Undoing I Do: A Novel

by Anastasia Royal

Tobin hands me a letter. The words that shred me 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 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.” -- Redbook Advance Praise for Undoing I Do "Few have picked up the pieces of broken love with more élan 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 & A Writer’s Guide to Bold, Contemporary Style "Calling 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 Eastland "As with every unhappy family, every unhappy marriage is unhappy in its own way, and Anastasia Royal has given us splendidly unhappy marriage. By turns heartbreaking and hilarious, Undoing I Do is ultimately an uplifting tale of the determination and strength of an indomitable woman's spirit." --Binnie Kirshenbaum, author of An Almost Perfect Moment "A rollicking ride through love, marriage, and unhappily ever after...alternately poetic, ribald, tragic and comic. Mostly comic, thank heaven." --Tim Kazurinsky, actor and former Saturday Night Live cast member " Undoing I Do is an astounding, brilliant and unforgettable story that introduced me to characters I will never forget. No short blurb can do justice to the poetry, the passion, the rage and the humor of this novel that had me laughing out loud one moment and weeping the next. Welcome first-time novelist Anastasia Royal to the front ranks of American story tellers." --John D. Callaway, Host and Senior Editor of WTTW's Chicago Stories program, professional journalist for 45 years,...

Genres: Fiction

320 pages, Hardcover

First published November 13, 2007

About the author

Anastasia Royal is a Chicago novelist, visual artist, playwright, composer and classical musician. Her first novel UNDOING I DO is coming out this November 13th 2007 from St, Martin's Press/Thomas Dunne Books."

Reviews

[Melissa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Have to honest...didn't love this book. It was OK. I thought the main character was too bizarre to identify with. Frankily, it meandered too much for me. There were a few times when the author connected me with the grief of divorce but only a few.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book

[Joan C · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this, humor mixed in with very funny observations as well as describing heart-breaking pain.

[Hila · Rating 2 out of 5]

Claire meets German Tobin and a whirlwind romance ensues. Within 4 weeks they are engaged, and she is head over heels in love. They share a passion for each other. But after 10 years and 2 children, their marriage ends. And Claire is left to pick up the pieces of her life. She is crushed at the loss. Destroyed by an event she didn't even want. And it takes all of her to survive every day and slog through a 4-year divorce before she can even begin to hope to heal and move forward.

***I may give this a little more than 2 stars, but not much. 2.5 tops. I added it to my to-read list several years ago when working at a library. I think the blurb inside resonated with me at that time in my life -- not so long divorced and still trying to move forward. But, though I could identify with SOME of what the protagonist describes, there were a lot of times I wanted to tell her to get over it and be a mom to her kids. Do I understand first-hand the pain of the death of a marriage? Absolutely. It is one of the greatest pains I've ever known -- and probably will ever know. But some of this character's behavior just seemed completely ridiculous to me in the wake of her divorce. Granted, it's fiction. But having read the author's little bio at the end, it makes me wonder if some of it wasn't based on her own life. In which case... Well, I wasn't impressed. It's another one of those "well, I finally got that one off my list" books.

[Marjanne · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is another novel I would like to give a 2.5 to, if there were the option. Basically this novel is set up like the anatomy of a divorce from the female characters perspective. It was interesting to see the breakdown of the relationship, especially since there did not seem to be any specific triggers (i.e. infidelity). I liked the main character, and really felt for her children, though I wish she had more of a backbone. I think most reader will end up really disliking her ex by the end of the book.

[Joanne]

( + ) Could not be easier to read,
perfect mini chapters
( + ) Has a great pace, does switch back
from past to present a lot, but not
hard to follow
( - ) Has a slightly "melancoly" sp
aspect, if you will, not really
depressing but I found it to be
sad where as, I think the author
was trying to be humorous

[Char · Rating 3 out of 5]

I agree with others who said it had a good pace throughout and was very easy to read. The main character was also rather difficult to relate to. It was different. I liked it, but I also found it easy to set down and come back to a few days later.

[David Jerome · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book. The style is beautiful, funny and unique. The prose is the strongest aspect of this book, with great wit, humor and insight. The book isn't really plot-driven, but character-driven by a wonderful narrator. This book is off-beat, and a great example writing skill.

[Amber · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked this up randomly at the library, it looked interesting there but I could not get into it. The chapters were tiny, maybe one page or sometimes just a sentence, which I found a little weird.

[Mitzi Moore · Rating 3 out of 5]

Chaotic by design, this novel captures the emotional/physical/economic/social chaos of divorce when the main character's passionate marriage explodes spectacularly. But she survives.

[Michelle Swanson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very difficult to follow. Paints an untrue and unfair picture of divorced women.

[Anastasia Royal · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wrote it and it was cathartic!