A False Sense of Well Being

by Jeanne Braselton

WINNER OF THE GEORGIA AUTHOR OF THE YEAR AWARD FOR FIRST NOVEL

“Braselton’s confident first novel is [a] depiction of love on the rocks in the New South that combines small town charm with major league angst. . . . A down-home Proustian recherché search . . . [An] entertaining, rueful account of an apparently ‘normal’ marriage.”
–Los Angeles Times

“Simply extraordinary. [This novel] has the wit and modern comedy of Nora Ephron and the literary force of Flannery O’Connor.”
–KAYE GIBBONS
Author of Ellen Foster

At thirty-eight, Jessie Maddox has a comfortable life in Glenville, Georgia, with the most responsible husband in the world. But after the storybook romance, “happily ever after” never came. Now Jessie is left to Why can’t she stop picturing herself as the perfect grieving widow? As Jessie dives headlong into her midlife crisis, she is joined by a colorful cast of eccentrics. There’s her best friend Donna, who is having a wild adulterous affair with a younger man; Wanda McNabb, the sweet-natured grandmother who is charged with killing her husband; Jessie’s younger sister Ellen, who was born to be a guest on Jerry Springer ; their mother, who persistently crosses the dirty words out of library books; and of course the stuffed green headless duck. . . .

When a trip home to the small town of her childhood raises more questions than it answers, Jessie is forced to face the startling truth head-on–and confront the tragedy that has shadowed her heart and shaken her faith in love . . . and the future.

Genres: Fiction, Southern, Book Club, Chick Lit, Contemporary, Novels, Literary Fiction

400 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

Reviews

[treehugger · Rating 2 out of 5]

The writing was really really good, but the characters and the events of the story left a lot to be desired. One reviewer said it's like 300 pages of mid-life crises, and I'm inclined to agree - it just yammered on and on about how unsatisfied the main character was with her upper-middle class life in a meaningful profession with a husband that loves her. And her family dynamics were sad and strange as well.

All over the cover it is touted as "one of the best first novels ever", and while that may be true for some, this book did little for me.

[Julie Akeman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I too am like the main character, in my early forties and dealing with issues. We always come to a certain space in our life that makes us wonder about our choices. Her own thoughts are both comical and dark as she struggles with imaging herself the perfect widow, of her husband dying. The oddest way of dealing with her life revelations involves the use of a decapitated stuffed duck..yeah, it's a good read.

[Saleh MoonWalker · Rating 2 out of 5]

Onvan : A False Sense of Well Being - Nevisande : Jeanne Braselton - ISBN : 345443128 - ISBN13 : 9780345443120 - Dar 400 Safhe - Saal e Chap : 2001

[Robin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fluffy, which is what I was looking for. Some reviews were harsh on her being whiny, but I didn't feel that way for once. I think a lot of us, in long-term partnerships, have had times we may wish our spouse fell off a cliff or was slightly maimed (& vice versa, to be sure!). It's often a sign that you need to work on things, & I think she was getting there...

[Chloe (Always Booked) · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars. This book was one of the lowest rated books on my shelf so I thought I would give it a go, and now I understand why it was so poorly rated. This book is about a woman who has fantasies of her husband dying and can't figure out why. She's a therapist and is treating a woman who admits to killing her husband and her best friend is also having an affair, so the picture of marriage isn't great in this book. She decides to go home for a while and her sister and young son live with her parents and her sister is also in a weird off and on marriage and this book just gets bizarre. I really wanted more of her relationship with her husband and why she was having those fantasies, but this is definitely a women's fiction where we see her growth and the fantasies about her husband are resolved in one line. Bizarre is the word I use to describe this book. I wouldn't recommend.

SPOILERS AHEAD:
The woman who killed her husband was actually just covering up for her son. The whole fantasy situation was just because she was worried about having someone leave her before she was ready. She comes home and all is well.

[Angelica · Rating 2 out of 5]

So this woman is constantly thinking about what if her husband dies, and she is obviously very bored and dissatisfied with her marriage. I thought this book was a little slow, and I only finished it because I wanted to see how it would end (and I liked the ending!). I would have liked to have seen more in-depth of her relationship, it seemed to skim the surface, and less of her visit with her family. With the divorce rates as they are, this is certainly a good topic to address, however the book itself was a struggle to keep plowing through. The book was okay, but not great.

[Brandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Every time I return from a trip home(AL),Turner listens to me and shakes his head, as if to say the proverbial, "You can take the girl out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the girl". Like I'm his pet project, his very own Eliza Dolittle below the Mason-Dixon line. Like I've reverted to some primitive form of life, Homo redneckus, and he's afraid to engage in conversation with me without a translator nearby."

I'm still laughing

[Debbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

300 pages of mid-life crises. This woman has a nice home, a husband who loves her and a successful career yet she spends the entire book fantasizing about her husband's death. I found it tedious and trying most of the time but did find the sister somewhat entertaining. However, I really lost my mojo with the green stuffed duck - seriously.

[Charlotte Tressler · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book had me hooked from the first line. Not the greatest book in the world, but I think any 40-something wife could relate to the main character's predicament! There are lines in this book that made me stop reading because they made me wonder how another person could be experiencing exactly the same feelings as me.

[Rebecca I · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think the cover of the book is not in keeping with the type of book it is. I think I got this in a bag of books that someone gave me and I put off reading it because I thought it was probably a frivolous book. It actually gets into some serious thinking about ways in which we all act out and the ways that our lives turn out isn't necessarily how we thought they would or should.

[Pam Thayer Klopfenstein · Rating 2 out of 5]

Did not finish. Boring

[Allison Junkans · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was dark, depressing, and a little weird. The main character is a 38 year old woman who is unhappy in her marriage and has fantasies of her husband dying. The side characters include a woman cheating on her husband, a woman who killed her husband, and another woman who is leaving her husband. With all that being said, I think this author has potential. This was her first book, but I think her writing is pretty good. Even with the weird and dark aspects, I was interested in what was going to happen and it was a quick read.

[Suzanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a surprise, I had thought it would be too light for me, but it wound up being quite a thoughtful intelligent book. Great choice for the GA Award.

It's probably time to reread this book, which I'd hesitated to do. It was with great sadness that I read about her suicide shortly after reading it, and recommending it to so many of my friends. There truly was a False Sense of Well Being.

[Madam · Rating 3 out of 5]

A better title would be "A False Advertisement of Comedy." Although the dust cover described this as darkly funny, I found almost nothing about it laugh-provoking. It was just another tiresome woman searching for meaning in her life after suffering several setbacks, following a predictable path to the typical results. I don't feel like I lost brain cells to this book, but I didn't gain any either.

[Lori Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book -- how it was written, the humor, even the bits of sadness. I was really nervous on the last page that things wouldn't end the way I wanted, but .... well, read the book and you'll see!

Lori Anderson:The Store

Lori Anderson:The Blog

[Natalie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yawn. The only thing that kept me reading was the writing was actually good and I had the small hope that something EXCITING would happen. It never did. The poor main character in her miserable/normal enough life but the whole thing ended in a dull, lackluster, totally un-climatic way! BORING BOOK with cardboard characters.

[Petrea Burchard · Rating 3 out of 5]

I quite liked Braselton's writing, and I hope tepid reviews won't dissuade her from writing more. I wanted her main character to find what she needed and I was with her all the way. Ultimately, though, the climax wasn't there, and whatever realizations the character might have come to weren't quite satisfying.

[H-Grace · Rating 4 out of 5]

A story of middle-aged ennui, set outside Atlanta and in a rural town right over the Alabama line - both places I've lived in my life. It ends hopeful, yet there's a through-line of "is this all there is to life" that I thankfully don't identify with.

[Sally Andrews · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a debut novel? Where has she been hiding? I could eat this book with a spoon!

Tongue-in-cheek funny, introspective, sweet, and even heartbreaking at times, it was one of my favorites of 2018.

[Karol Sprague · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too much angst without enough explanation. Husband needed more filling out. And why pick a sleazy hotel?

[Cindy Kirkland · Rating 1 out of 5]

I hated it. I could never figure out what the main character was talking about. She is someone I would nod to and run.

[Asia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably the best book on the emptiness that you feel after loosing a child and the inability of filling it.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Where to begin. I read this book when it first came out and loved it so much I bought it. This was 2001 before Goodreads, so no reviews for our reading egos.

I just read it for the third time and loved it again.

The reviews here are offensive, feckless, and foolish. I’m old and am required to say it: the newer generations are just full of narcissistic and disgusting women. These are the same people who write 1-star reviews on IMDB about movies from the 1920s and '30s saying things like, "This didn't age well", "How offensive", or "The lighting was awful" in an absurd level of desperation just to be seen somewhere.

Ms. Braselton lost her husband of 15 years within 6 months of publication and mere weeks after winning all kinds of awards for it.

Then, only a few months later, she couldn’t stand living without him and killed herself.

For those idiots who give this book 1 or 2 stars, because it’s written by a middle-aged, middle-class woman about a middle-aged, middle-class woman’s problems, what is wrong with you? Middle-aged, middle-class women don’t have the right to write? You’re left with what….2 books you're okay with reading? Let's step outside our TikTok and THINK, shall we?

For the writing, the story (often tongue in cheek and often a precursor if you have an ounce of intelligence), everything about this book, I give 5 stars. I’d give 100 if I could, just to negate the unthinking and unfeeling.

Shame on you! Honestly, I just want to send some strongly worded letters to their mothers. LOL.

[Donna Stewart · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jessie is stuck in a rut. She is unhappy, and not sure how to solve the problem. She married "up" and moved away from a small town and a family she feels disassociated from. She has a job as a social worker, and a friend/neighbor who is having an affair. She see's her marriage as as somewhat as dull and a trap, but she also recognizes the dysfunction of many of the people around her.

She takes a trip home to visit her family, "to get away" and realizes how many other people are also living unfulfilled lives. (There are a lot of dysfunctional people in this world......I guess we all are.....). She is placed in several unusual situations, bitten by a patient, a friend who confides about a torrid affair and her desire to leave her family, thoughts of her husband's demise, another client who admits to killing her husband......

I really did not enjoy the book. I found the characters interesting, but I was continually wishing they made other choices......I considered stopping reading, but did finish.

[Jeanne · Rating 2 out of 5]

It took 100 pages of suburban tedium before this book lets you know what it is even about. Then I found it very depressing. I found myself reading faster and faster, trying to get it over with, because the unpleasant, rural family of the lead character (who has supposedly "escaped" her southern, small-town, Evangelical religion, and low-class background...but family is family, after all) could easily have been leading up to violence or suicide and I really wasn't in the mood. Yes, I admit it's probably a well-written book, a journey through acute depression, and mid-life crisis, and mourning - but I did not enjoy being on the journey with this character. I am very glad this book is finished.

[Janice Llewellyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book...Wasn't sure if the story would be humorous or something else. I guess a little of both. But it was thought provoking the most. I believed the main character, Jessie ,would actually plan her husband's demise; clever of the writer to keep me guessing until the end. But my final thought was how sad I was for this woman..... hoping she would find some happiness in her life. Worrying that suicide would be in the future. Maybe it was?? The author did not give us a definite happy ending, but I hope Jessie found one.

[Les · Rating 2 out of 5]

My Original Thoughts (2002):

Starts off weakly. I think the author is trying to be funny, but I don't see it that way. I'll keep plugging away.

Thought this book was a waste of time. Pretty pointless and dull. Don't recommend and won't read more by this author.

My Current Thoughts:

I don't know why this book appealed to me, but after a little digging, I discovered that Braselton was good friends with Kaye Gibbons, Anne Rivers Siddons, and Lee Smith. I read a lot of southern fiction in the early 2000s, and this book was probably mentioned in a magazine or somewhere online.

[Diane Peterson · Rating 2 out of 5]

A National Bestseller? While I can imagine characters in life situations similar to those in this novel experiencing uncertainty, regret, loss, disappointment, and confusion, I did not have a drive to finish the book and nearly left it to move on. I kept going though with hope that the storyline would become insightful and would have a fulfilling ending; however, it did not. So many broken relationships in this novel left me feeling disappointed overall.

[Grace Myers · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked the writing, and the descriptions of characters and places but the plot is definitely a bit slow, and gets a little hard to follow towards the end. It feels very honest and I enjoy the fact that the characters feel similar to people I know in real life. All in all it was a good book but I feel that I am not necessarily the age demographic it was written for and probably would have enjoyed it more if I was

[Linda Oleszczuk · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoy southern fiction, and this one was quite good. The saying “you can never go home again” is well illustrated here! Although I understood Jessie’s trauma (for lack of a better word) I failed to see the correlation to her pervading thoughts re her husband. Writing was good but the story a little weird. Not sure what the point was really, then again, maybe that was exactly the point!🤷🏻‍♀️