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The Language of Good-bye
When starting a new marriage or a new life in another country how do you relinquish the past so that you may successfully begin anew without losing a sense of who you have become? What is the cost of leaving a country, a child, a marriage? What is the cost of not leaving? These are the questions Maribeth Fischer asks in The Language of Good-bye, an accomplished, provocative debut novel.For Annie and Will, who have left their marriages to be together, the future is fraught with the complications of starting over. Both have left pieces of themselves behind: For Annie, it is the husband and friend she has known since childhood; for Will, it is the five-year-old daughter he adores. And for the Korean-born Sungae, one of Annie's English-as-a-second-language students, it is a search for the words that will help her resolve the sorrows of her tragic past.
As Sungae struggles with the new language and with her memories, her story begins to unravel in ways that will have consequences not only for Sungae, but for Annie and Will as well as their ex's. At its heart, this is a novel about the choices we make and the repercussions of those choices on ourselves and on others. As Sungae explains, "Duty is like an ancient tree which has survived many seasons. Love is only the blossom". In one way or another, success in their new lives depends on each character's ability to find their own balance between desire and obligation.
As Sungae struggles with the new language and with her memories, her story begins to unravel in ways that will have consequences not only for Sungae, but for Annie and Will as well as their ex's. At its heart, this is a novel about the choices we make and the repercussions of those choices on ourselves and on others. As Sungae explains, "Duty is like an ancient tree which has survived many seasons. Love is only the blossom". In one way or another, success in their new lives depends on each character's ability to find their own balance between desire and obligation.
- GenresFiction
343 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 2001
2 people are currently reading
92 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
October 9, 2020
This book was very depressing at time but beautifully written. There were many phrases that I underlined and had to stop and ponder for a minute. The author did a good job writing about how love and grief can be intertwined together. How love can have stages similar to grief.
June 5, 2018
" For love, like language, is not a thing, but a place-a world to inhibit slowly." Very enjoyable if somewhat bittersweet and painful (due to my own personal story)...I like this quote from the book "You have betrayed me ,Eros. You have sent me My true love." from "The Reproach," in The Triumph of Achille,Louise Gluck.
May 4, 2018
She definitely got the roller-coaster emotional experience of divorce right.
April 1, 2011
I liked this novel. I became engrossed in it. But let me say a couple things that bothered me before I explain why I liked it. Though many people wouldn't care about these fine details of the main character's job, I am an ESL teacher at a university, so I care. And I'd like to clear up some misrepresented details.
I feel like this novel romanticized what ESL teachers do. The articles the main character writes are nothing like actual academic ESL articles, which usually focus on models for effective second language acquisition. Fischer has her main character write an article on “Sorrowful Sentences�. You couldn't get that published in any applied linguistics journal that I know of. Not only that, but her students are at a university, which generally means they are from middle-class families who have a fairly good background in English. I don't get war stories or students “escaping their woeful pasts�. They're here to improve their English to get good jobs back home. Something that really ticked me off was the teacher who wrote “Context restrictive, ethnography, and presupposition� on the board. That's ridiculous; it would never happen. That's like a professor telling their students the teaching method they're going to use in a mathematics class. In another language.
Aside from that, I enjoyed the story. The author has an excellent command of dialogue. She made conversations and arguments seem as real as if the reader were accidentally overhearing a stranger's conversation. You wanted to know how the story finished. You felt what they were going through, even if you couldn't sympathize. In fact, I didn't sympathize with the main character, Annie, at all. Now that I've finished and can reflect a little, I think I actually hate her character.
The language in general made the book beautiful. She drew you in and painted the feelings and places and complexities with words so perfectly, that it almost didn't matter what happened so long as she wrote it.
I feel like this novel romanticized what ESL teachers do. The articles the main character writes are nothing like actual academic ESL articles, which usually focus on models for effective second language acquisition. Fischer has her main character write an article on “Sorrowful Sentences�. You couldn't get that published in any applied linguistics journal that I know of. Not only that, but her students are at a university, which generally means they are from middle-class families who have a fairly good background in English. I don't get war stories or students “escaping their woeful pasts�. They're here to improve their English to get good jobs back home. Something that really ticked me off was the teacher who wrote “Context restrictive, ethnography, and presupposition� on the board. That's ridiculous; it would never happen. That's like a professor telling their students the teaching method they're going to use in a mathematics class. In another language.
Aside from that, I enjoyed the story. The author has an excellent command of dialogue. She made conversations and arguments seem as real as if the reader were accidentally overhearing a stranger's conversation. You wanted to know how the story finished. You felt what they were going through, even if you couldn't sympathize. In fact, I didn't sympathize with the main character, Annie, at all. Now that I've finished and can reflect a little, I think I actually hate her character.
The language in general made the book beautiful. She drew you in and painted the feelings and places and complexities with words so perfectly, that it almost didn't matter what happened so long as she wrote it.
March 28, 2014
I really loved this book. I related to it on so many levels. The main character, Annie, is an ESL instructor (which I have been) at VCU (where my daughter attends) in Richmond (where I used to live and work). It was such familiar territory for me, and I felt at home reading the story. These characters were people I could know and relate to, people whose struggles I could understand.
Annie and Will have left their marriages to be together. Navigating their new and unfamiliar relationship and its complications, along with the attached guilt over abandoning their spouses (and Will's daughter), is difficult. One of Annie's students, Korean-born Sungae, is trying to learn English and in the process put words to her haunting history. Their stories intertwine in ways that deepen the theme of love, loss, language and longing. I adored this book about leaving the past behind, and moving into the future.
I met the author at "Writer's at the Beach" in Dewey Beach, Delaware on March 5, 2005, and my copy of the book, which I bought at that writer's conference, is signed by the Maribeth Fisher.
Annie and Will have left their marriages to be together. Navigating their new and unfamiliar relationship and its complications, along with the attached guilt over abandoning their spouses (and Will's daughter), is difficult. One of Annie's students, Korean-born Sungae, is trying to learn English and in the process put words to her haunting history. Their stories intertwine in ways that deepen the theme of love, loss, language and longing. I adored this book about leaving the past behind, and moving into the future.
I met the author at "Writer's at the Beach" in Dewey Beach, Delaware on March 5, 2005, and my copy of the book, which I bought at that writer's conference, is signed by the Maribeth Fisher.
October 11, 2015
This book really resonated with me, as an ESL teacher interested in other cultures. The main character, Annie, is a married ESL teacher who is in love with another man, Will. They separate from their spouses, Carter and Kayla, who are both devastated. The drama of adultery and the "will they or won't they" became tedious at times, but overall it was a beautifully written book and acknowledged various types of loss in thought-provoking ways. I especially loved the asides about the beliefs of other cultures. I also really enjoyed Sungae's storyline - she's a Korean student in Annie's class, who also works in Kayla's shop.
March 24, 2009
There are many reasons why I give 5 stars to this book. It took my breath away every now and then. It exposes one's feeling in a way that you cannot be more honest about it as it is how it is.
It also mentions Indonesia several times. It even discusses one of Indonesian's best writers, Pramoedya Ananta Toer.
I think the writer must have the same occupation as one of the characters. Things like this make it uneasy to separate writers and their writings.
But, most important, it's beautifully written.
It also mentions Indonesia several times. It even discusses one of Indonesian's best writers, Pramoedya Ananta Toer.
I think the writer must have the same occupation as one of the characters. Things like this make it uneasy to separate writers and their writings.
But, most important, it's beautifully written.
December 12, 2014
This well written book covers the stories of Annie, Will, and Sarah. Annie and Will cheated on their spouses (and then left them, respectively) with each other. Sarah is Annie's Korean ESL student, but also Will's wife's employee. These stories are so powerfully and emotionally intertwined it was hard to decide who to pull for. Ultimately, there is nothing that you can walk away from entirely if it was once a part of your life in some way. These characters fight very hard to figure that out.
February 28, 2008
I really liked the begining of this book. Then it kind of dragged on. At tiems i coudl relate to 3 out of the 5 characters but coudl not stand Will. If you read you will see what i mean. I did liek that this book was a blantent reminder that with every decision you make there are conquences (good and bad) and yousay "goodbye" to soemthing.
November 1, 2008
Good book about relationships and love. It was a tad sad but really delved into what love is. The story of a woman and her husband who both left their spouses to be with each other and the ramifications of that decision and how it affects their current relationship with each other. Told from alternating points of view of each of the four spouses.
May 14, 2007
I think this is an unbelievably good book, but the reality is that it's just too sad and draining to be a must-read. It's really heavy. Beautiful and profound and touching, but it made me ache as only real life should.
January 9, 2010
I absolutely adored this book about a woman who teaches adults from other countries who are learning to speak English, and the dynamics of the relationships they develop. I recommended to several friends, some of whom are not teachers, and everyone loved it!
January 5, 2014
Interesting novel, many intersecting lives, but I had more sympathy for the students in the language class. Attention to language was very nice, but the lack of attention to race and class was very troubling to me.
February 28, 2015
alot of what's portrayed in this book resonates with me intensely. alot of the emotions in this book were my very own at some point in my life & Maribeth Fischer put them into words beautifully and depressingly. I absolutely loved it.
April 11, 2008
Awesome book about what we will do for love
June 4, 2009
Quite possibly one of the top five most depressing books I have ever read.
August 17, 2021
This is one of my all-time favourite books. The language and style draw me in every time. I cannot pick it up and read a little without getting sucked back into the story every time.
March 10, 2010
I liked that this book was very realistic. The first half of the book rang very true for me. The ending, though was disappointing and just kind of fell flat.
January 7, 2011
One of the best books I have ever read.
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May 1, 2011Heartbreaking. I'm sobbing. I don't know why I felt compelled to finish reading it today, climbed into bed at 3ish and just finished.
August 2, 2011
depressing, and not in a good way
March 17, 2012
Starting over or saying goodbye to a child, parent or someone you love? The pros and cons. In the end, it's still your own decision.
January 13, 2013
Maribeth Fischer is an amazing person and writer. I am proud to be friends with her.
August 13, 2014
Well written but too depressing.
January 1, 2010
This book stuck with me long after I finished reading it.
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
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