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November 4, 2008 1:58 PM

HELEN'S HEROINES: Josie Winter

I finally got around to reading Over You by Lucy Diamond last week. And I loved it. It is a simple story of infidelity and, as Keris says in the review, it's a domestic story (whilst also being extremely gripping). Quite possibly a story that could be told by many abandoned spouses with young children all over the world. For Josie, the wife who has been left to raise her four year old twin sons on her own whilst her husband prances around with his mistress, life is now sink or swim. She chooses to swim.

In the beginning the swimming was very much for the sake of her children, but as time goes on she regains her strength - even to the point of feeling forgiveness (though not necessarily for her husband!)

Even before Josie finds out about the affair, she doesn't have a tremendous amount of confidence. She feels her personality has disappeared at the same time her children popped into the world and can't help but compare her mundane life (her view, not mine) with that of her more glamorous friends.  As time goes on however, she can see that everyone else's life is not always perfect either.

You can see what a strong woman she is. Fighting for survival and normality because of her children is completely selfless, especially when she really feels like soaking up a bottle of wine and lying on the bed all day. She learns to live on her own, to stop being scared at night, to deal with the day to day minutiae her husband would normally deal with. She becomes independent. And through this she gains confidence and embraces life. She even has the strength to deal with that so and so husband of hers.

What makes her a true heroine though, is that she learns. When she realised her life was mundane, she goes on to do something about it, even though it scared her senseless.

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Posted by Helen Redfern on November 4, 2008 in Helen's Heroines | Permalink

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