The Pain Behind The Portrait eBook Jenell Hollett
Download As PDF : The Pain Behind The Portrait eBook Jenell Hollett 
Mike, Dayne, and their two kids are a California success story. The family portrait hanging over their fireplace proves it. But the portrait is a lie—a façade hiding the truth of a deteriorating marriage where words are weapons and loneliness has replaced intimacy.
Mike is an attorney who resolved never to be like his father, a man who used words to control and belittle his wife and children. Unfortunately Mike married Dayne, a volatile and unpredictable woman who aims her tantrums at him with depressing regularity. Confused and frustrated, Mike retreats into his work.
When he least expects it, Mike meets Brooke. As Mike fights his feelings for Brooke, he begins to realize he's trapped in an abusive marriage with few options for resolution or escape. And all the while, the family portrait casts its illusion of happiness over the home—happiness Mike doubts he'll ever experience.
The follow-up novel to Jenell Hollett's What I Learned from Men, The Pain behind the Portrait is an enlightening, ultimately uplifting tale that vividly shows the damage words can inflict on a marriage.
The Pain Behind The Portrait eBook Jenell Hollett
Lots of interesting twist and turns. Having been married to a man opposite of Mike, it was hard to relate to the story. The character of Mike made me mad at times, not having enough guts to stand up to his abusive wife and finding excuses to emotially cheat on her. Glad towards the end he found peace and a more compatible partner.Product details
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The Pain Behind The Portrait eBook Jenell Hollett Reviews
WOW! I read this book, cover-to-cover, in a matter hours this past weekend, however, it's impact has lingered with me for days. Not often is the subject of spousal abuse discussed as it applies to men. Having experienced this very thing as an outsider observing friends' complicated relationships, I found this book extremely informative as well as intriguing. One can't help but feel a closeness to the main character, Mike. His integrity, his love for his children, his efforts to "do what is right" at his own expense is remarkable. Not only does this book share insight about the very complex issue addressed, but it also brings insight for those who might be entering into a relationship with someone or even considering marriage. There is a LOT to consider. One relationship that was not addressed in this book, unlike Ms. Hollett's first novel, is the affect of the parent/adult child/grandchildren relationship. She leaves that up to the reader...but it can also put an interesting twist on the issue of spousal abuse and gives the reader another perspective to consider as emotions trickle down to extended family and friendships.
I can't recommend this book enough!! I thoroughly enjoyed every emotion that it pulled out of me and when I finished the last page, I closed the book, closed my eyes, and just said, "Wow"... BUY this book, people! SHARE this book!! ENJOY this book!! You won't regret it!
The Pain Behind The Portrait (2015) is the second book of novelist Jenell Hollett, an appropriately titled portrayal of a very long and unhappy marriage, which explores how both husband and wife contribute to the many things that can either make or break their marriage.
The narrator, a family man and attorney in a small successful law firm, married to his beautiful wife Danye, with two children. As he continued to work hard to provide a comfortable lifestyle for his family that eventually included a trip to Italy to celebrate their 15 year wedding anniversary. The reader, by that time, was forced to wonder how their miserable marriage made it to that point. Danye seemed to be a temperamental, volatile, unappreciative, mean trophy wife, and he emotionally distant, avoidant, blaming and lacking in self awareness. The narrator steadily brooded over the pain his marriage caused him and then retreated into over work- or often, his home office study, seldom discussing their serious problems. This made me think of the clichéd saying "It takes two to tango!" It was even hard to see his remaining faithful to Danye as anything noble or admirable, as any average couple would have ended this marriage long before a 15 year anniversary.
Although some of the characters seemed one dimensional, there were many other points of interest in the story. The narrators friendship with Brooke was a nice distraction, his law partnership with Rob, helping Rob through a family crisis, as these men dealt with a breach of trust within their law firm, illustrated the admirable characteristics of both men. Without giving any of the storyline away, the narrator to his credit, eventually sought counseling, and helped his teen daughter MarLea with her acting out and difficulties adjusting and dealing their family problems, as the conclusion moved toward hope, healing and renewal.
Many thanks to the author for the signed ARC of this novel for the purpose of review. Jenell Hollett is also the author of "What I Learned From Men" (2012) she lives in San Diego, CA with her husband, they have 4 grown children.
I struggled with this book a little bit. It was described in the synopsis as "an enlightening, ultimately uplifting tale" yet I found it pretty depressing and many parts of it irritated me. Perhaps this would be a good book for a book club because I can see many a discussion over its content.
Mike and Dayne definitely had a dysfunctional relationship but I found that the story didn't spend enough time on their interactions together and more on Mike reflecting back. Basically there would be a couple of sentences where Dayne would verbally attack Mike and then chapter after chapter of him reflecting or doing other things. The actual amount of time that they were together in the book was extremely small. It made the impact of her abuse less powerful than what I think the author was aiming for when she was barely in the story. I feel like more interactions between the couple would have provided a more powerful message to the reader as they try to understand Mike. Dayne's behaviour was by no means acceptable but I feel like the premise of the book was about the abuse and its impact on Mike so the reader should have read more of it. Dayne wasn't really in the story much at all other than in Mike's thoughts and head.
Mike irritated me quite a bit in the story as well. Perhaps hindsight is the reason for that or perhaps it was the product of his abuse that made him that way and that it was intentional on the authors part. I don't know. It just seemed to me that the signs were all there in the beginning and that he was ruling with the wrong head. Dayne showed signs of the way she was before they were even married. I had an "are you kidding me" moment when they went out for their anniversary dinner and she belittled him and yet he had sex with her when they got back to the hotel. It seemed that no matter how cruel or hurtful her words were, which were indicated that they were, there was still room and time for a romp in the hay. Also, he basically hated her but was shocked and depressed when she actually left. Was this an effort to show how screwed up he was from the abuse?
There are no excuses for Dayne's behaviour and abuse of any kind is not acceptable. I want to make that perfectly clear. I do, however feel that there was some fault on both sides for the failed marriage. For such a serious subject matter I felt like the book was too squeaky clean, dull and lacked the grit and dirt that would have brought the message home. It was a little too clean and preachy for my liking.
Can you see why I think it would make for a great discussion with a book club?
Lots of interesting twist and turns. Having been married to a man opposite of Mike, it was hard to relate to the story. The character of Mike made me mad at times, not having enough guts to stand up to his abusive wife and finding excuses to emotially cheat on her. Glad towards the end he found peace and a more compatible partner.
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