Review of The Resurrection of Joan Ashby by Cherise Wolas

Hello Readers,

How do you summarize a sweeping book that covers decades of a characters life and do it justice? I don’t know actually. This book is one that I keep thinking about. There are several scenes from the book that I keep returning to and thinking about. Wondering why Joan handled things the way she did, why didn’t she speak up, why did she continue on a path that she knew she never wanted to go down? The other thought that keeps jumping into my mind are, how is that The Resurrection of Joan Ashby is Cherise Wolas’ debut novel? I would covet the opportunity to sit down with her and ask her all of my questions. How long did this great work take to write? Did you write Joan’s character from personal experience or was she your creation? Your words are strong and deep, how do you come up with your turns of phrases? Did you have the whole story in your mind or do you write like your character Joan and let the characters take the story where it wants to go? And so many more. 

Because I can’t summarize this book without making it pages long I am including the Amazon description so you can get a summarized feel for this book even though summarizing it feels like you are taking away something from its 544 pages. 

“I viewed the consumptive nature of love as a threat to serious women. But the wonderful man I just married believes as I do―work is paramount, absolutely no children―and now love seems to me quite marvelous.

These words are spoken to a rapturous audience by Joan Ashby, a brilliant and intense literary sensation acclaimed for her explosively dark and singular stories.

When Joan finds herself unexpectedly pregnant, she is stunned by Martin’s delight, his instant betrayal of their pact. She makes a fateful, selfless decision then, to embrace her unintentional family.

Challenged by raising two precocious sons, it is decades before she finally completes her masterpiece novel. Poised to reclaim the spotlight, to resume the intended life she gave up for love, a betrayal of Shakespearean proportion forces her to question every choice she has made.

Epic, propulsive, incredibly ambitious, and dazzlingly written, The Resurrection of Joan Ashby is a story about sacrifice and motherhood, the burdens of expectation and genius. Cherise Wolas’s gorgeous debut introduces an indelible heroine candid about her struggles and unapologetic in her ambition.”

Joan’s character was unlike any other character I have met in previous literary works. She was strong, brave, and raw. Her adolescent years transformed her into a writer of international success at a very young age. She wrote of pain and suffering in ways that should not have been so easy for someone so young, but that was what earned Joan a spot on the best seller list and turned her into a international success. Joans writing grabbed people and forced them to open their eyes and read, which is exactly how I felt reading this entire book. Joan and the actual real life author Cherise Wolas became blurred for me because this book read like a memoir and I kept forgetting that Joan is not a real life breathing person but rather a fictional character. How Wolas managed to write in such a way confirms her original voice and her unique style of writing. 

The scope of this book is huge. Years of ordinary life written with beauty and prose. Her ordinary life, the one she never wanted, ended up being transformative to Joan and her writing. Motherhood literally caught her completely by surprise. She never wanted a baby and felt betrayed by her body for letting it happen. Choosing to keep her baby put Joan on a path of life she never planned to journey on. She spends decades writing a book that she believes will resurrect her literary life and transfer her out of motherhood back into authorhood. 

Part one of this book was by far my favorite. Joans lack of desire for motherhood is so strong but by choosing to become a mother Joan knows that she is choosing to be a present mother to her child. She understands in her heart that having one child literally means having two because she won’t raise an only child. She is also keenly aware that her decision to keep the child will change the course of her life. After her decision to keep her baby she still aspires to keep writing and continue to be the author she was before meeting her husband and becoming pregnant. Since motherhood comes to her in an intense and surprising way her writing  slowly changes and moves to a secondary position. Over the course of several decades Joan perseveres to retain her voice and writing style to pen another masterpiece in her original voice that made her an international success.  A “betrayal of Shakespearean proportion” causes Joan to look at her life and question all of there choices. 

I would highly recommend this book to people who love a long sweeping novel that takes an in depth look at the sacrifices a mother makes for her children, the weight of upholding expectations, and attempting to try and figure out who you really are after you make choices that change the course of your life. 

Over all Rating - 4.5/5 stars

Thank you to Flatiron Books for supplying me with an advance reading copy of The Resurrection of Joan Ashby by Cherise Wolas. I received this book in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own. 

The Resurrection of Joan Ashby

Author: Cherise Wolas

Release Date: August 29, 2017

Publisher: Flatiron Books

ISBN-10: 1250081432

Hardcover: 544 Pages

Happy Reading,

Rachael