The Language of Goodbye

ABOUT THE NOVEL:

With the lyricism of a poet and the gift of a master storyteller, Maribeth Fischer weaves an emotional story of infatuation, grief, acceptance and joy in her debut novel, THE LANGUAGE OF GOOD-BYE. In this accomplished, provocative new book, Fischer successfully intertwines the stories of various characters, illustrating that we are all linked by a common denominator. Her characters come from different countries and have unique pasts but they all speak the “language of good-bye.” At some point in their lives they have all had to make the difficult decision to say good-bye to their past and start anew, but how do you relinquish the past without losing a sense of who you have become? What is the cost of leaving a country, a child, a marriage? What is the cost of not leaving?

Annie Sullivan teaches English-as-second-language in Richmond Virginia. Every year she witnesses incoming college freshman leave the comfort of their parents and friends. They come to start over, changing their names “from Beth to Liz, from Kathy to Kate as if leaving behind who you are were so simple.” 

For Annie and Will, two lovers who have left the safety of their marriages to be together, the future is also about starting over; however, they know that changing won’t be so easy. In order to be together, Will must leave the five-year-old daughter he adores and Annie must abandon her childhood sweetheart. Desperately, Annie wishes that her life and choices were less complicated. “You close your eyes to the stuff you can’t handle and you keep going and you keep believing that somehow it will work out.”

The Korean-born Sungae, one of Annie’s English-as-second-language students, also wishes that her life could have been less complicated. A fifty-seven-year old woman, Sungae has lived in the United States for seventeen years without learning English.  She was unwilling to learn the words to describe the terrible loss that brought her to this country. After she enrolls in Annie’s English class, Sungae’s once protected past pours out of her in a sea of English verse. She is also finally able to fill her blank canvases with acrylic images from her past. For Sungae, telling and painting her story allows her to let go, to say good-bye.

At its core, Maribeth Fischer’s novel is about the choices we make between duty and desire, sorrow and happiness. It is a story not only about making these choices but also about living with them.

Reviews

Publishers Weekly, January 8,2001

Loss and Beginnings are the burdens of essayist Fischer’s courageous gently affirmative firs novel. Annie Helverson has recently abandoned the safety of a marriage to her childhood sweetheart, Carter, for the uncertainty of an affair with Will Sullivan, who has left his own long marriage and beloved five-year-old daughter, Brooke. Annie finds herself empathizing with the recently arrived immigrants in the English class she teaches, as she too is alternatively bewildered and delighted by her new life and surroundings.

Will’s wife, Kayla, is devastated by his betrayal, but she also senses his ambivalence, while Carter seems mired in anguish self-doubt and obsession. Their spouses’ reactions profoundly affect Will and Annie, as the new couple discovers that living with the decision to leave can be as devastating as being left. Their struggle is reflected in Sungae Oh—one of Annie’s students, an employee in Kayla’s bakery—a Korean-born painter who has lived in the States for 17 years without learning English, She is afraid to articulate the pain she feels over her lost homeland, her own loves and infidelities and the daughter she left behind. As Annie encourages her to speak and paint her past, Sungae taps into a rich talent, finding self-forgiveness and her way back to a marriage she had thought beyond repair.
The story is told from all five main characters’ viewpoints, and sometimes the internal monologues tend to bog things down. But it is Annie’s grief—over the pain she’s caused Carter, the untrustworthiness of her emotions, Will’s ongoing relationship with his family and her own infertility—that dominates the narrative, and her growth that drives the story. Fischer is a strong new voice in women’s fiction and her book should rise above its unfortunate jacket to find a receptive audience.

Booklist,
January 1&15, 2001

It is difficult to know if when reading this artfully realized first novel whether language is a metaphor for love or love a metaphor for language. The two are that tightly entwined. Faithfulness, commitment, truth; adjectives, agreement, prepositions and pieces are the life that Annie leads. She and Will have left their spouses for each other and the overwhelming passion that has swept them away. As an ESL teacher at a local college, she endeavors to infuse her students with the essence of language while her life is enriched by their stories. Sungae, a Korean student in Annie’s class, struggles with the nuance of language and the delicate balance of sorrow and duties. She works for will’s ex-wife and can observe the damage caused by her teacher’s choices, choices that echo events from Sungae’s Korean past. A painter, Sungae records, examines, and comes to closure through her art, although the words of Annie’s lessons are the conduit of her revelations. Great Happiness is punctuated with betrayal, loss and grieving but leads to peace and self-knowledge. There are no easy answers or easy endings in this excellent novel of real people and real emotions.