An abused wife named Frannie leaves home with her young son, and lives under a new identity in Florida, where she tries to make a comfortable life for the two of them. She is always in fear that her husband will find her, however, and ultimately he does, but Frannie is resilient, and survives to go on to a new life.

"...Quindlen now takes a talk-show staple--spousal abuse--and gives it a compelling immediacy in a refreshingly wise and truth-telling novel about life and marriage....A book to read and savor."

"Sensitive, suspenseful and haunting....[An] astute, thought-provoking portrayal of one woman's battle to avoid becoming a statistic--or being viewed as one. Whether that battle is heroic or hugely misguided is a question that will linger with the reader long after the final chapter's close."             -- Autumn Stephens

"Battered wives, unfortunately, are a staple of daytime talk shows and made-for-television movies. To make Fran's mundane misery matter to us, Ms. Quindlen, paradoxically, must pull all the rabbits out of her writer's magic hat. As our narrator, Fran recounts her days in such richly textured language that we taste the peanut butter (no jelly) sandwiches she prepares for Robert; we smell, with despair, the moldy carpeting in her Florida apartment....Fran's precise, mesmerizing narrative makes readers understand her deep connection with [her abusive husband]. Her descriptions of Bobby's rages are truly scary...and yet her yearning to stay with him also makes frightening sense."              -- Maureen Corrigan

"I read 'Black and Blue' from beginning to end in one insomniac sitting."
-- Laura Green

"[U]nfortunately the novel is nowhere near as convincing as the news reports all of us have seen on television. But it does keep the reader anxiously turning pages."
-- Maggie Paley

Fran Benedetto has had enough of her self-centered husband's brutality. Though Fran has long loved Bobby passionately, his roughhousing turned into abuse early in their marriage, when the stress of his police career began taking its toll. Fran's concern about the situation's effects on Robert, her too-quiet ten-year-old, together with a particularly vicious battering, goads her to run. An underground organization helps her flee with Robert to a small Florida town, where she begins a new life as "Beth Crenshaw." At first the fugitives are miserable, but gradually they settle into the community with a kind of family normalcy they have never experienced. As Fran/Beth strains to make a home, she also struggles with her beliefs about family, love, and her own identity. And, during every seemingly safe moment among her new friends, she lives with the fear of discovery and its possibly lethal consequences. Quindlen (One True Thing, LJ 9/15/94) has created in her third novel a well-paced narrative whose themes reflect important contemporary social concerns. Though Fran's internal musings sometimes slow down the action noticeably, and the crucial character of Bobby is a one-dimensional sketch, the book's pluses will outweigh its drawbacks for most readers of popular fiction.

After two fine earlier efforts, Object Lessons and One True Thing, Quindlen has written her best novel yet in this unerringly constructed and paced, emotionally accurate tale of domestic abuse. Her protagonist is Frannie Benedetto, a 37-year-old Brooklyn housewife, mother and nurse who finally finds the courage to escape from her violent husband Bobby, a New York City cop. Under an assumed identity in a tacky central Florida town, Frannie and her 10-year-old son, Robert, attempt to build a new life, but there is a price to pay, and when it comes, it carries the heartstopping logic of inevitability and the irony of fate. Quindlen establishes suspense from the first sentence and never falters. She cogently explores the complex emotional atmosphere of abuse: why some women cling to the memory of their original love and wait too long to break free. She makes palpable Frannie's fear, pain, self-contempt and, later, guilt over depriving Robert of the father he adores. As Frannie and Robert make tentative steps in their new community, Quindlen conveys their sense of dislocation and anxiety compounded by their sense of loss. Weaving the domestic fabric that is her forte, she flawlessly reproduces the mundane dialogue between mother and son, between Frannie and the friends she makes and the people she serves in her new job as a home health-care aide. Among the triumphs of Quindlen's superb ear for voices is the character of an elderly Jewish woman whose moribund husband is Frannie's patient. Above all, Quindlen is wise and humane. Her understanding of the complex anatomy of marital relationships, of the often painful bond of maternal love and of the capacity to survive tragedy and carry on invest this moving novel with the clarion ring of truth.

YA This powerfully written story grips readers from the very first page. Fran and Bobby are crazy about one another from the moment they first meet, but his violent nature reveals itself even before they are married. Later, the "accidents" become more and more frequent and harder to hide: a broken collarbone, a split lip, a black eye. Finally, Fran escapes the abusive marriage, but by then she is damaged both inside and out. Assisted by a group that aids battered women, she flees with her 10-year-old son, Robert, who knows the truth but is reluctant to believe that the father who loves him so much could beat his mother so badly. Fran begins a new life with a new identity, but she lives in fear, knowing that Bobby won't rest until he finds them. Also, Robert longs for his father. Love between parent and child, coming to grips with the difference between passion and love, the importance of honesty in relationships, and self-knowledge as an essential part of healing YAs can learn much about these and other themes in this novel about a shattered family and a strong woman determined to rebuild her life.