~Book Review - In A Perfect World by Laura Kasischke~

Product Description From Amazon:

This is the way the world ends...

It was a fairy tale come true when Mark Dorn—handsome pilot, widower, tragic father of three—chose Jiselle to be his wife. The other flight attendants were jealous: She could quit now, leaving behind the million daily irritations of the job. (Since the outbreak of the Phoenix flu, passengers had become even more difficult and nervous, and a life of constant travel had grown harder.) She could move into Mark Dorn's precious log cabin and help him raise his three beautiful children.

But fairy tales aren't like marriage. Or motherhood. With Mark almost always gone, Jiselle finds herself alone, and lonely. She suspects that Mark's daughters hate her. And the Phoenix flu, which Jiselle had thought of as a passing hysteria (when she had thought of it at all), well . . . it turns out that the Phoenix flu will change everything for Jiselle, for her new family, and for the life she thought she had chosen.

From critically acclaimed author Laura Kasischke comes a novel of married life, motherhood, and the choices we must make when we have no choices left.

My Thoughts: Once I started reading this book, it was very difficult to put it down. I was so caught up in Mark and Jiselle's love story, and whether or not his children were going to accept her into the family. Ms. Kasischke's characters are likable and easy to connect with. I felt Jiselle's elation when she and Mark were married, and I felt her pain when his eldest daughter gave her a terrible gift that first Christmas the family celebrated together. I felt joy when they were able to come together as a family to survive the challenges that were ahead.

What happens in this story is very real and very frightening. Ms. Kasischke paints a perfect portrait of what life would be like if (or when......) a virulent pandemic sweeps the nation, and what is left in its aftermath.

Three & 1/2 Stars

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial; 1 edition (October 6, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061766119
• ISBN-13: 978-0061766114

I have read Ms. Kasischke's previous novels and highly recommend them, too!

Laura Kasischke teaches in the University of Michigan MFA program and the Residential College. She has published seven collections of poetry and seven novels. She lives with her family in Chelsea, Michigan.