3 out of 4 stars
Share This Review
Many married couples go through tough times both emotionally and psychologically. People who have never gone through a divorce/separation can never know how it feels when the love in marriage fades way. What happens when love turns into bitterness?
Micheli Sebastiano Salvatore Zappala gives a sneak peek of the possible turn of events when love goes sour through Breaking Apart; When Do You Know Adultery is Sin?. It is a fictional story that is based on real-life events. Written in the first person, the book is in the form of diary entries. The main characters of the book are Rachael and Michael Macaroni. They had been married for 13 years when their marriage came crumbling down. Michael began to write down the events that took place in his life from the day that his wife, Rachael, left with their four children. The core of the story is about the sour relationship between the two and how it affected their children i.e., Rachel (named after her mother), Michael (named after his father), Sarina (named after her grandmother), and Jessica.
The story has a gamut of emotions. I felt sad when Michael recalled how he spent 7 days a week running the family business to give his family a luxurious lifestyle. After the separation, the luxuries did not help ease his pain. It was saddening to learn that his father-in-law, Arthur, thought that he was a worthless man and denied him access to his four children. It was heartbreaking to know that Rachael turned into a brute beast. For instance, she sent her new boyfriend and his friend to break into Michael’s home. I felt pity for Michael who had several sleepless nights because he feared they might kill him or completely destroy all his assets during one of the nights. I had chills when Arthur went for a knife to hurt Michael. Worst of all, the local authorities did not help him to ease the situation. The author had me glued to the pages as I yearned to know more about the next turn of events. The separation was an emotional roller coaster.
As I delved deeper into the story, I couldn’t help but feel that the author could have used a different title, especially for the “When do you Know Adultery is Sin?” part. At first, I thought that the author would be giving more information to answer the question. However, that was not the case. The book is more of a collection of thoughts and events that the main characters went through after their separation.
Although Michael’s diary is full of exciting stories, it was not professionally edited. It contains so many mistakes that distracted me most of the time. They range from grammatical mistakes, poor sentence structure, typos, and poor formatting of the book. Therefore, I give the book 3 out of 4 stars. The helpful hand of an editor can turn it into a perfect book. I recommend Breaking Apart; When Do You Know Adultery is Sin? to anyone who is looking for an entertaining book about divorce and separation.
******
Breaking Apart
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Like Jgideon's review? Post a comment saying so!
