Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Is there such a thing as a truly charmed life? When a small-town Maine woman's life is turned upside down by a mortal challenge, her own happiness and sanity are put to the ultimate test. Passamoquoddy, Maine, is the quintessential small town. And Annie is the quintessential small-town girl. She's happily married to her handsome, charming, but comically helpless childhood sweetheart, Sam, with whom she owns and operates Annie's, home to the legendary Paul Bunyan Special Sandwich--their "nutritionally challenged continual source of income and marital harmony and local fame." Although virtually abandoned by Ursula, her itinerant actress mother, Annie finds solace and joy in taking care of Sam. But into their charmed life comes the specter of a grim medical diagnosis for Annie--and the overwhelming challenge of finding a way to help Sam go on without her.
Annie decides to leave Sam step-by-step instructions about how to live his life, and even plans for her own replacement in his heart and their bed. Things seems to be proceeding smoothly, until the unexpected appearance of Ursula, whose enduring local celebrity threatens to derail her plans. As Ursula wreaks her own brand of chaos all over town, Annie desperately searches for a way to grapple with her own illness and see to Sam's well-being.
Minus Me is a poignant, deliciously hilarious novel about the bonds of marriage, the burdens of maternal love, and the courage to face mortality.
Synopsis
Her life turned upside down by a grim diagnosis, a small-town Maine woman sets about writing a "How To" life manual for her handsome yet hapless husband in a novel Elinor Lipman (Good Riddance, On Turpentine Lane) calls "smart, funny-quirky, and so very satisfying." Annie and her charming but comically helpless childhood sweetheart Sam are the owners and operators of Annie's, a gourmet sandwich shop, home to the legendary Paul Bunyan Special Sandwich--their "nutritionally challenged continual source of income and marital harmony and local fame."
But into their charmed life comes the grim medical diagnosis for Annie--and the overwhelming challenge of finding a way to help Sam go on without her. Annie decides to leave Sam step-by-step instructions about how to live his life, and even plans for her own replacement in his heart and their bed. All is going well until the unexpected appearance of Ursula, Annie's local celebrity of a mother, who brings her own brand of chaos and disruption into their lives.
Minus Me is a poignant and hilarious novel about the bonds of marriage, the burdens of maternal love, and the courage to face mortality, "with an ending readers will cherish (Caroline Leavitt, Pictures of You)."
"Medwed's lovely novel of marriage, motherhood, love and loss is so real that at times it feels like non-fiction. It's a timely reminder that in the worst of times, we sometimes rediscover the very best of ourselves." --Jodi Picoult, New York Times bestselling author of A Spark of Light.