Outtakes from a Marriage

By Ann Leary

Book Overview

Julia and Joe Ferraro are living the good life in Manhattan now that Joe's finally made it; he's the star of a hit TV show and has just been nominated for a Golden Globe award. After many lean years, they've got a grand Upper West Side apartment and an Amagansett beach house, and their two kids go to elite private schools. Even better, Julia and Joe are still madly in love. Or so Julia thinks until the fateful evening when she accidentally hears a voice mail on Joe's phone- a message left by a sultry-sounding woman who clearly isn't just a friend. Suddenly Julia is in a tailspin, compulsively checking Joe's messages, stalking him in cyberspace, and showing up unannounced on his sets, wondering all along if she should confront him. Julia's search forces her to consider the possibility that in the long process of helping Joe become something, she has become a bit of a "nothing," as her daughter once described her to her class on career day. A big husband-stalking nothing. When Julia and Joe first met, she was an edgy East Village girl who wrote music reviews for the Village Voice and threw famed parties in a gritty downtown loft with her friends. Joe was a shy, awkward drama student who followed her around like a lovesick spaniel. After he won her heart, Julia helped Joe evolve into a roguishly handsome charmer who became increasingly obsessed with his looks and his career. Julia, meanwhile, settled into doting motherhood and a new life of comfy clothes and parenting associations. Now, faced with the looming awards show and the possibility of a destroyed marriage, Julia embarks on an accelerated self-improvement routine of Botox, hair extensions, and erotically charged shrink sessions while dodging the sancti-mommies who lie in wait for her at her son's preschool each day. A unique take on the perennially popular issue of women trying not to lose themselves in matrimony and motherhood, Outtakes from a Marriage is expertly and humorously set against the Manhattan preschool mafia, the Hollywood machine, and the ticking clock of a waiting red carpet.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0307405877
• ISBN13: 9780307405876
• Release Date: June 2008
• Publisher: Shaye Areheart Books
• Length: 260 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.4" x 9.4"

Customer Reviews

Ann Leary is the best!

Ann leary is a fantastic writer! She is so down to earth and so funny!!! The books are amazing and I hate it when I finish them, I love the way it feels like you are chatting with a girlfriend, a really warm, honest, genuine, kind one! you will love this book!

Thoroughly Enjoyable Novel!

I bought Outtakes from a Marriage (hardcover version) a couple of months ago after a couple of friends had recommended it. I thought it would be a great way to kick back, relax, and read a good novel while on vacation. Unfortunately the vacation never came because of a family medical emergency. While sitting in a hospital waiting room as my mom underwent a serious surgical procedure, and while my sister was nearby flipping out, I pulled Outtakes from a Marriage out of my tote and began reading. Well I couldn't stop reading. Ms. Leary's writing style, wit, humor, and vivid descriptions, took me far away from what was going on around me. I became very engrossed in the story line and couldn't get over how quickly the time had passed. A couple of times my sister brought me back to reality to ask me what the heck was so funny...my book...that's what! I would recommend this book in a heartbeat. I love to read and didn't really know what to expect when I bought this book, but I'm very glad that I did. The following week my sister borrowed my book and she was pleasantly surprised at how much she also enjoyed Outtakes. I look forward to reading future books by Ms. Leary!

Great beach read!

Funny and engaging - great insight on what it must be like living a celebrity life. I think all women can see a little bit of Julia in themselves. Sit back and enjoy!

Loved it

From start to finish, Ann Leary has given the reader a rich and transparent description of the character of Julia Ferraro and her life as the wife of famed actor Joe Ferraro and mother of their two children. Although a legitimate member of the celebrity circuit, Julia's growing irreverance for the superficiality of it all, gives the humble, "regular guy" reader a bridge to share this lifestyle with the author. Regardless of any actual or imagined similarities to what the reader thinks is Denis and Ann's real life, the author has written a believable story that will resonate with parents, wannabes, and insiders alike. Reading this book reminded me of the movie "Living Out Loud" with Holly Hunter demonstrating the very active (and frightfully intense) minds of women as they weave in and out of relationships, learning about themselves along the way.

Wonderful Outtakes

In the hands of a less gifted writer, Outtakes from a Marriage could have been a cliché: the story of a woman who seems to have the perfect life (two beautiful children, a rich and famous husband) but finds out there's turmoil beneath the surface. Fortunately, Ann Leary knows about celebrity (her husband is Denis Leary), marriage, and, clearly, writing. She skillfully takes the reader along a path that's compelling, believable, and very real. I loved this novel, and look forward to reading more of Leary's fiction.