Reviews for Home song

The average rating for Home song based on 2 reviews is 2 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2014-03-22 00:00:00 Juliana L Destree I have read this a couple of times now and a few things stand out a little differently than when I first read it. Initially I was kinda irked by Claire and her attitude. Mainly because of her persistence in accusing Tom of currently having an affair with the mother of his illegitimate son Kent when she really did not have a lot to go on, and her continual protestations of not knowing what was happening to her mentally, and her absolute inability to even be remotely professional around Kent, who is the person least responsible for the whole situation. Now on the reread I see things a bit differently, however I think LS missed the mark on this one, mainly cause she had a definite agenda in pushing the putting kids first in a marriage no matter what goes on in the relationship between the parents. Since this book was written in 1995 amidst a lot of culture wars about broken homes etc, this is an understandable agenda, no one likes to see the pain of divorce but in doing this LS missed an opportunity to really show the nuts and bolts of making a marriage work after a betrayal and in presenting Claire (the betrayed wife) as being irrationally jealous and angry, she denies a lot validity to the very real effects of betrayal (even 18 years later) and the pressure and strain it puts on people. She also does a big disservice to her adult characters in not allowing the full spectrum of betrayal, anguish, remorse and redemption to occur over the course of the book. Instead it becomes all about Claire throwing Tom out of the house for no reason and pacifying her kids who want everything their own way. Not that I blame the kids, they're kids and can't help wanting their stable universe to continue, but now the sons have the idea that betraying your partner is okay as long as the partner doesn't know right away, and the daughter has the idea that when a man screws around on you, you have to take him back and continue your relationship because he wants that and your kids do too so your needs aren't important. Mainly Tom's lack of development really disappointed me this time around. Tom freely admits he screwed Kent's mum cause he did not want to be married and he felt railroaded and he did not love Claire when he married her but he sorta "grew into it". Actually what he grew into was his status and his lifestyle and the admiration of his family and peers as being the perfect stand-up father, husband and principal. At no time did Tom ever acknowledge that he was hurting for Claire the woman, his thoughts were all, "I miss my house and my kids and my wife" - even now 18 plus years later it isn't Claire the person he is missing, but the object "his wife" who completes his happy family, sterling character self image. Tom just can't acknowledge that he has essentially lied to the one person who is supposed to matter most for 18 years and yet when he thinks Claire might be stepping out on him, his first thoughts are "If you have had him, I don't want you back", this makes absolutely no sense in his situation unless,(and sadly I have come to this conclusion), your a completely self-centered narcissistic ass. He has years of deceit and doesn't seem to understand how this makes him rather less than trustworthy - in his mind he "grew into it" so all is okay. He dismisses his screwing around and getting another woman preggers 3 days before he slept with his wife on his wedding night as a youthful mistake. Claire is supposed to say let bygones be bygones and jump into bed with him and all will be well. Claire is supposed to have infinite compassion and understanding and forgiveness and his lies and betrayals aren't supposed to mean anything. In fact, that is exactly what he says "She didn't mean anything." Well, great I guess, not only does he betray his fiancee, but the woman he left pregnant and alone doesn't really matter at all, she was just roadkill on the highway of success. What a prince and sterling character we have in Tom. Everybody has to be on his side cause he made a tiny little error and his ego has to be pandered to cause his feelings are the ones that count. Forget his abandonment and callous dismissal of a girl he used and forget that he only married Claire because he "had" to - (someone held a gun to his head?)- Tom is sad and hurt and devastated cause his mistakes have come home to roost and embarrass his kids and his wife - although I noticed he is very proud of himself for being the sperm donor for a pretty good 17 year old boy - Tom the stud, he thinks. Another thing or rather a continuance of making Claire the bad guy here is the whole separation. Claire is very, very hurt, confused and angry. She has had 18 years of idolizing Tom, really loving him and knowing that she loved him more than he loved her and just in general being grateful that he married her and they had a good life. She is understandably devastated to realize that Tom never loved her, has had to force himself to "grow into love" - whatever the heck that means- and wants some time apart to sort herself out. Claire wants to move out but Tom vetoes this and moves out himself, thus making Claire the bad guy again cause "she kicked Dad out". Well, no she didn't, what she tried to do was give the adults some space to work out some very tangled and heavy emotions without traumatizing the kids too much. I think LS should have had Claire go, she needed the space but LS couldn't do that and still make Claire the bad guy. At the very least LS could have had Tom step out of his megalomania and self pity for a moment and explain to the kids that it was his idea for him to go, as they all need some space. However this would mean Tom might have to admit he did something wrong and this would not work for making Claire irrationally evil. This continual villainization of Claire's POV got really old really quick this time. This could have been a marvelous opportunity for Tom to really prove his love and devotion to Claire, it could have been a great lead in to two people overcoming a absolutely devastating betrayal and come out stronger, better people with a real chance for happiness together. As it is the whole mess is resolved in two pages after the woman Tom slept with comes over and basically yells at Claire about ruining people's lives. Forgive me here, but I just gotta say, Kent's mother did more than her part in messing up people's lives. She screwed a guy getting married in three days and then did not bother to tell him he was a daddy. Hello - who is she to be preaching anything? She essentially denied her kid a dad and a family for near 20 years, never been married but she is giving out advice? And she is presented as being this wonderful person. That scene was nauseating and really inappropriate and morally the woman doesn't have a leg to stand on. I honestly don't see an HEA in this one, more like HFN. Claire is not going to forget that she is a burden to Tom and supposed to be forever grateful and adoring to an egotist. What are they going to do once the kids leave for college? Tom can't be trusted, he is only really concerned about how others see him and Claire's sense of devastation and loss is never really addressed. Tom does nothing to show that it is Claire he values and I just don't see Claire sticking it out now that she knows how callous and self-centered Tom really is. Essentially Claire is guilted into staying cause it will cause untold devastation to her kids if she doesn't - heavens!?! they might become pregnant drug abusers or something because Daddy is gone and they will do whatever to get him back and make evil mummy feel bad- forget that they are almost college age and should understand adult relations a bit more, these were not sheltered Catholic school nunnery kids. Sadly though once the kids are gone, Tom and Claire will have no common bond. Claire can't continue in unadulterated idol worship, the scales have fallen from her eyes, and Tom really doesn't care about how Claire feels, otherwise he would have been a bit more cognizant of the pot, kettle, black situation when he though Claire might be thinking about someone other than him. Since the foundations of this marriage are riddled with rot and there is no attempt to rebuild or repair the chasms created, the whole edifice is eventually going to fall and that is kinda sad. What could have been a great story of betrayal and redemption gets lost in the self-aggrandizement of an egotist and the unstanched wounds of a betrayed woman who makes the mistake of thinking her kids are more important than her self worth plus being able to look at her spouse with unalloyed respect and trust. I did not get a happy feeling at the end, just a sense of doom and waiting for the other shoe to fall, I hate to see the marriage three years from the end of the book, cause I don't think there will be one left.

Review # 2 was written on 2017-06-22 00:00:00 Cavour Mcclain Despite my stance of never reading this, I read it. Oh Boogenhagen, why? I would love to say that the stance that it's all on the little woman to be forgiving is as dated as this book, but reading more contemporary books shows that's not the case. Why indulge in a little pouting that your husband cheated on you three days before your marriage when your kids, the teachers, and especially the mother of the bastard son think you are being selfish. The husband doesn't even give her a day to "get over it". Luckily for everyone, the new addition to the family is a 4.0 GPA, football hero, walk on water Saint in the making. I wonder how the H would have felt if his new son was a leather wearing, smoking, school ditching juvenile delinquent?