The Safety of Secrets

by DeLauné Michel

Book Overview

"Now we're just alike." So begins Fiona and Patricia's friendship that warm autumn morning in first grade in Lake Charles, Louisiana, their bond forged ever closer by Fiona's abusive mother and Patricia's neglectful one. Their relationship is a source of continuity and strength through their move to L.A. to become actresses; through Fiona's marriage and Patricia's sudden fame. When husband and career pressures exact a toll, the women wonder if their...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060817364
• ISBN13: 9780060817367
• Release Date: May 2008
• Publisher: William Morrow & Company
• Length: 294 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.4" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Beautifully Written

I loved this beautifully written book. Michel takes us into the heart and soul of Fiona, through whom we explore a complex friendship between herself and Patricia, childhood friends in a small Louisiana town and later actresses together in Hollywood. I was touched by Michel's insights into relationships between women and found myself reflecting back on my own relationships, past and present. As Fiona and Patricia transition from girlhood to adulthood, the challenges they face ring true -- this book is a delicately drawn portrait of characters that could be drawn from real life and will stay with you long after you finish turning the last page.

beautiful book

This book is a beautifully written portrayal of two women and their lives. If you're looking for a National Enquirer style smash-you-over-the-head-and-make-you-gasp kind of "secret" book, read something else. This book is about true-to-life characters (including a horrific mother) and is presented with glorious subtle details and nuance. I won't be giving this book away. Read it.

Read it!

Can't-put-it-down readable with a secret at its core, this book is a sensitive, canny portrayal of a decades-long friendship. It works as a great beach read because of Michel's funny insights into the Hollywood actors scene, but like an iceberg, it has unexpected solidity under the surface. It's depth snuck up on me. It's an atypical coming-of-age story in that rather than simply covering the familiar territory of the jump from girl-to-woman; it explores the maturity that is required to jump from young-woman-to-mother. The crisis in the main character Fiona's relationship with her childhood friend Patricia, coming at the same time as the birth of Fiona's first child, enables Fiona to step into her true female adulthood--to access the maturity required to be a stable and loving example to her baby. Having witnessed Fiona's journey into unconditional love and forgiveness, we are assured that her child will be protected from at least some of the pain and tragedy that Patricia and Fiona endured. I loved it from the beginning to the sweet and moving last page. Read it!

dangerous faultlines

Maybe it's because I'm in the midst of deciding what to do about one of my own old relationships that this book hit me so hard. Like Fiona in the book, I'm struggling with a friendship that has emerged as a two-headed hydra--and that's what Michel gets at so trenchantly: just how difficult it is to maintain a long-standing friendship and to keep that monster the ego from taking over and sucking every bit of air out of the garden. Oh, and the mother is quite a piece of work, too. Michel is a pull-no-punches kind of writer with a terrific way with a metaphor. SAFETY OF SECRETS reads like a thriller, the pacing is so taut, and in fact there is a very real crime committed within its pages. In Michel's hands this scene is both subtle and crushing. A lessor writer would have yielded to its prurient potential; Michel instead reveals her power to pull us deep into the character's feelings. A compelling read.

deep character study

They met a quarter of a century ago as first graders in Lake Charles, Louisiana over a pair of socks. Fiona Marshall and Patricia Woods became friends with both eluding odious mothers. Whereas Fiona's mother was abusive, Patricia's was negligent. They left Bayou country soon after high school to make it in Hollywood. Each was married and divorced; they survived the Hollywood night culture that has destroyed so many young. Both share a secret that no one else knows until now. Twenty-five years of best friend sisterhood may end with that secret revealed. Fiona and Patricia reexamine their friendship, other relationships over the years, and the difficult realities that have surfaced for them. The story line moves back and forth between the present and past in Southern California and their childhood in Louisiana as events today have the lead females looking back in time. Fiona and Patricia are fully developed characters, but it is their deep friendship forged back in elementary school that DeLaune Michael focuses on. Though loving best friends who would do anything for the other, with warmth and caring comes hurts and anger. Healthy relationships have a down side to them even when they are mostly loving, upbeat, and supportive. THE SAFETY OF SECRETS is a deep character study that will leave readers examining their strongest relationships. Harriet Klausner