Deborah J. Wolf With You and Without You

With You and Without You

Deborah J. Wolf

Kensington, Jul 2006, $14.00

ISBN: 0758213832

Patrick and Allyson Houlihan live a contented upper middle class life raising two daughters, thirteen years old Lydia and ten years old Becca until he died in a car accident. The three females he left behind mourn deeply the loss of the family patriarch and adjust to a downscale lifestyle with the death of the prime breadwinner.

Over a year later, the trio still struggles with the loss. Allyson worries about her daughters as Becca hides in soccer, but is now injured, and Lydia no longer wants to dance and turns sneaky. Both reject their mom's attempts to help them cope. As the two sisters lose interest in school and favorite activities, the family seems on the verge of collapse as the three females drift further apart. That is until a new crisis forces everyone to reassess their needs in consideration of the better good with Patrick's best friend Michael as a rock of strength for the still grieving Houlihan women.

This incredibly poignant contemporary tale makes several valid points that grief is personal and takes time that will vary from person to person and that relationship dynamics adjust when the parameters change. In this case, the death of Patrick leaves his beloved family mourning in different ways even after a year has passed and their interrelationships have changed because the fourth part of the family puzzle no longer is there. Deborah J. Wolf will leave her audience pondering life with and without loved ones in this deep thought provoking family drama.

Harriet Klausner