About Yvonne

by Donna Masini

Terry Spera becomes obsessed with the woman she believes is having an affair with her husband and begins to trail her every move, but when following is no longer enough, Terry enters the woman's apartment and searches through her things in order to find out more than she should know. Reprint.

Genres: Fiction

304 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1997

Reviews

[Mary]

Is it strange that I didn't find her actions to be THAT crazy? Crazy, yes, but THAT crazy?? Hmm...

[Petra -thinks there is a rat behind the stove]

This is a fascinating book. Fascinating because it doesn't start off that well, gets progressively more unlikely and still you read. As it descends into the pits of novel-hell, I sit and read more and more at each session, then finally - the climax. A full-fledged psychotic breakdown of the 'heroine' accompanied by a total break with reality from the author. There isn't an ending, the author just runs out of steam and can't even think of a Jodi Picoult-type cop-out ending.

The story (and its all on the back of the book) is that an English professor who is both beauteous, well-off and happily-married suspects her husband is having an affair. She becomes obsessed with the other woman and the story swings between her Catholic faith, extremely unlikely family, her lover (!), her therapist to whom she lies, al-anon meetings although she is neither an alcoholic nor an enabler, and her time breaking into and stealing from the other woman's apartment which the other woman never notices. In the final scene where she is confronted by our 'heroine' who has on her clothes (she doesn't notice), has her bag, two sets of her keys, has left a takeaway in her apartment, and is slapping her about, she just dismisses the whole thing because she is a WASP and doesn't want to make a scene with the police, just get home for Christmas. Geez...

The heroine is physically like the author, also Italian-American, Catholic and a poet, and one wonders if this book is some sort of revenge on the 'other woman' or her husband? If so, it doesn't work, one feels nothing but sympathy for anyone who has to deal with this psychopathic woman who never once displays any empathy with another character and lashes out like a hurt child at everyone, but finds her own, similar, behaviour, quite acceptable. I wonder just how autobiographical this book is?

Fascinating for true, fascinatingly bad. The sort of book where if you'd made a paperclip chain instead you would have felt you'd wasted your time less.

[Caitlin]

Hypnotic - one of the few books I've read as an adult that I just couldn't put down. The main character's sexual obession with a woman her husband is having an affair with is completely adictive for the reader too.

[Kat]

I have to say that this is one of my favorite books of all time. It's an amazing read. I sat down and by the time I got up again I had finished reading the entire thing. If you like to think about what you read, this is the book for you. Incredible. I just can't say anything more.

[Nora]

Was hoping for a little more lesbianism between her & Yvonne but it remained as fantasies... Good writing. Probably better with a stronger background of reading Yeats.

[Gail]

Had to gulp this down in one sitting.

[Nina]

I absolutely loved this novel. The unreliable narrator and pacing left me in an accelerated state of suspense throughout. I tried to read it slowly--this is the kind of interiority and narrator that interests me. Also, I've never read a literary novel from the point of view of an Italian American from a working-class background. Her voice practically vibrated inside me. I loved it. I loved all the books, the films, the intellectual aspects of it. I need to read it again.

[Carter Voras]

couldn’t put it down - obsession, sex, and it all feels relatable. if you like fleabag, i think you will respond well to this.

[Linda]

This is a story that you can't quite stop reading. Just when you think things can't get any crazier, they do.

[Isabel Atkinson]

insane woman with lesbian undertones and catholic guilt?? count me in. perfect book

[jerry]

Hilarious and compellingly readable. In a life where my parents had not invested in therapy for me at an early age, I would be moving through the world like Terry. There were passages where I was just reading with my jaw agape. Catholic representation !

[Ella]

A love letter to:
-the sagittarius experience
- Dean & Deluca
- yeats
- New York
- pastina

[Congress Reading]

I can simply describe this as a psychologically sexual fantasy and adventure novel of a woman with a terribly exploited mind. Reading this was a chilling, mind-boggling experience, and rollercoaster ride of mental overdrive. If you want to explore a shrewd woman’s mind, I recommend you to read this novel.
Read my complete review: https://readingcongress.wordpress.com...

[Tianna]

Had a real tone to it. Like you were infiltrating Terry's private bank of thought processes and just reading raw material. Nothing fake, all genuine.
The ending felt unfulfilling at first, but after reflection, it makes more sense it would end with just Terry since it had been just Terry all along. The closure was Terry finally realizing being just Terry was nothing to be afraid of.

Quotes:
~ It always happens like that: you make things messier as you're trying to clean them up.

[Maria]

Awesome book, totally underrated. Don't read it if you're afraid he's cheating!

[Bethie Bookworm]

I read this book years ago, but always have it on my list to re-read. It's a great New York novel. I only wish Donna Masini would write another novel! Check out her poetry if you haven't already.

[Lili]

Don't waste your money. This book sucked!

[matchaluver&]

Donna your mind is a wonder, this is such an intriguing book and one of my favorites, I wish this was greatly known because it’s a piece of work

[Blue Apocalypse]

read it over and over this book is my mecca