in literature is born. --Jay Bonansinga, national bestselling author of Twisted, Frozen and The Sinking of EastlandAs with every unhappy family, every unhappy marriage is

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312369654
• ISBN13: 9780312369651
• Release Date: November 2007
• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books
• Length: 307 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.4" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Men should read this, too

This is Chicago-based Anastasia Royal's first novel. When I learned that a friend from 30 years ago had transformed her thoughts and feelings from her own divorce into something others may share, I picked up a copy out of loyalty. I was richly rewarded. Royal's work has a poignant immediacy which cuts deep into one's own thoughts and memories. Listening to Royal's description of the anticipation, excitement, joy, troubles and eventual grounding of Claire McCloud's love affair with her husband, and Claire's sense of its impact on their two children, chilled me with moment-to-moment fascination. It hurt to recognize oneself in some of the actions and words of Claire's receding spouse, or to hear echoes of women I knew and relationships I had before marriage. That shows how Royal's unflinching Claire finds enough to write about herself (the novel proceeds in brief journal-like entries), her kids and her struggle for anyone who has been close to, in, or fled from, a committed relationship to identify. Frankly, I think all husbands should read this book. I admit my wife was a bit surprised to see me toting this title around. But on finishing it I recommended it to her as I recommend it to you. Royal's voice in Claire will help you hear things you may have been missing.

beautifully written

I loved this book- it was a beautiful mosaic of the dissolution of marriage and the ultimate redemption of the main character, Claire. Recommended for book groups- good discussion material.

Breathtaking

I just got the book in the mail earlier, and due to its inticing and exotic nature I have just finished it. Beautiful poetry, language, and music came together to make a very vivid account of a woman's journey through love and loss. Fantastic. V

Couldn't put it down - remarkably funny!

I recommend this book to both men and women - it is a candid and engaging story about love and divorce and the main character Claire is such a hilarious and fun person to read about. The chapters are short and juicy, you could read a couple each night (although I didn't want to put it down).

Great, moving novel

I really enjoyed "Undoing I Do", because of the great balance between the story, the prose, and the applicable real-life lessons about marriage, family, and childhood. Myself a child of divorced parents, this book provided a unique and moving perspective of a difficult subject. But most of all, it was great fun to read! Recommended to me by family, but I would recommend it also to friends, and I have!