This is a heart breaking story of domestic violence.
Fran Benedetto is a nurse married to Bobby, a New York City cop. He beats hers, but she is so anxious for her son Robert to have a father she stays and endures it. And despite how he treats her, Fran still loves Bobby.

But one night seeing the look in her son’s eyes after a night of violence, she decides she must leave. Taking her son, Fran flees to Florida where she tries to start a new life. But she is never away from the fear Bobby will find her. And after a year he does. He beats her senseless and takes their son away, the son she will never see again.

Fran starts a new life with her husband Mike and has a daughter, but despite their attempts at tracking Bobby and Robert, they never find them. As a New York City cop, Bobby knows how to keep his son hidden. He always told her he would never let her go, and this is the punishment he has meted out because she did.

Domestic violence is one of society’s hidden crimes, the partner who is bullied often more ashamed of what is going on than the person carrying out the bullying. It is a complex dynamic between two people that many have tried to understand and from which few escape unscathed.

Quindlen has done a superb job in getting inside Fran’s head and her thoughts. We share her terror through Quindlen’s well- paced narrative and are distressed by the conclusion, which is a true reflection of how these relationships often unfold.

I love Oprah books, okay? I just do. I love dark, heavy depressing subjects. I always have, most likely always will. I love reading about betrayal and revenge and cheats and liars. So I enjoyed this one. I didn't love it; it was sometimes predictable and wasn't always well organized, but it kept me engaged and wanting to hear more, which is all I really ask of a book: ENTERTAIN ME. If they do more, that's fantastic. This one wasn't fantastic, but I still enjoyed it and wanted to find out what would happen next.

I would not have picked up Black and Blue, with its proudly-displayed "Oprah's Book Club" emblem, had it not been a quarter at the annual neighborhood yard sale, but seeing as it was under a dollar, and was written by a journalist I admire, I thought I'd give it a whirl. Basic plot: smart woman in abusive relationship almost dies from a beating, and finally leaves with her son. She starts a new life, but it is clouded by the threat of her husband finding her. Quindlen creates a believeable world that includes some very well-written supporting characters, and she made the point that smart women can end up in abusive relationships. Got it. Not an utter waste of time, but not really my thing.

Fran is a nurse and her husband Robert is a cop. He has taken his authority too far. He beats her, not just once, but too many times.

From a co-worker Fran finds out there are safe houses out there, but you have to change your identity, call no one form your past.

Fran allows this to happen...if she doesn't death is her alternative.
She and her ten year old son Robert move to Florida. Everything is going ok. During the holidays, she is lonely for her sister and calls her and talks for twenty three minutes. She broke the rules. The person in charge wants to move her and her son again, with new identities.

Later in the year Robert calls his dad. He wanted to know the truth in a matter. He was still loyal to his father.

Next thing Robert the cop finds them in Florida and taken he son with him. Claimed his wife kidnapped their son.

As Frances reflects on her life in Florida. She doesn't have her son, but now she has a little girl she recently gave birth too. There is a nice man in her life. She is never beaten again. It was a trade off.

It is hard to rate this book two stars, because I love the author and the ending was really interesting. The problem is, the book is borderline boring. The MC's rambling just drove me insane, it took me a lot longer to finish this than was necessary because of her. She doesn't want to follow directions from Patty to stay safe and gets indignant with her but she is the one who needs Patty's help to stay safe. I don't know, she was like a woman and a child at the same time. The ending made the book worth reading but why did it have to only last a few pages. I wish the end had been introduced in the middle and cut out some of the unnecessary gibberish, and then this book would have been amazing.

Read for book club. An interesting take on a woman escaping domestic violence. There was a theme of duality throughout the book with all of the characters. I liked that. Each character being two people while living one life. An interesting concept to explore and discuss. The story stayed with me for quite some time. Couldn’t stop thinking about it.

If you don't like wife beater books, then this one's not for you. Fran Benedetto begins her first person narrative while sitting on a bench waiting for further instructions from a woman who's helping her run away from her alcoholic and wildly abusive husband (with their 10-year-old-son in tow). The book follows her as she begins her new life, which in my opinion is much better than reading about her getting beaten all the time wondering why she won't leave. Good insight into the horrifying and all-too-common abusive home but her constant fear at being discovered by her estranged husband gave me ulcers. And the ending had me so frustrated I wanted to tear my hair out. But good overall.

This was pretty good. Remarkable journey of a woman who escapes, with her son, from her abusive husband. Really enjoyed reading her insightful perspective. Very thought provoking. Able to cross off another bingo square…Read a book you’ve had forever.

Engrossing Sad story Well written.
As a wife, a mommy, daughter, friend this book had me emotionally locked in from the first page. This is the story of Fran Benadetto, nurse, mother and abused wife of NY city cop Bobby Benedetto. Fran and her son Robert must leave their life behind and runaway to escape Bobby’s explosive rage and abuse. It’s a story about choices. What you choose to do with your life. Who you choose to marry. What happens when you know it’s time to leave? Did you make the right decision? Can you life with your decisions. I felt very sorry for Fran and Robert. I felt enraged by Bobby’s behavior. I felt upset that this is the truth in life. Well done Ms Quindalan for bringing us a story that took a look inside the picture on the back of that milk cartoon, so to speak. This author has a real art in storytelling.

You might think this topic wouldn’t be something that would make a decent book or a story that anyone would want to read... but it makes an interesting, gripping story that will have the reader literally engrossed in Fran’s life...both before and after Bobby. The protagonist and several other characters are quite likable, the elements of suspense and frustration is there in spades. You might wonder why it took Fran 10 years to have had enough and take her son and run. The reasons are anything but “simple” ... the heart of the matter is that no one would have believed her. She couldn’t go to the police because the police were already in her home...her abuser was a decorated police officer and the father of her son...so Fran runs for her life and starts a new life with a new name. and slowly things begin to fall in to place. But no matter what her friends tell her...Fran knows that Bobby will one day find them...and when he does... her life is over. I want my books to have a happy ending...but as interested as I was in the story and Fran’s life...I just wanted this one to be over. Not because it was badly written or that I wanted to see Bobby get everything he had coming to him... but because it left me feeling a bit of heartache for the life that could have been and the unfairness of it all.

4.5 stars

"I stayed because I thought things would get better, or at least not worse. I stayed because I wanted my son to have a father and I wanted a home. For a long time I stayed because I loved Bobby Benedetto, because no one had ever gotten to me the way he did. I think he knew that. He made me his accomplice in what he did, and I made Robert mine."

Anna Quindlen's book about domestic violence will leave you saddened, enraged and also hopeful. She allowed me to really see into the heart and soul of Fran Benedetto, a mother and wife that stayed with an abusive husband for what she thought were the right reasons. Until one day. One day that was worse than the others. One day that Fran decided to save herself and her son, Robert. Bobby Benedetto may never have left a single mark on Robert’s body, but Fran recognized the relentless damage to his spirit. A spirit that she did not want to see extinguished in a son she loved so dearly. So with the help of a local organization, Fran and Robert are relocated, renamed, and restarted in a new life. As Beth and Robert Crenshaw, Fran and Robert will learn that there are still sacrifices to be made and life is far from easy when starting over. How could it be after a lifetime spent in fear? Fear does not disappear with a new identity. It’s just as palpable as ever before, especially for a mother that will protect her son at any cost. Perhaps what she feared even more than another blow was the effect the years of tolerating, lying and hiding secrets would have on an impressionable young mind. "My little boy, who had always had something of the little old man about him, was becoming a dead man, too, with a dead man’s eyes. There are ways and ways of dying, and some of them leave you walking around."

I found myself completely engrossed in this novel. I felt Quindlen did a superb job in giving a voice to Fran, a voice that made me listen and start to understand a topic that may be all too easy for us to ignore if it doesn’t affect our own lives quite personally. Even Bobby, a man that I despised, was well-drawn and Fran’s reaction to him honest and affecting. "As rich and persuasive as Bobby Benedetto’s voice, that was how full and palpable was his sorrow and regret. And how huge was his rage. It was like a twister cloud; it rose suddenly from nothing into a moving thing that blew the roof off, black and strong. I smell beer, I smell bourbon, I smell sweat, I smell my own fear, ranker and stronger than all three." I agonized over Robert’s safety and his overall well-being right along with Fran. I was tense and afraid of what would happen to this woman if her police detective husband ever discovered her whereabouts. My heart ached. I truly felt I walked in Fran’s shoes, and I am quite certain that this is what the author intended and accomplished with this book. You can make a change. You can start anew. It won’t be easy; you will always wonder if you did the right thing. There is hope.

Fran Benedetto has been hiding a terrible secret for years, but when her husband, Bobby hits her so hard he breaks her nose and splits her lip, she knows she has to leave. Patty Bancroft, a famous women’s advocate, knows exactly what to do to help women like Fran. So Fran trades one secret for another and leaves New York with her ten-year-old son, Robert, to start a new life with a new identity in a secret place.

Black and Blue takes a hard look at the complicated dynamics in abusive relationships. Bobby and Fran had once been young sweethearts, and there are still traces of attraction between them. Bobby has a volatile temper. She never knows what will set him off, and for undefined reasons, she takes his abuse. In a strange triangle of denial, Bobby, Fran and Robert fall into a pattern, determined solely by Bobby’s moods.

Fran (now Beth) and Robert begin their new life, with the constant worry that Bobby will find them. And they soon discover that it’s hard to break ties with the past. Robert misses his father and Beth misses her sister and, as time passes, even Beth becomes more reminiscent of their little family, and of Robert’s father.

I enjoyed reading Black and Blue because of the complex problems between Quindlen’s characters. She also asks, will the son become just like the father? These important points show how hard it is to break out of an abusive relationship. And when there are children, it’s nearly impossible to make a clean break. In addition, Quindlen gives Bobby a voice, showing his take on their marriage, a man whose twisted desire for control over his wife often includes confused feelings of love and devotion.

While these are compelling issues, Quindlen writes them into a somewhat flat story with undeveloped characters. It’s hard to get to know Beth’s new friends, including love interest Mike Riordan, because their personalities and actions are unremarkable. Some one dimensional side characters, especially Cindy Roerbacker and Mr. and Mrs. Levitt, seem forced. Stereotypical names, such as Robert’s Cuban friend, Bennie Castro, also take away from the story.

The danger of being found, however, carries the plot to a surprising finish. I think the finish makes the story stronger because it makes you realize that you never know what someone will do.

Black and Blue is a fast and light read about an important subject.