When It Happens to You audiobook

Full disclosure: my wife wrote this book. That said, I think it's a tremendous feat of storytelling. I loved the interconnectedness of the narratives, the way that events are reintroduced later from a different vantage, and how these perspectival shifts reinforce themes of complexity and even opacity (both narratively and emotionally). This is a world where nothing is simple, and yet it's not a freewheeling all-is-permitted place: there are real and heavy consequences, and watching the characters make their way through this difficult, complicated landscape was a heartbreaking pleasure.

I put off reading this book because I made the erroneous assumption that Molly Ringwald is the same girl as the actress in the 80's, still riding her wave of notoriety by trying her hand at writing a novel which inevitably will be bad. She's an actress, after all. Not a writer. Here is my public apology. I wrongly pigeon holed the author, making the pious and hypocritical assumption that she was one dimensional. Assuming that, unlike me, she hadn't grown and tapped into her different gifts and developed surprising facets in her life. I am particularly guilty because I saw her in one episode of Medium where she played the character of blind woman. All the trappings of Molly Ringwald remained in her physical presence; red hair, pretty smile, big eyes, but as I watched the episode, I forgot Pretty In Pink and saw only a blind woman, plagued with trying to convince Lee that she was, in fact, being watched. Molly who?It turns out that Molly Ringwald is a master of observation and articulation. She not only translates feelings and characters via acting but also through writing. Although the book is a conglomeration of short stories, the book is essentially telling the same story but at different time periods throughout a year, involving different characters and exploring relationships, the demise of some, the reunification of others, tying together all of the loose ends at the end.The most prominent character in the book is Greta, the thirty-something year old woman consumed with conceiving another child. Already the mother of one daughter and married to the man she'd been with since she was 18, she had completely identified herself with her roles of homemaker, sacrificing a career to build up her husband's. Although she doesn't frame it as a sacrifice but as a free choice. I liked that. At the end of this story, the reader has put together the clues but Greta is still uncertain for why her husband is crying and apologizing.The next story is a few months later. Phillip and Greta have been separated since she discovered his infidelities. The stories toggle between the two points of view but interspersed with the introduction of different characters and perspectives of motherhood, parenting, and marriage. What is exceptional about the book is the way the author expresses in precise articulation the feelings and thoughts of each of them. Halfway through the book is the short story called "When It Happens to You." I wish I could quote it all because it is incredibly perceptive, insightful, and heart wrenching.The girl who will give him back this illusion of vitality for a short time will not think of your children or your marriage. She will not consider the lovely years that you spent together with him. Why would she? She wasn't there when you both laughed your way through your wedding with a pure and nervous joy. She wasn't there when you both waited for your first child to be born. When he held your hand and told you how the contractions were coming, with the seriousness of a boy. . . She wasn't there when you held him upright at his father's funeral and then at his mother's only weeks later. Or for the vacations, alone at first and then with the children. Or the holidays.When it happens to you, you will ask him why he would choose to forsake this good, sweet life that you carefully built together for a girl who couldn't begin to understand him. And then you will realize that that is at least partially the point. He doesn't want to be understood. He wants to be misunderstood because in that misunderstanding lies the possibility of reinvention.You will go to therapy and strive to find your part in it. Your complicity. You will nod when the therapist tells you that if you do the work, you can have the marriage you always dreamed of. But I had the marriage I always dreamed of, you'll tell her. No, she will assure you. You only thought you did. You will try to make sense of this "hall of mirrors" way of looking at your life. Mostly, you will just miss the marriage that you had but didn't have.When it happens to you, you will wonder if he loved her. He will assure you that he did not, that it wasn't about love. He will tell you that it was about something else entirely. But even in your quietest moments together, he will be unable to specify what that something else was. He will honestly seem as confused as you, even to the point of bewilderment.Very well written book. Highly recommend, particularly to both men and women who have been married for a few years.

Wow - never would have thought an 80's actress could produce such a wonderful book so completely open and filled with emotion! I hesitated in buying this book because it described itself as a series of short stories, and I don't like short stories - I read too fast and have a hard time moving from story to story so quickly. However I didn't feel it was a collection of short stories so much as just a large cast of characters, whose lives all somewhat intertwine, almost a literary version of "Love Actually". Ringwald nails the rage and disbelief that Greta feels when she finds out her husband, Philip, is cheating on her with their daughter's 19-year-old violin teacher, and Greta's poignant "letter" (When it Happens to You) to the adulteress is chilling in its honest truthfulness. Also Greta's insistence on hearing every detail of the affair, despite the hurt it caused her - amazing how Ringwald described it: "And yet you will find that when it happens to you, your heart won't listen to reason. Because for all the wisdom you've accumulated up to that point, in all the years you have been alive, your heart is just a muscle like any other. Full of blood and veins, hungry for oxygen. Your heart doesn't think. Your heart is stupid. It doesn't consider the relativity of tragedy when it breaks".I loved the way each character's story touched or connected to the others, and how you get to hear the different sides of the story from each character.I was somewhat disappointed that the story of Oliver wasn't kept going a little longer - the way Ringwald ends it hints at what the outcome was but doesn't cement it. Still, to take on the story of a little boy who insists on wearing girls clothes and self-identifying as a girl is quite the feat, but when Ringwald does with ease.You fall a little bit in love with each of the characters and their flaws. Definitely will be looking out for more books by Ringwald, and would definitely recommend this to other readers!

I didn't choose this book because I'm a particular fan of Molly Ringwald; I had read a good review, and she always seems smart in interviews. Now I KNOW she's smart. This isn't one of those books where a famous person decides to dabble in another art. Ringwald is a very good writer, and it's clear from her afterward that she sees writing as work, and not a dalliance. The story evolves through shorts from varying points of view. Often the reader doesn't know how the story will fit together, until the new main character turns out to be a neighbor of another, or meets someone at a party whom you recognize from another chapter. It centers on a marital infidelity. Despite how mundane a topic, I still didn't know what would happen until the last page. In the center is a treatise-like monologue written from the cheated-on wife to the girl her husband slept with. (This part is called 'when it happens to you'.) It is a beautiful piece of writing. So beautiful that it actually blew me away. I'm very close to giving the book 5 stars, but I'm sticking to 4 because I'm not sure if I liked it so much because I was surprised at what a freaking good writer Ringwald is. I am quite sure that if I didn't know it was her, I still would have been entranced. My only nitpicky complaint is that if I were a writing teacher - oh wait, I AM a writing teacher - I would say that her imagery is a little clunky. But the story makes up for it. I really recommend it.

When it Happens to You is a smart, fresh, on-the-mark “novel in stories”. In eight interrelated tales, Ringwald offers a savvy look into personal relationships in today’s society. While the stories feature contemporary themes, they come across as both modern and timeless. The main characters, Greta, Phillip, and Charlotte, are your typical American family, experiencing the same trials and triumphs that happen to families across the globe everyday. Yet experiencing these through the lens of heartbreaking and redemptive stories makes us understand their daily struggles and temptations. Much like in the Paul Haggis movie Crash, the tales and the characters are interrelated, which I totally loved and think is a major reason why this novel works. The stories could stand alone as sharp and tender life lessons, but when presented as a collective whole, the book truly stands out.The novel comes full circle as it starts out with Greta, Phillip, and Charlotte embarking on an evening drive to watch the Harvest Moon. The conclusion of this first story serves as an appropriate allegory for the surrounding tales as each brings to light a new character to be examined, pondered, and savored. In the context of Ringwald’s quiet yet powerful language you find yourself fitting the pieces together like a puzzle, discovering how this person connects to either Greta or Phillip or Charlotte. While the basic premises are very elemental and something we can all relate to as we endure the human condition together, the linguistic usage by Ringwald is at once both charming and tragic. Embedded throughout are little nuggets of hope and surprise, and while each character’s soul is exposed with a harsh lens, there are no judgments passed. It is up to the reader to decide how they want to feel about that person. Sometimes you will feel anger. Sometimes you will feel sadness or pity. But you will not be apathetic to anyone by any means.This book would be perfect for reading groups because the messages it brings are universal and can be related to by anyone. It is a great conversation starter because it draws on contemporary hot-button issues such as infertility, infidelity, and transgenderism. There is no debate that this book is definitely a winner. Pick up a copy and experience for yourself the literary talents of Molly Ringwald!

This is a series of interconnected stories, mostly centering around Greta, her husband Phillip and their daughter Charlotte. Phillip cheats on Greta, which (not surprisingly) leads them to separate. Greta isn't ready to get divorced, necessarily, but she doesn't want to be with him right now, either.I don't generally read short stories and I probably wouldn't have picked up this book if it weren't written by Molly Ringwald. I said that to say this: this book is AMAZING. You know how there are authors who you know only get book deals because they're famous (SNOOKI)? Molly Ringwald is not that author.Each story felt real (for lack of a better word). Greta and Phillip (and the other characters we meet) seem like people I knew, more like...well, PEOPLE...and not just words on a page. While I was completely invested in Greta and Phillip's story, I think my favorite was "My Olivia," which is about a woman raising a son by herself. (The boy, Oliver, is Charlotte's best friend and so Phillip and Greta are in here, too.) Oliver is very young but he's determined that he was supposed to be a girl and is insistent upon being called Olivia and getting to wear dresses and scarves. I think it's one of the most beautiful testaments to a parent's love for their child that they will allow them to be who they are, even if "who they are" isn't who the parent expects them to be. Obviously you want to protect your kids from harm (and society can surely harm you, if you're different) but there's nothing more harmful than making your kid be something they're not.This is a gorgeous novel-in-stories. Highly recommended.

I read this one back in October--a book club pick. I was initially intrigued by the premise: a novel told in short stories (meaning, the stories/characters in the short stories are linked.) I had hesitations after reading the first story, about a thirty-something stay-at-home mom who finds out that her husband is having an affair with their daughter's (much younger, naturally) violin teacher. I felt like that set-up has been used as a device a lot in women's fiction, to start the heroine on a journey in which she re-evaluates her life, reclaims the things she's lost "of herself" as a stay-at-home mom and wife, etc., etc, and, of course, along the way she hooks up with a younger, attractive man who helps rebuild her confidence.And without giving too much away, I wouldn't say that this book strays very much from that plot... But something about this book was compelling nevertheless, and I think it's because all of the stories and characters rang very "true." There was one story in particular--about a single mom and her young son that I found very touching. Even the cheating husband storyline, which bookends the novel, was interesting because the emotions captured felt real and genuine. I'm not sure I necessarily agreed with the heroine's decision at the end of the story, but I understood her journey and how *she* got there.All in all, a quick, interesting read, and one that generated a lot of book club discussion.

There’s a part in “The Harvest Moon,” the first story in this collection of short fiction by actress Molly Ringwald, where a young girl quizzes her harried mother with a series of increasingly unpleasant scenarios, wondering if she’ll stop loving her. What if she grew spider legs? What if her face was disfigured? About this interaction, Ringwald writes, “This wasn’t a game about answers but about questions. How outrageous, unpleasant, and fearsome could we become and still be loved?” That query is “When It Happens To You” in a nutshell. These interconnected short stories - finely observed and quietly devastating - are all about the ways love binds and enriches and hurts people. “When It Happens To You” is not (NOT!) some celebrity vanity project; Ringwald is the real deal and her writing is exemplary, not compared to other famous moonlighting authors but to ALL authors. This book is superb.FAVORITES (This is really hard because I loved each of these eight stories):“My Olivia” - A single mother struggles with how to support her young son identifying as a girl.“When It Happens To You” - An atom bomb of a story about all the ways infidelity can tear a person apart.“The Little One” - An elderly woman befriends a young girl while trying to accept the death of her beloved husband.

Halfway through the book, I was impressed that the writing was as strong as it was, but I was worried that the story pieces were taking too long in coming together to complete the whole. I felt it would be a 3-star story that I'd really want to give 4 stars just because I'm a fan of Molly Ringwald.But when I reached the chapter from which the book gets its name, I realized, no, this is a solid story, well told, regardless of who the author is. The writing is thoughtful, wistful and perceptive and offers a realistic take on the dissolution of a marriage, as well as the hope that not all damage is permanent.

4.5 stars. Molly Ringwald is an excellent storyteller. She has a unique and talented voice to say so much in not so many words. She is skilled at weaving individual stories to form a unified story. I am left feeling sad for many of the characters. I am not sure the story had an ending that wrapped up my many thoughts.

I suppose I should like that, like life, it didn’t have a clearly all wrapped up end. I enjoyed the characters. The situations. I found some hard to read. Emotionally heavy. But isn’t that what a good book does?

One of the characters in this book is one that the author didn't intend...it's the reader's own sense of 'Hollywood voyeurism' that keeps asking, "Gosh, Molly, is this REALLY fiction? What's going on in your life, girl?" I liked how she threaded a common line through a series of seemingly unrelated stories, leaving the reader like a fish following that line to the hook. The bait on that hook was the letter, written to the apathetic young homewrecker, that gives title to the book. Really good. 5 stars.

AudiobookI love how these short stories are interwoven into each other. Touching on many ife issues and problems . Hopeful and full of compassion and understanding. Very well written and a joy to listen to as the author herself read it.