The Bleeding Heart

A Novel

By: Marilyn French

Narrated by: Reay Kaplan

By the author of the groundbreaking feminist novel The Women's Room, this audiobook is a compelling novel about the devastating power of marriage - and the unexpected power of love. A love story for and about adults, it speaks to the hearts and minds of women and men everywhere.

Dolores and Victor are both successful, both Americans living alone in England. They meet and fall instantly in love, only to discover they agree on nothing. From the start they know they have only one year together. Their affair is sometimes bitter, always passionate, and, in the end, an extraordinary revelation for them both.

©1980 Marilyn French (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

MARILYN FRENCH = REALLY GOOD WRITING

I very much enjoyed this book about two older American strangers who serendipitously meet on a train in England and proceed to embark on a year long love affair. The story is steeped in political feminist blah, blah, blah with uber overthink and introspection, (SO typical of certain writers of the late ‘70’s and 80’s) which, admittedly, became VERY tiresome at times.

However, one simply cannot argue with the depth and quality of this woman’s writing. As we get deeper and deeper into the story we begin to learn more about the backgrounds of each individual and, bit by bit, the unspeakable tragedies that each of them have endured in their prior lives(and marriages)come to light. The author’s absolute genius is in her ability to weave back and forth between the past and the present, going deeper with each pass, and the individual struggles within and between the two lovers.

Overall, minus the ubiquitous feminist casing, I thought this was a very good story that REALLY drew me in. Additionally I think the narrator, who did an excellent job, very much contributed to the overall enjoyment and “listenability” to this audiobook.