When Katie Wakes
Connie May Fowler, Nancy MillerOverview
Connie May Fowler is known to the world as the author of bestselling novels and powerful essays—but no one knew that for years she was the victim of brutal abuse and relentless humiliation. Now in this harrowing, spellbinding memoir, Fowler finally tells her own story.The daughter and grand-daughter of battered women, Fowler found herself irresistibly drawn to a man who was bent on destroying her, physically and emotionally. Despite her youth, spirit, education, and wonderful talent, she was trapped in a cycle of violence and despair with no way out. Until the day she adopted an incredible puppy she named Kateland.
With stunning candor, Connie May Fowler reveals how the unconditional love and loyalty of this dog helped her turn the corner, find a safe place, and reclaim her own life. A work of extraordinary passion and courage, When Katie Wakes holds out hope and inspiration to anyone who has ever dreamed of starting over.
Synopsis
Bestselling author Connie May Fowler tells her own extraordinary story for the first time-the harrowing years of her childhood followed by the abusive relationship she endured as a young woman-and how the unconditional love of her dog helped her escape her physical and emotional bonds.
Publishers Weekly
In this unique personal narrative, Fowler offers an eloquent look into the mind of a battered woman. Directly addressing her former abuser, she tells the story of their relationship and her gradual emergence from her own "self-loathing." A novelist with a poetic voice, Fowler (Remembering Blue) paints a rich, vivid portrait, by turns terrifying, haunting, gritty, dreamy and starkly rational. Snapshots of her evolving inner life flow into one another in an intimate montage. Heartbreakingly honest about the naive wishfulness that keeps her with a monstrous boyfriend, she writes, "When you tell me you'll turn me into a writer, that we'll pen movies together and live in Hollywood, my foolish hopefulness gushes like an opened vein." Her deep need to save this violent drunk stems from her past, when she nursed her abusive mother as she died a slow, ugly, alcoholic death. In the midst of Fowler's transition from childhood to her relationship with her abusers to her new, healthier existence, she agonizes, "Which person is the real me? The young professional? Or the cowed little girl who has become a battered woman?" Ultimately, she completed her inner transformation and left the relationship, accompanied by her faithful dog Katie. Fowler's extraordinary memoir unlocks the secret inner worlds of battered women, codependents trying to love addicts and everyone who's overcome a traumatic past and healed herself through love. (Feb. 1) Forecast: Oprah Winfrey had a hand in the TV movie of Fowler's fictional account of domestic abuse, Before Women Had Wings. That distinction and a nine-city author tour will win her book sales. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
Editorials
From Barnes & Noble
In Before Women Had Wings, Connie May Fowler presented a jarring fictional account of domestic abuse. Here she chronicles her own harrowing rite of passage at the hands of a manipulative mother and a violent boyfriend. The Katie of the title is Kateland, Fowler's adoring and adorable Labrador. With her loving puppy at her side, Connie May learned gradually to gather her own strength after a life of mistreatment. The story of her decision and its pleasant repercussions make this powerful book an uplifting experience. (P.S. Fowler and her husband co-founded Women with Wings, a foundation dedicated to aiding victims of domestic abuse.)Publishers Weekly -
In this unique personal narrative, Fowler offers an eloquent look into the mind of a battered woman. Directly addressing her former abuser, she tells the story of their relationship and her gradual emergence from her own "self-loathing." A novelist with a poetic voice, Fowler (Remembering Blue) paints a rich, vivid portrait, by turns terrifying, haunting, gritty, dreamy and starkly rational. Snapshots of her evolving inner life flow into one another in an intimate montage. Heartbreakingly honest about the naive wishfulness that keeps her with a monstrous boyfriend, she writes, "When you tell me you'll turn me into a writer, that we'll pen movies together and live in Hollywood, my foolish hopefulness gushes like an opened vein." Her deep need to save this violent drunk stems from her past, when she nursed her abusive mother as she died a slow, ugly, alcoholic death. In the midst of Fowler's transition from childhood to her relationship with her abusers to her new, healthier existence, she agonizes, "Which person is the real me? The young professional? Or the cowed little girl who has become a battered woman?" Ultimately, she completed her inner transformation and left the relationship, accompanied by her faithful dog Katie. Fowler's extraordinary memoir unlocks the secret inner worlds of battered women, codependents trying to love addicts and everyone who's overcome a traumatic past and healed herself through love. (Feb. 1) Forecast: Oprah Winfrey had a hand in the TV movie of Fowler's fictional account of domestic abuse, Before Women Had Wings. That distinction and a nine-city author tour will win her book sales. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.KLIATT
Connie May Fowler has written essays, novels and screenplays and now she has written an intensely personal memoir. While in her twenties, Fowler was in an relationship with a man 30 years her senior which was filled with physical, emotional and financial abuse. In spite of her education and professional abilities, she was unable to shake off her feelings of worthlessness based on her abusive relationship with her mother, the absence of a father, and her feelings of ugliness because of her deformed mouth and teeth. Adopting a dog, Kateland, was the first step she took to gather the strength needed to find enough acceptance and feeling of self-worth to escape. This is a story of courage, but it also conveys the difficulty many women face when caught in the cycle of abuse, starting in childhood and leading, seemingly inevitably, to damaging adult relationships. The description of her abusive boyfriend and her kowtowing to him is almost embarrassing to read, yet Fowler is able to give the reader a sense of just how difficult it is for a woman raised as she was not to find herself susceptible to such a relationship. Her ultimate strength and courage may be an example to other young women in her situation. KLIATT Codes: A—Recommended for advanced students and adults. 2002, Ballantine, 271p.,— Nola Theiss