Willing Spirits by Phyllis Schieber

After participating in the Promo 101 Virtual Blog Tour for Phyllis Schieber's The Sinner's Guide to Confession (you can read my review here) and really enjoying the book and her writing style, I knew I had to be part of the tour for Schieber's Willing Spirits.

Willing Spirits opens with Jane Hoffman, a forty-something teacher, catching her husband in bed with a girl not much older than their college-age daughter. She realizes she's had enough and was never really happy with Arnold, and she decides a divorce is in order. Jane immediately turns to her long-time best friend, Gwen Baker, for comfort. Gwen has problems of her own, though, as her married lover decides he's finally ready to leave his wife.

Gwen and Jane have been there for each other since they met, and they are so close that it's almost as though they don't need anyone else.

Women comfort each other with touch that is meant to heal, rather than to excite. The mysteries of love are less complex between women. The hidden passages are easier to negotiate. And the dangers do not seem as great as when the same journey is taken with a man. Around each dank and frightening corner, women hold out their hands to each other and form a human chain that is, quite simply, spiritually different. The lucky ones find men who (and it is a deep and well-kept secret between women) are more like women. (pages 50-51)

Schieber brilliantly shows the complexity of female relationships. Both women had difficult relationships with their mothers, and Jane doesn't really get along with her sister. Schieber also does a good job showing how women often can't make up their minds when it comes to men (Gwen wants Daniel around because she doesn't want to be alone, but at the same time doesn't like seeing his stuff all over her house). Both Jane and Gwen are moms, and I could really relate to some of the passages about motherhood.

Some secrets were meant to be shared. But now it was her children and their secrets that frightened her. The subterfuge they must have already been a part of. The tacit pledges they had sworn to strangers. She did not want to know. And she did. That made her too much like her own mother. The sameness frightened her. (pages 157-158)

I think Schieber's writing is beautiful. Her characters are well-developed and interesting, and while I didn't think there was a major conflict or plot point that carried the book from beginning to end, I enjoyed watching Jane and Gwen deal with the tensions in their roles as mothers, daughters, wives, lovers, and friends. I recommend Willing Spirits for readers who enjoy character-driven novels about women and their numerous, complex relationships.

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About Willing Spirits:

Jane Hoffman and Gwen Baker, both teachers and in their forties, have a friendship that helps them endure. Years after Gwen is abandoned and left to raise two sons alone, she finds herself in love with a married man. After Jane is humiliated by her husband’s infidelity and Gwen must face her own uncertain path, the two women turn to each other.

Now, as each is tested by personal crisis, Jane and Gwen face new challenges—as mothers, as daughters, as lovers. And in the process, they will learn unexpected truths about their friendship—and themselves.

About Author Phyllis Schieber:

The first great irony of my life was that I was born in a Catholic hospital. My parents, survivors of the Holocaust, had settled in the South Bronx among other new immigrants. In the mid-fifties, my family moved to Washington Heights. The area offered scenic views of the Hudson River and the Palisades, as well as access to Fort Tryon Park and the mysteries of the Cloisters. I graduated from George Washington High School. I graduated from high school at sixteen, went on to Bronx Community College, transferred to and graduated from Herbert H. Lehman College with a B.A. in English and a New York State license to teach English. I earned my M.A. in Literature from New York University and later my M.S. as a developmental specialist from Yeshiva University. I have worked as a high school English teacher and as a learning disabilities specialist. My first novel , Strictly Personal, for young adults, was published by Fawcett-Juniper. Willing Spirits was published by William Morrow. My most recent novel, The Sinner’s Guide to Confession, was released by Berkley Putnam. In March 2009, Berkley Putnam will issue the first paperback publication of Willing Spirits.

Win A Free Book from Phyllis Schieber – Free books will be awarded during the tour.
Each comment on any of the blogs in the tour will offer a chance to win a free copy of Willing Spirits or The Sinner’s Guide to Confession. A couple of people who make a real impression on Phyllis during the tour will be chosen to win a free book. We’ll see you on the virtual blog tour trail.

For full details about Phyllis Schieber’s virtual tour, visit her tour home page here.

Order Your Copy here –
Penguin Publishers
Amazon

You can visit Phyllis Schieber here.

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Willing Spirits also was reviewed by:

Peeking Between the Pages
S. Krishna's Books
Ramya's Bookshelf
Book Addiction
Confessions of a Real Librarian


If you've also reviewed it, let me know in the comments, and I'll add your link!

Disclosure:  I received a free copy of Willing Spirits from the publisher for review purposes.